The generation before us laid the groundwork for rethinking the way we do church—the way we do life, really. Because of our parents, many of us are free to question the status quo. We are free to revisit the methodology of church, romance, family, discipleship, and with that revisiting, comes radical possibilities. Some good, some not good.
Question Submitted: Where do we separate judging from judging? That was not a typo. Proverbs talks about “iron sharpening iron” and yet people crouch behind Matthew 7:1. And so, how do we separate the two and what are ways to confront issues such as this?
If I understand your question correctly, you are asking “how do we speak into each other’s lives without being accused of judging?” Anymore, if someone raises a concern about something a brother or sister says or does, that brother or sister takes the concern as judgment, right? Yet, does that mean we are not ever to address issues we see in other people’s lives?
If your pastor got up in front of the church this coming Sunday and confessed he was gay, what would you do? What would you do if one of your church elders or deacons or small group leaders confessed to having an extra marital affair? Does it throw you for a loop even considering the possibility? Might you struggle to trust them, want their resignation, and feel disillusioned with God?
I don’t mean to make light of sin, and certainly don’t mean to justify sin going on at any level within the church. However, might I suggest that our gut reactions to such an idea exposes the overall response to sin within the church.
Question Submitted: Can a local church be cohesive, maintain scriptural commands, and be sustained through several generations without rules? There is a saying among psychologists, “What gets rewarded gets repeated.” I have found that to be true in teaching school, parenting, and getting my wife to rub my back. I believe it is true of […]
Throughout this whole series we’ve been looking at the question “What’s the big deal about being Mennonite?” This whole discussion surfaces primarily because so many are leaving Mennonite churches, today.
But leaving one’s church isn’t only a Mennonite phenomenon. It’s happening nationwide. Contrary to popular opinion, however, people are not necessarily leaving because of biblical illiteracy or because they are throwing out their faith.
If I were to ask you what you are looking for in a church, would you know? If I were to ask you what you value, could you put words to it?
Many of us could probably come up with a few things like community, life, faithfulness to God’s Word, family, peace-making, brotherhood, and many other things. But those are all actually really vague. None of them differentiate one church from another.
With the uprise of gun violence in churches, should we consider securing ourselves with armed security guards? With the threat of North Korea and a nuclear strike, should America preemptively strike them first? America’s militarism is justified, right? I mean, God ordains violence when used by good government, not?
Well, allow me to turn your world upside down. I think we’ve had this wrong all along.
Question Submitted: why is it that those who seem to be so passionate about grace, and serving Jesus radically are losing what we call marks of conservative Anabaptist teaching and what we believe about separation in dress, Christian Woman’s Veiling, keeping the Lord’s Day etc?
A pastor is someone who shepherds people in the way of Truth. This includes caring for people, preaching the Word, confronting sin, and much more. Specifically, for the purposes of this post, I am referring either to those who the people of a local church have asked to shepherd them, or those who have nurtured new believers and, by default, have become shepherds. In this article, I address what I love about them.
Today, we know the church primarily as either a building or a group of people gathered together around a common set of ideas. The problem with this view of the church is that it’s incomplete, at best. If not downright unbiblical. As long as we can relegate the church to a building or a group of people who believe certain things and abide by certain guidelines, the church will always be disposable to us. There is nothing intrinsically eternal about a church established around man-made material or beliefs.
There are so many people who are disillusioned with church, today. It is easy to get overly focused on the negatives and weaknesses of church that we miss the profound beauty and glory it displays to the world. So, in an attempt to help us regain (or stay focused on) the beauty of the Bride of Christ, I am going to share a three-part series entitled, “What I love about…,” starting with Jesus.
Are you aware of the racism in your church?
“Now wait a minute,” you may say. “There’s no racism in our church.” And there very well may not be.
But then again, there might be and you don’t realize it.
Author Asher Witmer knows what it’s like to want freedom from sexual sin only to continually fail. We’re often told we need more personal discipline, that we need to think godly things instead of fleshly things.
What if I told you that discipline won’t solve your problem with lust?
Our male sexuality is given by God for advancing beauty and goodness. But somewhere along the line it becomes something that causes devastation and guilt. The good news is we don’t have to live with guilt. In Live Free, Asher Witmer shows us how we can find freedom from sexual sin, live with nothing to hide, and be able to fight for others.
