Dying Congregation?

Some Symptoms a Congregation is Dying

In the book of Revelation, Jesus gives us an example of a dead congregation, Sardis. He said, “ . . . I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Rev. 3:1). This should be something that we all should think about. Are we in a similar situation as Sardis in that we think we are alive yet the Lord finds us dead? It is important that each one of us look at the congregation that we attend and worship with to affirm that we are not part of a dead congregation.

is your congregation dying

Is Your Congregation Dying?

1. No One Cares Why Everyone Is Leaving
Have you ever had one of those moments when you sit down and think about why they left? Many times people make it abundantly clear why they left. However, sometimes excuses are made by those at the congregation as to why people seem to be leaving such as: (1) promoting the concept that they were unwilling to accept the truth, or (2) they had problems here and were not fit to be members anyways, or (3) we are better off without them by which now maybe we can have some peace. However, it is a good exercise to think about those who have left and talk about why they left, otherwise, people may never pick up on things that have been going on.

2. No One Knows Anything They Want To Study
As a teacher it can be very frustrating. You finish a long study on a subject, then stand before your class and ask what they would like to study next. Many times the silence can be deafening. Why do people not have subjects in hand ready to ask about? It is a sign of the lack of personal study that is present. Individuals who study on their own will constantly be finding things that intrigue them or befuddle them. These are the things that they will bring up to be discussed in class. When there is a lack of ideas for a group study, it demonstrates a lack of personal study from the members.

3. Everyone Looks Back At How Good Things Used To Be
Ah, the good ol’ days. I remember them well, when everything was perfect, and all was well with the world. Now the problem is, even if that were an accurate description (which it is not), if we spend all of our time looking to the past at what we did then, we miss the present. And, while it is fine to remember the past, Christians must be more concerned about how we can make things better now. Sadly, many congregation are so hung up on how great things were 20, 30, or 40 years ago that they do nothing today except revel in the past.

4. Every Idea For Growth Centers On Anything Except Teaching
Ever hear the expression, “bringing the mass in?” People in the congregation may recognize that at times, there is a problem of little to no growth and will decide that the failure of growth is due to the lack of activities for the youth, or that the congregation needs to get together more often for meals or such like. However, the truth is, when our focus leaves our true mission, Teaching, then any idea for growth is missing the mark. In addition, congregations who think that if they build gyms or family life centers, that this will draw new members, but they do not see the fact that the church is centered on Gospel teaching, not around buildings or activities.

5. The Foyer Empties Out 5 Minutes After The Close Of Worship.
One of the most precious of all things is the fellowship with our fellow Christians. However, some members believe that the final amen of worship is the same as the starting gun in a race. And just like this, there off. You may even be able to hear the stampede as they make a mad dash to see who can get out the door and in their car first. Often times, you may be able to come outside just a few minutes after worship service in the evening and only hear the sound of grasshoppers in the near distance. But on the other hand, I have attended congregations where members would spend countless hours talking with one another, even when the lights were turned off on them and the doors were locked. Perhaps, you have attended a congregation where the fellowship continued on as the conversation moved to a nearby restaurant or ice cream store. Thus, how sad it is when fellow Christians rush out the door to get away (or show up minutes before the start of services) missing on the fellowship with their brethren.

Now, these are not all the symptoms of a congregation that is dying, but these give a good determination of what is happening to a congregation. Therefore, we must be watchful, brethren, not just for what is happening everywhere else, but what is happening in our own back yard. We must fight to make sure that the congregation where we attend continues to grow and follow after the things of Christ. Otherwise we may be no better than Sardis who was told by Jesus that they were dead.

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Are You Lost?

I Once Was Lost, But Now Am Found

Do you remember the pictures of missing children that used to be on the sides of milk cartons? Now they are published in weekly mailings nationwide. Have you ever been lost? I am not talking about the casual aimlessness in a car with bad directions. Have you really been lost? I can admit that I have been lost twice in my lifetime.

have you ever been truly lost

Have you ever been truly lost?

Years ago as a young teenager, I was once lost in the middle of the woods while squirrel hunting. My father and I along with some friends went early one Monday morning hunting (that is what I get for skip – ping school that day!). We got into a boat and went up a river several miles upstream to a designated spot to hunt. Each of us went our separate ways with instructions to meet back at the boat at a certain time later that morning. I stayed near the river, while my father went deeper into the woods. At the designated time, everyone arrived at the boat except my father—he was the first to get lost that day. After some time had passed, my younger friend and I decided to look for him. We made two very important mistakes that day of which we learned the hard way—we did not take our guns with us, and neither of us had a compass. Beginning around ten o’clock that morning, we began to search for my father, and soon we realized that we were lost ourselves. My friend’s father found my father just a few hours later, but it was past sunset before they found us. We were lost for half of a day, wandering aimlessly through strange woods. The sheriff had just begun to bring the bloodhounds out after us when they finally found us that evening. I am so thankful that my father made provisions to find me when I was lost!

I was lost a second time, this time much more seriously. I was lost spiritually. When I experimented with sin, I abandoned my God. My sins led me away in rebellion against my Heavenly Father (Isa. 59:1-2). I was lost, wandering aimlessly spiritually through life. “ But God commendeth his love toward [me], in that, while [I was yet a sinner], Christ died for [me]” (Rom. 5:8). Jesus came to this world to find me because I was lost (Luke 19:10). He provided the means for me to be saved through the gospel (Rom. 1:16) and the shedding of his blood on Calvary (Heb. 2:9; Acts 22:16; Rev. 1:8). He has provided a straight and narrow path that leads to salvation (Matt. 7:13-14). I am so thankful my Heavenly Father found me when I was lost!

John Newton wrote those infamous words,

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found —was blind, but now I see.

Are you lost? God commands us to teach the saving message of Jesus to those in our world that are lost. Some do not realize they are lost; others are searching but cannot find their way. What if my spiritual soul depended on you finding me? Would I be found, or would I still be lost?

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Lives on Autopilot

Deliberately Crashing Into the Alps

We are constantly being bombarded with the details of the recent crash of the plane in France. The prevailing thought is that the copilot simply set the autopilot, the plane dropped 30,000 feet and crashed into the Alps. That’s all it took—just set the controls, and the rest is history.

losing your mate family & soul on autopilot

Losing Your Mate, Family, & Soul on Autopilot?

There is a tremendous spiritual application of this event to for all of us. While there were obviously no planes in the first century, there were ships. Paul described two men who failed to hold to their faith and failed to respond to their conscience and have “made shipwreck” (1 Tim. 1:19). The King James indicates precisely what happened. It is not that they were in some passive way shipwrecked, the verb is active—they were responsible for the shipwreck. Deliberately crashing a plane into the Alps and wrecking one’s ship faith are active choices individuals make.

There is grave danger in putting our lives on autopilot. The pilot actually knew what would happen when he set the autopilot. After that, he could have done anything he liked and the course was set. Once a plane or a ship is set on its course, the destruction is inevitable. The same is true of our lives. When we know the results of our decisions, yet point our lives in the wrong direction, the end is certain. With our autopilot set, we can live without giving much thought to the outcome.

Is it possible that we are making the same tragic mistake that ended the lives of all those on the plane in France? Is it possible that husbands and wives know that the way they are treating each other will bring unhappiness to the home? Have we selfishly placed other things, even our own wishes, ahead of our mates? We know we are robbing our homes of the blessings God can bring to them, yet have we set our autopilots of behavior in our homes and are headed for trouble?

Is it possible that we have done the same in molding our children or in children honoring parents?  Knowing the tragic results of our choices, we have set our autopilots, and we are headed for unmeasurable agony. It will happen as certainly as the crash of the plane in the Alps!

Is it possible we have done the same with our lives? Have we, even though we know the results, allowed our fleshly desires to dominate over our spiritual health? Once the autopilot is set, then we live each day without seeing where we are headed.

There is one other aspect of this to consider. What if we set our autopilots toward heaven? What if we love Him above all others things with all of our hearts and souls? What if we set our course to serve and honor Him above all that is around us? What would be the results?

Think about these matters. What is the autopilot you have set for yourself? Is it time to reprogram your autopilot?

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Acts 11: Conviction

Acts 11 – Conflicting Conviction

There were certainly some infuriated members in that congregation of the Lord’s church that day; in fact, far more than just a few! And that number included the vast majority of the leadership as well! One of their most valiant leaders and preachers – one who had even walked with Jesus and had become one of His most trusted “insiders” and faithful and powerful proclaimers – had just promoted (By his personal participation in, no less!) an idea to them that was akin to blasphemy, absolutely going against, and completely contradicting everything that they had ever been taught, come to believe, and been completely convicted of on the subject! Peter had actually gone into the house of a Gentile to eat, and preach the gospel! How dare he? And apostle, preacher, or not, he was now going to be taken to task for it!

What do you do when convictions bump heads?

What do you do when convictions bump heads?

The record of this event and the reason for Peter’s participation in it, is of course contained in Acts 10, concerning his divinely-directed encounter with the Gentile Cornelius (who, because of that visit, became a brother in Christ upon his by-faith baptism in water, into Christ, for the forgiveness of his sins: Acts 10:47-48; Gal. 3:26-29; Col. 2:12; 1 Ptr. 3:21). However, that made no difference whatsoever to either the Jewish-born membership, or leadership, of the congregation in Jerusalem when they were informed of it, oh no (Act 11:1). They were mortified! They were aghast! They were furious! They were offended! And they were going to let him know about it! For, “when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, saying, ‘You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!’” (Vss. 2+3). The word “contended” here means “to take sides against.” (Isn’t it interesting how, in their zeal and conviction to impose on Peter and the rest of the congregation what they had always been taught was righteous before God, that they themselves became guilty of the sin of “contentiousness” – as evidenced in Ro. 1:29; 2 Cor. 12:20; Gal. 5:20; 1 Tim. 6:4?)

In verses 4-17, Peter presents a very patient, very detailed, very well-ordered account of exactly what God had said and done, which led him to say and do what he had therefore said and done by faith in response. It is also very interesting to notice here, the complete contrast in approaches to the situation. As brother H. Leo Boles notes, “Peter’s mildness and patience in explaining the entire matter to them was put in contrast with the heat and excitement that his accusers manifested.” 1 And why should anyone have ever expected Peter’s approach to have been any different than that anyway? After all, he was standing on what God had commanded (Vss. 5-9); he had complied without question with what the Holy Spirit had commanded (Vs. 12); therefore he could be most certainly assured that his actions and conclusions which he was now calmly conveying, were completely correct!

And this leads us to some very important, very relevant, modern-day questions and applications. What do we come to bible class and worship for? What do we come seeking to accomplish?

Do we come with an agenda – such as to make sure that everything that is said, taught, and done is in complete agreement with our own previously-gained and personally-held conclusions? Or, do we come to challenge ourselves, by and with the word of God being therein presented, to perhaps gain a greater and more accurate insight into our own understanding and relationship to God, His Son, Their will, and Their church/people (1 Jn. 4:1-6)?

If (as in the case with the apostle Peter above and as reported in Acts 10-11), a preacher or bible class teacher has spent many hours the previous week in the diligent study, dedicated dissection, and direct diffusion and application of God’s word; and upon his righteously, faithfully, and fully expounding upon exactly what God has said and done on the subject (today from a “book, chapter, and verse” perspective of course); but that presentation disagrees strongly with our own previously-arrived at and personally-held conclusions and convictions, the question is, how do we handle it? And of course our options at that point boil down to basically only two.

#1). We can determine to not even think about the possible truths he is teaching, and instead, stubbornly close our ears to even considering them Scripturally, all the while steaming and stewing and making sure we psychologically begin the process of exacting some sort of vengeance upon him or at least his reputation, for even daring to say such things (even though they are completely scriptural and biblically accurate). This sort of reaction is routinely seen throughout both the Old and the New Testaments and is tantamount to destruction; always has been, always will be (Matt. 13:14-15, 21:12-22:46; Jn. 5:1-47, 8:42-55, 10:27-38; Acts 7:51-60; 2 Tim. 2:14-4:5; etc). Or…

#2). We can determine to continually humble, challenge, examine and re-examine ourselves and our previously arrived at conclusions, convictions, and understandings (2 Cor. 13:5) by: listening to his words intently, considering them objectively, and checking them out scripturally, to see if they are indeed what God actually said. And then of course, if they are, we should immediately repent of our prior erroneous understanding, by implementing our newfound knowledge into our overall spiritual wisdom and progression. This sort of reaction is what leads to salvation; always has, always will (Matt. 7:7-27; Jn. 6:60-68, 8:31-32; Acts 17:11, 26:9-20; 2 Tim. 2:15; etc.).

(One quick footnote here… This is not to imply that ANY preacher on this planet is infallible, because he absolutely is not – not even the Apostle Peter was [See Gal. 2:11-13]. And while it’s true that some preachers [tragically even in the Lord’s church today] are absolutely false teachers who should never be listened to on any subject but should instead be physically removed from the pulpit and thrust out the back doors of our buildings and unceremoniously dumped on the dirt for their damnable heresies and the deadly divisions they’re causing by preaching things contradicting what God said in His holy word – Rom. 16:17-18; Gal. 1:6-10; 2 Ptr. 2 – what I am hoping to imply and impart, is the gospel truth that when faithful to the word gospel preachers whose only desire is to “preach the word” do exactly that [see 2 Tim. 3:16-4:2], that the words of God which they convey are intensely listened to and carefully considered no matter what we may have previously believed about whatever subject they may be addressing!)

And this latter response is exactly what the reaction the previously-contentious members of the Jerusalem congregation had, after listening intently to Peter’s dissertation on God’s directives – even though it challenged every fiber of their previously-believed, militantly-guarded, and personally-held conclusions and convictions! “When they heard these things, they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, ‘Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life’” (Acts 11:18).

This is also what the previously proud of sin members of the Corinthian congregation did when they received the Apostle Paul’s divinely-dispersed rebuke and directive of 1 Corinthians 5 as well (see both 1 Cor. 5, and 2 Cor. 7:8-11). It’s what faithful and God-fearing folks and the congregations of which they are comprised, do, when confronted with previously-unseen, unknown, or unaccepted or unanticipated truth directly from God’s word, instead of suicidally deciding to close their ears, eyes, hearts and minds to those sacred truths, and continue insisting on their own understanding instead, perhaps even seeking to draw off disciples to their side in the process as well (Acts 20:29-32).

Let each and every one of us always determine to be like the Berean church members, who “were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). And then, let each and every one of us also always determine to be like the Jerusalem church members, who, although what Peter taught contradicted everything they had previously been taught and had held near and dear on the subject, listened to God’s instruction, and then immediately changed their own conclusions and convictions, in order to comply completely with what He’d commanded.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes… My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights. Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding; for her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, and her gain than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her” (Prov. 3:5-7, 11-15).

  1. A Commentary on Acts of the Apostles by H. Leo Boles © 1984 Gospel Advocate Company, Nashville, Tennessee.
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The Creation Accounts

The Harmony of the Creation Accounts

To man who has concluded by reason that God exists, there are no more beautiful words than Genesis 1:1.  The comfort such a man has knowing that not only does God exist but that He loved man enough to tell him about his origins is immeasurable.

two conflicting creation accounts in the bible

Two conflicting creation accounts in the Bible?

The story of man’s creation is found in Genesis 1 and 2.  Religious modernists have suggested that there are two creation accounts in Genesis 1 and 2 that are contradictory to one another.  Specifically Genesis 1:1-2:3 and Genesis 2:4-25 are contrasted.  These modernists suggest that there are two creations mentioned: of the earth and heavens (Genesis 1:1-19 vs. Genesis 2:4-6); of man (Genesis 1:26-31 and Genesis 2:7-8, 21-22); and of the animals (Genesis 1:20-25 and Genesis 2:19-20).  They also suggest that the sequence of creation is contradictory between the two accounts.  Are these suggestions legitimate?

In dealing with the question of sequence, we should take into consideration that the ancient’s conception of time and sequence was not necessarily the same as our own.  Ancient literature often rearranged the sequence of events for special purposes.  In that regard, Genesis 1 provides us with a daily account of the creation.  The focus of Genesis 2, however, is not upon the creation as a whole, but rather man’s relationship with it.  The purpose is different, and so the sequence is different (looking at creation from man’s perspective instead of God’s).  This would not have been a problem with the oriental mind, whose conception of time was not always linear.  However, with our modern linear conceptions of time, we find “contradictions.”  Let us not so think!

When we begin to understand that the sequence of the events in chapter two is not necessarily linear, we have cleared our first hurdle in seeing the harmony of these two chapters.  There is no difficulty in fitting the creation of man in chapter two within the sixth day of chapter one.  The events become complementary, including the creation of both Adam and Eve.  The narrative would naturally be included in the events of day six.

What about the creation of the animals mentioned in Genesis 2:19-20?  It appears in this section of Scripture as if God created these animals in between His creation of Adam and Eve.  There is no problem with such a suggestion.  All were created on the sixth day according to Genesis 1:24-28.  So long as the creatures were created at some point during that day, there is no conflict.  We could look at these passages in several different ways.  First, either the details of Genesis 1:24-28 are not given in sequence, but are given in sequence in 2:19-20, or vice versa.  Second, it is possible that both sequences could be correct.  God could have created one set of animals prior to Adam’s creation and another set afterward.  With either interpretation there is no inherent contradiction.

The suggestion that Genesis 2:4 references a separate account of the creation is easily enough explained by understanding that the chapter and verse divisions were not in the original biblical manuscripts. Genesis 2:1-4 really belongs at the end of chapter one.  Verse four then becomes a summary of the work of Genesis 1.

It can be challenging to read these ancient documents outside of our own cultural presuppositions.  Modernists and rationalists would so criticize.  However, wisdom dictates that we consider ancient literature outside of the prevalent philosophies of our day, and in terms understood by the ancients.  In so doing, we will avoid wrongfully accusing these ancient words of inconsistencies.

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