Abandoned by the Church

Having been in the ministry for 15 years, I have seen many good people leave the church; some to other churches and many to no church at all. Being a part of the church, I was left wondering why those people did not love Jesus as much as I did. I never took the time to reflect on how I may have been complicit in their exit.

It was only until I experienced, at least in part, what I now referred to as "Abandoned by the Church" that I began to see the role of community in the lives of the vanishing. When I vanished, I expected a lot of phone calls, visits, encouragement, support, and love. Unfortunately, I was greeted with deafening silence. It seemed to me that the people for whom I cared about deeply had not noticed the fact that I was not longer around. It was as if I have never been a part of their lives.

As I wrestled with this over the following months, another possibility emerged. I began to synthesize my experience with the disappearance of so many other good people from my own life, and I realized that that the problem was not a lack of compassion. There is a greater problem that often creates this chasm of community.

I have seen people leave the church after a divorce, a death, or a dispute. I have cared deeply about those brothers and sisters-in-Christ. Unfortunately, I have been often at a loss for words. Some of the time, I felt that it would be wrong to pry into their life. Other times, I had heard of some error on their behalf, whether it was true or not I do not know, and did not feel that I had any responsibility to call on them. The simple truth remains, I made no effort to regain my wandering friend (James 5:19-20). My pride did not allow me to view their presence in the community of believers as more important that my own (Phil 2:3).

Who do you know that once was active in your church, but today is counted among the missing? Is their sin so great that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not sufficient to cleanse it? I am reminded of the gracious words of Abraham Lincoln to his wife when she was indignant towards Southerners: "Don't criticize them; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances." The care of the body the responsibility of each of us. Let us not abandon another simply because we do not know what to say.

Bad things happen...

Have you ever wondered why, if God is really in charge, bad (sometimes reeeeally bad) things happen to good people? This is one of the big questions. Philosophers have struggled with this question for thousands of years. What makes is worse is that for some people it's more than a question of philosophy--it's real life. That makes it even worse.

The problem is that we don't really understand how bad sin is. Most of us kind of giggle about our rebellion against God. Then, one day, somebody's sin (maybe our own) bites us on the heel. This morning I had coffee with someone who is suffering from the bad that sin does to us. How did I respond? I told him the good news: God's love is bigger than our sin or anyone else's sin in our lives. God chooses to love and forgive and heal anyone who chooses to come to him. Our word for God's love even when we don't deserve it is grace. As Jesus says in Mark 4:23, anyone who hears and understands the gospel is given the opportunity by God to come to him. And, even though we don't always understand why God allows the bad things to happen, we understand that he loves us through all those bad things. He carries us when we feel like we just can't make it any farther. He gives us hope to deal with those bad things and come out the other side stronger.

Today if you're asking why, that's OK. God is not afraid of your questions. But, know that even if he doesn't give you a good why, he's still going to be there. You can trust in that. Even if you can't feel him right now, he'll be there on the other side. Then, you'll see that he was the one who gave you the hope to pull through.

...And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Matthew 28:20 NIV

Jesus is my curling partner

A few days ago, the Duncan family enjoyed a challenging game of Wii Curling. No, we did not use the cool handset to curl each other's hair. Curling is a team sport of sliding a stone toward the house. If you are still lost, it is ice shuffleboard. One person responsible for sliding the stone toward the target. It is his job to pick the speed and direction of the stone. Two other teammates then follow the stone down the floor. Their task is to squeegee the ice to insure that it is completely smooth so that nothing hinders the stone.

The next morning, our family was reading 1 John 1:5-10. In this passage, there is the truth that we are all sinners. If we say that we do not sin, then we are not only liars, but we are also calling God a liar. However, if we are honest about our sin and confess it to the Father, then he is "faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (verse 9).

As we discussed this as a family, the boys picked up on the distinction between verse 6 and verse 10. There are some that claim to be Christians and yet they continually choose to live sinful lives. That is living in darkness. They cannot see they distinction between what they proclaim and how they live.

True followers of Jesus are aware that though they seek to be holy, just as God is holy, they often fall short of their desire. Each day, we blow it and are in need of grace. Thankfully, we worship a God that has more grace that we have sin (Romans 5:20).

This is where the curling comes in. I explained to the boys that we are like the stone; we are headed to the house. Along the way, we are going to stray from the path. The Good News is that Jesus is following close by. However, unlike curling, Jesus is constantly squeegeeing behind us, cleansing the way, making it as though we have never sinned. That is what it means to be justified, it is just-if-I'd never sinned.

That is why one of my favorite Scriptures is Romans 8:1. It always reminds me how I am being preserved for eternity. That is Great News. I should share that with someone today!

Hello to the blogosphere

Hello, my name is Norm Duncan, and I am a digital immigrant. I have been following blogs and reading blogs for some time now, but I have rarely commented and never written one myself. Thanks to the prodding of my good friend, I am now sticking my toe into the pool.

I am a church planter in Wichita, KS. We plan to launch True Life Church in September of this year. This is the second church plant that I have led and the third that I have been a part of starting. Our church plant in Woodinville (Seattle), WA was one of the most rewarding things that we have ever done and the relationships that were forged there will last a lifetime. I have been married to Kim for 15 years (she is an amazing woman). Together, we have three beautiful children: Brennen (11), Cameren (10), and Sydney (4). Currently, I am working on a PhD in Leadership through Dallas Baptist University.

When we discussed the possible names of a blog, we considered many, but settled on nextgengospel (totally the genius of Jonathan). As I considered the title, I thought of all the ways that it could be misconstrued. We are not looking to redefine the gospel in such a way that makes it more appealing to a new generation of seekers. However, we hope to discuss the gospel, which has remained unchanged throught the history of the church, in ways that illuminate it. We want to proclaim old truth to new people so that in some way our desire for God is increased.

Gospel Moments...

I've been starting to watch for something I have dubbed a Gospel Moment. This is where something I see in real life causes me to understand the gospel in a more real way. This is very real to me as a pastor because I get to see people struggle with all their real-life problems as they try to understand the gospel themselves.

One of these Gospel Moments came for me as I was preparing a message for our teenagers. I was thinking about being a parent. I was thinking about a particular family in our church, and how the parents in this family had given up their dreams for their children. I realized that is what parents do. They give up their dreams. Or maybe better said, their children become their dreams.

In the gospel we see that God, in the person of Jesus, sacrificed his own life to receive the punishment for our sins. Because he gave, we can be forgiven by simply trusting in Jesus (much more on that later). Like our parents, God didn't give up his dreams to save us. We became the focus of his dreams. One day, the Bible tells us, God's dream for us will be fully realized when our resurrection in Christ becomes complete, and we will live eternally with him on a recreated earth.

Have you had a Gospel Moment lately?

The Blind Spot in the Blind Side

I love going to the movies. I like it for a number of reasons, but one of them is to see how pop culture is interpreting biblical truths. Initially, I became interested in this when I took a pop culture class with Dr. Doug Blount and read The Gospel According to the Simpsons. My wife is not a moviegoer, so there is usually only an annual movie outing for us as a couple. This year, the winner was The Blind Side which stars Sandra Bullock. It is about a family, the Tuohy's, that adopted a homeless boy that later because and NFL player. I will not spoil it for you, but it was a great movie. We loved almost everything about it.

There is a scene where Michael Oher arrives at the Christian Academy for the first day of school. As he walks onto the campus, there is a sign that reads "With man this is possible, With God all things are possible." Doesn't that sound great? It really portrays the popular idea that God helps those who help themselves. Unfortunately, this is not the message of the Bible, and it is not the gospel.

Interestingly, the sign in the movie almost accurately presents Matthew 19:26, which reads "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (BTW, this is a common thing in pop culture...they usually only make the slightest changes to the truth). The message of the Bible, and the gospel, is that God helps man because he is totally unable to help himself. The context of that truth falls within the story of the rich young ruler. After he walked away from the Savior, Jesus replied that it would be “easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:23). At this, the disciples were dismayed. The common idea at that time was that people became wealthy as a result of God’s favor. They thought that if anyone could be certain of salvation, it was the wealthy. That is why the asked, “Who can be saved?” (Matthew 19:25).

The answer is…“with man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” That is the gospel, the grace of God, the Good News.

As it turns out, the movie presents a pretty good picture of the gospel. By himself, Michael would not have had a place to live, been able to achieve the grades to play sports, or even been able to graduate. It was totally by the grace of the Tuohy’s that Michael was able to accomplish those things. We all are like Michael; we live in this world as destitute, helpless people. And by the absolute grace of God, he gives us everything we have, not because we deserve it, but because it brings Him pleasure.

The truth is that we are continually in need of God’s grace. We are in need to be rescued by the gospel every minute of every day. Left to ourselves, we will often choose to sin, be selfish, greedy, or lustful. However, through gifts of grace from God, we are able to overcome sin. We, as Christians, must humbly walk in this life constantly aware of our own need for grace. If so, we may be more willing to share it with others when we see theirs.

Welcome to nextgengospel blog

Thanks for taking a few minutes to check out our blog. My friend Norm and I are working on getting it up and running. Our goal is to create a community that talks about the gospel. As this discussion begins to unfold, we are going to have to begin by answering some very important questions about what the gospel is and what implications the gospel has for our lives. I want to invite you to come back soon as we continue this discussion.