Tag: Jesus Christ

What I Believe About Church

By Asher Witmer Ecclesiology
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What is the point of church? With as many frustrations and variations in the Christian church today, is what we know as church really what God intended? Did He anticipate there being so many different denominations, different approaches to Scripture, and different ways of living out faith? Or this all some grand mistake? Is the church as God designed lost?

The Christian faith is a romance story. God refers to it as such throughout all of Scripture. Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom, relentlessly pursues His beautiful bride, the church.

Do you see the church as a place you experience the agape love and redemption of God, or is church to you a place where you experience the brokenness of man? Does engaging the church of Christ feel like a natural overflow of your commitment to Him, or does it feel like an obligation of the Christian faith?

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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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The New Conservative

By Asher Witmer Spiritual Formation
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We like to throw around the labels conservative and liberal as if they’re two different camps of people. But what does it actually mean to be conservative or liberal? Can I accurately assume what someone stands for just because they’re labeled conservative?

Labels are often vague and worthless. What does it actually mean to be CEO of a company? What does a Coaching Consultant do? Pastor how does one know a good pastor from a bad pastor or a good Dad from a bad Dad?

I’m not sure we can ever rid this world of labels—that’s really not the point. Too often, however, we stop at them, as if being conservative completely describes who we are and what we stand for.

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When Nothing Satisfies

By Asher Witmer Motivation & Inspiration
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We’re currently in the middle of Presidential election campaigns. The problem is, few people feel that either of the candidates left are fit for the job. People are frustrated. No, infuriated! And they are making decisions about who to vote for based on their heated emotions.

But in the middle of all the hullabaloo about racism, gun control, immigration, the economy, emails, and spelling, we’re missing the fact that politics can’t solve the problems causing us to feel so emotional.

If electing the right leader won’t solve our issues, what will?

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What to Focus on When You Feel Held Back by Your Church

By Asher Witmer Popular Posts, Spiritual Formation
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What if it is possible to move through frustrations with church and live vibrantly for Christ? What if there was a way to align our focus so that no matter what church situation we are dealing with, we can respond in loving, Christ-exalting, God-honoring ways? What if we could be free of the bondage of feeling held back? Free to live as Christ calls us to while not needlessly fracturing relationships?

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What Plexus Exposes about the American Church

By Asher Witmer Popular Posts, Spiritual Formation

It’s not a new discussion. Ever since it hit the market, there’s been tense controversy over it. So why would I dare waste my morning writing a few thousand words that may only cause more arguments?

Because Plexus exposes something about the American church. Not the product itself, although I do plan to share a few statistics and resources concerning it. But rather, the phenomenon of Plexus Worldwide exposes something about the hearts of American christians.

This article is not about finalizing an opinion on the brand, but on what it exposes and how to deal with it. This issue has everything to do with the future spiritual life and health of the church. That’s why I feel compelled to address it.

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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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God’s Kingdom Is Not Upside Down

By Asher Witmer Christian Spirituality

Some will tell you that “in God’s kingdom, up is down and down is up,” insinuating that what makes sense to our minds is not right in God’s kingdom and what is right in God’s kingdom doesn’t make sense to our minds.

They get this thought from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Jesus tells us that when someone slaps you on the right cheek, instead of slapping them back (as the world would do), turn the other cheek to them so they can slap it also. If someone takes your outer coat, instead of grabbing it back and yelling at them (as the world would do), Christ tells us to give them our sweatshirt as well. The Sermon is full of these paradoxical instructions calling us to do things differently than what comes natural in the heated moment.

But it gets taken out of context.

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A Prayer for My Generation

By Asher Witmer Spiritual Formation

Every generation has to find their place in history. For one, morality may be the trump struggle they face. For another, it may be poverty.

For us, there’s never been a more Christian time in history. And that’s making us ask questions. How do we know what we’ve been taught all these years is right?

With as many faults as our parents may have, we have been given a lot. We have been given faith blocks to build on—will we building on them? Do we want more of God, and are we willing to take what they gave us and add to it?

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“Us” vs. “Them”: the real problem with Christian denominations

By Asher Witmer Church Issues
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I have remarkable friends. Remarkable because they are intelligent, good-looking, serve people, love God, and seem to get a kick out of me. They also ask great questions.

One of the questions I often hear my remarkable friends ask is “Why does everything have to be about being Anabaptist?”

Much of my generation is tired of the “us” vs. “them” mentality of the Anabaptist church. In fact, I believe it’s one of the primary reasons young people choose to leave. Too often, the focus is on our differences from the rest of the evangelical world and why they are wrong and evil and how we should keep away from them. That gets exhausting for young believers who simply want to follow Christ.

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