Tag: Christians

Millennials, Community, and Judging One Another

By Asher Witmer Ecclesiology, Spiritual Formation
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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?

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What I Got Wrong about Theology

By Asher Witmer Spiritual Formation, Theology

Have you ever felt that Christians are more concerned about right and wrong beliefs then they are about being one with Christ?

I used to think the problem was that we focused too much on theology. All the different terms—soteriology, ecclesiology, eschatology, Calvinism, Arminianism, and so on. Most of them made no sense to me and I couldn’t figure out why people spent so much time debating over which ones were right.

So, I said once that we as Anabaptists focus too much on theology and not enough on relationships. Having said that, I’ve pondered it a lot and have concluded I was wrong.

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What You Need to Know about Faith, the Government, and Refugees

By Asher Witmer Current Events, Spiritual Formation, Work Life & Ministry
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I find it interesting how many people thought I was talking about Trump and his ban on refugees when I asked the question, “Can you be a Christian and not accept refugees?”

Perhaps our faith and our patriotism are so intertwined that we think in terms of our government enabling or crippling us from living out what Christ calls us to. When our government prohibits us from doing something, we don’t do it. Or we complain about not being able to do it rather than just living out our faith regardless of the cost.

Why is this? Why can’t we separate ourselves from this earthly kingdom and live for the sole purpose of the Kingdom of God?

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What Will Happen If We Don’t Accept Refugees (and what could happen if we do)

By Asher Witmer Current Events, Spiritual Formation, Work Life & Ministry
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There are more refugees in the world today than any other time since WW2, yet our President has administered an executive order banning refugees from seven prime terrorist countries.

The seven main countries refugees are fleeing from.

I am not concerned about the executive order. We will get into that in the next post. What concerns me is the unwillingness on the part of many followers of Christ to open their doors to those fleeing for their lives.

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What Happens in Church When Christians Hide Their Failures

By Asher Witmer Ecclesiology

Our churches have become too perfect for handling messy people of the world.

The worst part of it is that at the core, we have become too perfect for ourselves: we no longer share with others about our struggles because people don’t know what to do with them.

This years’ fifth most-read post was No Broken People Allowed, and I think you’ll understand as you read why this resonated with well over three thousand viewers. Check it out, leave a comment and share it with a friend. Let’s become people who care for each other in our brokenness.

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Nonconformity: A Dangerous Alternative

By Asher Witmer Popular Posts, Spiritual Formation

Until our relationships accurately represent Christ, our doctrines will always be held in suspect.

Not everyone is rebellious, wanting to do their own thing. Many know the Bible and the God of the Bible and how He relates in love and grace, and when that isn’t being lived out in a community that focuses so much on trying to be like Christ, we feel something is missing.

But what if we’re chasing relationships at the expense of faithfulness? What if in our desperation for Christ, we completely miss Him?

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Radical Love: how you can tell a true Christian from a fake one

By Asher Witmer Spiritual Formation
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If God did create, then His plan for my life is the plan that is most fulfilling. Because I am born with a fallen nature, I constantly trying doing life outside of His plan. I need saved. When I am saved, I become a part of a family that far transcends my immediate friends and connections. Experiencing more of God requires my continual engagement with His people.

Creation and salvation are absolutely fundamental for understanding life as God designed. Church, the body of Christ, is a critical part of going deeper with Him. But understanding creation, experiencing salvation, and participating with church are not enough to live a life that truly matters.

True meaning comes from radical love.

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What I Believe About Salvation

By Asher Witmer Spiritual Formation
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God does not have a reverse economy. Satan does, and we chose to settle for his perversion of God’s economy, God’s perfect creation.

Nothing exists that God did not create. No creature, no desire, no ability, and no pleasure. He made it all and it is good. The normal way life functions is the way God designed it to. We are the ones who reversed the economy of life. We are upside-down from what God created.

Lust is not our longing of something Satan created, but our settling for his perversions as a way of fulfilling our longing for what God created. In order to live a life that truly matters, life as God intended, we need a supernatural salvation.

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12 Symptoms of Religious Politics

By Asher Witmer Church Issues
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The biggest turnoff to people about the Christian church is the politics that take place when it becomes institutionalized.

My generation is especially exhausted by inauthenticity in spiritual leaders and those who are too spineless to stand for what’s right when doing so means losing constituents. But religious politics isn’t played only at the leadership level. In fact, it begins as young people in the youth group. It deepens through cliques at Bible school and culminates in the jealous battle for favor and attention over “ordinations weekend.”

In today’s post we look at twelve symptoms of religious politics and how you and I can rise above such cowardly games.

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No Broken People Allowed

By Asher Witmer Popular Posts, Spiritual Formation

Within the Christian culture, we don’t do well at caring for broken people, especially in a church mainly filled with multigenerational believers. We’ve known all of our lives how to live appropriately and so Christianity becomes more about living rightly than faith and transformation in Christ.

Requirements for church membership focus more on outside sins (smoking, dress, habits of leisure) instead of internal sins such as gluttony, gossip, self-righteousness, hypocrisy, anger, rebellion, materialism and many more. The idea is, once you have your outside life altogether you can become a member. And then, don’t show anymore imperfections after that.

The problem is, that only cultivates fake Christians.

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A Better Way to Solve Gun Violence

By Asher Witmer Motivation & Inspiration
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Another shooting happened this past week that directly targeted Christians. While most Christians seem primarily worried about the government restricting their use of arms through gun laws, I’m beginning to ask a few questions.

What if there was a better way to solve gun violence than through politics? I’m conservative, and certainly don’t like the thought of only the government being in control of weapons, but what if all that shouldn’t matter to us as Christians?

One Christian senator encouraged fellow Christians to carry personal weapons for self-defense. How does that line up with following Christ? Jesus healed the man his disciples struck with a sword in defense of Him.

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9/11, the End Times, and How Christians Might Actually be Mocking God

By Asher Witmer Christian Spirituality, Church Issues
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This weekend marks fourteen years since two airplanes careened into the World Trade towers in downtown New York City. It’s been seven years since the Great Recession impacted our economy. There is a lot of speculation among Christian communities about what might take place this year.

Was God sending America a message back in 2001, and again in 2008? If so, what will it be this year? Will America finally collapse? And if America collapses, does that mark the beginning of Christ’s return?

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