Core Principles

“For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:14

[This is the first in a series of articles outlining the five core principles that undergird the ministry vision of our church – JE]

I don’t know any other way to do this except to just come out and say it: after over 25 years of being in the ministry, studying the scriptures and observing the behavior of Christians in general, I have come to the conclusion that most of us have tragically misunderstood the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It seems to me that most conservative Christians believe that the Gospel is all about being saved and getting other people saved. I believe I can now demonstrate clearly from Scripture that the Gospel is all about being loved, and loving other people. There is a HUGE difference between the two points of view.

Starting with John 3:16 (“For God so loved the world) and perhaps having its most forceful summation in Paul’s magnificent appeal to love in 1 Corinthians 13 (no matter what I do for the Lord, if it is not conceived and carried out in love it is worthless), the Gospel of Jesus Christ clearly has this simple premise: You are loved by God in ways you cannot imagine; share this love with others by whatever means you can. Without a doubt, this love journey is powered by faith in Jesus Christ and continues through eternity, but the point is to give and receive love with God and those He loves. His love changes everyone and everything!

Here is where I think the whole thing broke down. Most of us were taught to focus on the Great Commission from Matthew 28 – you know, Go and preach and make disciples and baptize, teaching them to obey all I have commanded, etc. That sure sounds like the Gospel is about getting saved and getting people saved, doesn’t it? But, there is a subtle but clear defining term specified here that makes a big difference. Jesus says teach them to obey what I have commanded. So, what is it that He commanded (and still commands)?

In the Gospels, the idea of commands only comes up in this context in basically two instances. We read in several places that Jesus was challenged by religious leaders to name the most important commandment. Without hesitation, He quotes from the book of Deuteronomy, affirming that the two most important commandments are to love God and to love others. In Luke’s account of this story, He reports that the ensuing debate over Jesus’ answer inspires Him to tell the story of the Good Samaritan in order to illustrate His point. But the best and most powerful example is found in John 13:34-35, often referred to as the Great Commandment. As far as I know, this is the only time Jesus said, “I command you to do this.” And His command was for us to love each other in the same way, with the same intensity and mercy and dedication and faithfulness, that He loves us.

As far as I am concerned, the Great Commission is really a subcategory under the Great Commandment. After all, what better way to love people than to introduce them to the One Who loves them the best? Sadly, too many of us stop at that point. Once we get saved in response to His love, we spend hardly any time pursuing or applying the Great Commandment in our relationships, especially in church! Judgmental attitudes, compulsions to be in control and battles over “doctrinal purity” can make the church one of the most relationally dangerous places in town! Sadly, history records as many acts of war between Christians as acts of love, probably more.

The problem is simple, really. Christians are still people – people who still fail, who are still controlled by the wounds and fears of the past, people who still struggle with sin and the fear of being rejected by God and others. We are all people who need to be loved and to know that there is a place where we can honestly be ourselves without a fear of being abandoned … or worse. And that place is supposed to be the church and the medium through which this is to be accomplished is the love of Jesus flowing into us and out of us – the same gracious acceptance and commitment that brought us into the Kingdom in the first place. We need to know that in Jesus, we are not only saved, we are safe.

Jesus closes His Great Commandment with these words: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” There is no Gospel apart from the love of God, and there can truly be no church where living out that love with each other is not the number one item in the mission statement. So, printed below is Core Principle #1. If you don’t remember any of the others, this one alone will take you pretty far.

Core Principle #1

Great Commandment Love is the foundation and motivation for everything we do. We will live in covenant with each other, treating each other as Jesus has treated us, extending grace, mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation to each other at all times. This is necessary because we are “fragile earthen vessels” and, in our personal struggle with sin, we will fail and fall many times and need help to get up and try again.

“ … that your faith should rest, not on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” 1 Cor. 2:5

[This is the second in a series of articles discussing the 5 Core Ministry Principles of Christ Redeemer Fellowship. – JE}]

In what must surely qualify as the strangest baseball movie of all time, the hero of Field of Dreams receives a “message” indicating that if he turns his cornfield into a baseball diamond, amazing things will happen. The precise wording of the message – “if you build it, they will come” – also comes close to defining the primary ministry philosophy of the church in the 21rst century.

Today, if you ask any active church member to describe her church, the response is likely to include a list of wonderful, helpful, even exciting events, groups and activities. You might hear about Sunday School classes, home group meetings, mothers-day-out, youth activities, counseling classes, weight loss programs, and community service events. Hopefully, you would even hear about uplifting preaching and inspiring worship. But, the strategy in church growth over the past 20 years has placed a lot of emphasis on targeted marketing. Basically, this means you first identify the people you want to reach – old, young, married, single, mid or low income, etc. Then, you devise a set of programs and services that would be attractive to your target group. In most cases, the theory assumes that, once these folks make it inside the doors of the church, they will hear the Gospel and develop a relationship with Jesus Christ. So, to that extent, the ends justify the means: if you offer programs, they will come. And, usually, they will.

What I am about to say is not intended to be critical of churches that employ this model, but I have to tell you, I spent 20 years doing church that way and I don’t want to do it any more. In almost every instance, the programs become the tail that wags the dog. Most of the energy and resources of the church become consumed with staffing and maintaining and funding these activities. It is an administrative nightmare that is especially exhausting for the pastoral staff, which spends a lot of time recruiting volunteers and going to meetings and trying to keep people happy and – now this is significant – troubleshooting the whole system trying to figure out why it isn’t working. Because, in spite of all the effort that has been invested, most programs inevitably loose their luster and momentum after a few months and you have to come up with some other new wrinkle to keep people coming back!

Now, before you get the wrong impression, I am not opposed to ministry programs, but there is a subtle yet important difference between ministry and marketing, and to grasp that difference we need to be looking to the First century, rather than the 21rst, and ask ourselves one simple question: Why did people start gathering in the name of Jesus in the first place? The Book of Acts makes it pretty clear that the Church sprang up as a response to the presence and power of God impacting lives in incredible and amazing ways! As people witnessed and personally experienced the redemptive presence of God in their lives, they were convinced of two life changing truths: God is real, and He really loves me! God showed up, and people kept coming back and bringing their family and friends because they were hungry to experience the participating presence of God in their lives. And they kept coming and coming and coming.

Finally, in Acts 6, the church established its first program. It was a program to make sure that all the needy widows of the growing church community were adequately cared for. And here is the important thing: it was a response to what God was doing, not an attempt to compensate for the fact that God was not showing up. This was not a case wherein the disciples said, “Hey, we have an opportunity to reach a lot of needy widows and get them into church. All we need to do is start a weekly food distribution program!” NO – it was because God had brought in a lot of needy widows and now there was need for MINISTRY.

We must not lose sight of this critical distinction: People are not changed and motivated by programs, they are only changed and motivated by encountering the reality of God in their lives! Of course, we can’t fabricate the presence of God, but we can cooperate with Him by making room for Him in our worship services -- by being sensitive to the presence and the activity of the Holy Spirit and by expecting Him to work in various ways, as we worship, to touch individual lives. In short, we want people to encounter God in worship in ways that will convince them again that “God is real and He really loves me!” Once people have experienced those realities, they are very likely to come back and bring others with them. And they are also much more likely to respond to God’s leading and get involved in various ministries – which are a lot like programs except that they are a response to the work of God in people’s lives, instead of being a marketing tool to compensate for the lack of the presence of God in the work of the church.

Paul told the Corinthians that he intentionally avoided using worldly wisdom when he began his ministry there. Instead, he lifted up Jesus and relied on the Holy Spirit to confirm his message. He wanted their faith to be in God, not in programs. Me, too.

Core Principle #2

We will be a worship driven church, not a program driven church. The New Testament Church was established and expanded as a response to the presence and power of God working in their midst with signs, wonders and various other demonstrations of His activity. Programs, to whatever extent they existed, were a response to what God was doing, rather than an attempt to compensate for the fact that He wasn’t showing up and changing lives. We will eventually have various ministry and teaching programs. However, they will not exist to attract or retain members. Instead, they will be a response to the work of God in the lives of the people as He releases gifts and callings and reveals needs that He wants to address in the church and in the community. Our first priority will be to make room for the Holy Spirit in our worship services, allowing Him to take first place and lead us and love us however He desires. Interacting with Him is our highest goal – to whatever degree the sermon or the music or the other components of the service flow with that, then, and only then, will they be in order. In accordance with 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, we will proclaim the Gospel and let the Holy Spirit confirm it by His power.

“For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.” Isaiah 56:7c

[This is the third in a series of five articles discussing the core ministry principles of our church – JME]

When you make a trip to the International House of Pancakes, what do you expect to find there? Pancakes, of course! And what do you expect to find when you go to Radio Shack? (A shack is a kind of house, just not very fancy.) You go there for electronic components. You depend on the way things are labeled and advertised to give you good information about what you are getting.

Well, in perhaps the only place where the Bible provides clear instructions regarding what God wants to happen in His house (Isaiah 56:7 quoted above), He says it will be a house of PRAYER. How important was this purpose to Jesus? In Matthew 21:12, we read of His violent reaction upon seeing the Temple full of moneychangers who were fleecing worshippers instead of ministering to them. Jesus reiterated, as he literally cleaned house, that God had already declared that His house was to be a house of prayer.

Now, fast-forward about 2000 years. It would seem that things haven’t improved all that much. Today, if you conducted a survey of the principle activities in most churches, you are likely to discover that the Lord’s house has become a house of preaching, or a house of lectures and lessons, or a house of evangelism, or a house of music and singing, or a house of weight-loss classes. And you might also find prayer included as an adjunct to these other activities, but is that what God really intended?

Even though prayer has many facets and faces, at the core prayer is direct, intentional, conscious interaction with the participating presence and power of God. It seems obvious to me that when God says He wants His house to be a house of prayer, it is this picture He has in mind. He wants His house -- that means our church -- to be the place where we seek Him and interact with Him, a place where we pour our hearts out to Him and RECEIVE from Him. It seems to me that when we come together in His house, we should be opening our eyes and ears and hearts to experience Him, partaking of His love, wisdom, encouragement, direction, healing, and help as we learn from Him and lean on Him. As we experience Him in this free and personal exchange called prayer, we are reassured that He is real, and He really loves us.

Even a cursory reading of the Book of Acts reveals many amazing things that happened in the early church as a result of the time they spent gathered in prayer – a type of prayer that went beyond simply praying for the neighbor’s sister-in-law’s gall bladder Instead, they threw themselves on His mercy and cried out to Him for wisdom and power and direction. AND HE ANSWERED. Their prayers and His answers changed the world.

And that is why prayer is a central focus of everything we do in our church. We will do other things besides pray, But we won’t do anything without prayer.

Core Principle #3

We will have a high commitment to prayer in everything we do. Prayer will flow in our worship services as we seek God and minister to each other; it will inform and undergird our planning, and it will define our outreach to the community.

“You are the light of the world … Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven.” Matthew 5:13a, 16

[This is the fourth in a series of five articles detailing the Five Core Principles of Christ Redeemer Fellowship.]

Jon Weems, Youth Director at First Methodist in Marble Falls, told a great story as part of sermon I heard him preach last year. It had to do with a guy named Charlie who devoted a lot of time to selflessly serving the men who frequented a local homeless shelter. One day, after the evening meal, the group gathered for worship and prayer, during which some could be heard earnestly praying to be more “like Jesus;” all, that is, except one of the clents, who could be heard clearly praying “God, make me more like Charlie.” When one of the more “spiritual” folks corrected him by saying, don’t you mean “make me more like Jesus?” the guy simply replied, “I don’t know, is he anything like Charlie?”

So here is our problem and our challenge: the world around us is full of people who desperately need the love of Jesus yet, tragically, they don’t even know who He is. How will they come to know that such a love exists? – only by encountering people like Charlie. As we reach out to love people, even to love and bless entire communities in Jesus’ Name, people will see our good works, be blessed by our efforts of love, and then we can tell them that it is actually God loving them through us. We earn the right to preach the Gospel by first LIVING the Gospel in our relationships with others. People are much more likely to believe in Jesus if they have meaningful, safe and loving encounters with people who act like Jesus.

One day, Jesus was asked to name the most important commandment, to which He responded, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and strength, AND love your neighbor as yourself.” He lived by this every day. He didn’t go around healing and loving and encouraging people as a way of enticing them to become His followers. In one passage the Bible clearly states that He had compassion for them and healed them all. His motivation was compassion – He blessed them because they needed to be blessed! Often, He even specifically instructed those that had just been healed to tell no one how it happened or who did it. He was never in this for Himself, for His glory or for the advancement of His “kingdom.” Rather, the Kingdom of God itself has to do with bringing love and healing and mercy into the lives of people who are broken, hurting and lost. He simply came to find us and bless us because we all desperately need it.

These days, churches rarely have this exact perspective in dealing with the “outside world.” To be sure, most churches practice some form of altruistic outreach, but the motives can very often be muddled. Some offer these services out of a sense of obligation, “because it is what Jesus taught us to do.” And some develop outreach programs to those in need as a sort of a stealth evangelism program; offer them food and clothing and then share the Gospel with them once you have their attention. (One beneficiary of this kind of generosity was once heard warning a young woman who had only just started receiving such services from a local church. She said, “Honey, whatever you do, just don’t let them baptize you ‘cause once that happens, they drop you like a rock!” Ouch.

At any rate, the point I am trying to make is that it is rare indeed that churches reach out in love to be a blessing in their communities simply because their communities need to be blessed. We are being most like Jesus when we don’t give a thought to our own popularity or success and instead focus on making a difference in people’s lives. When those around us who are lost and hurting encounter unconditional acts of love and kindness from Christians who ask or expect nothing in return, we won’t have to preach any other kind of sermon. They will begin to pray, “God make me like them,” and then all we have to do is make the introduction to the One Who really makes all the difference.

So, printed below is Principle # 4. Read it and pray about how God might use you to bless someone else this week, just because they need to be blessed. And don’t forget, what ever goes around, comes around.

Core Principle #4

We will place a high priority on ministries of blessing in our community, focusing on ways to express the covenental love of Jesus to change lives, rather than simply trying to think up ways to attract people to our church.

“ … that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me … “ John 17:23b

[This is the last in a series of five articles detailing the five core principles of Christ Redeemer Fellowship.]

It was one of the strangest instructions I have ever received from the Lord. Several years ago, Peggy and I were leading a conference for pastors in San Antonio. As I was preparing the second of the two messages I was to bring, I asked the Lord what He wanted me to share with the group. I sensed His response very clearly. “Tell them I don’t want their churches to grow,” He said. Needless to say, I was surprised by this answer. As I puzzled over it, I thought I had figured it out. You see, pastors usually take their ministries very personally; they talk about my people, my elders, my church – not necessarily in a possessive way, but the sense of responsibility can cause a little bit of a self-centered focus. “Oh, I see,” I replied. “You want me to remind them these are not really their churches, they are Your churches, so they should lighten up and seek You more and not take everything upon themselves.” His response to me was immediate. “No,” He said. “Tell them I don’t want their churches to grow, I want MY church to grow!”

And suddenly, I saw the problem very clearly. As far as God is concerned, He only has One church, one Body of Christ. Any way you slice it, in Granite Shoals or in Burnet County or in San Antonio or in Texas or in the whole wide world, wherever you are, there is only ONE CHURCH in that place. It is made up of all the people who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. But here is the problem. The pastors of each local congregation in those places are completely focused on devising plans and programs to make their individual churches grow and become more successful. (Incidentally, this is often done by simply swapping disgruntled members with other churches or receiving new members who have moved in from a church in another city. Most churches aren’t very effective at reaching unchurched or unsaved people.) This tunnel-visioned focus on the needs and activities and politics of their own congregations leads to a fracturing of the witness and the power of what God sees as His Church in any given area.

Now, I don’t think that the Lord was advocating for the elimination of denominations; really, that is not the point. But what I have been keenly aware of ever since my “conversation” with Him is how isolated most local churches are from each other. To some degree, we acknowledge each other’s existence, but when it comes to rallying around each other, supporting each other, working with each other in ways that would significantly advance the cause of Christ in our communities we are either 1) too busy with our own programs or 2) too suspicious of those whose doctrines don’t appear congruent with our own. No wonder the Church rarely speaks with one voice or acts with one heart. No wonder the world has a hard time believing the Gospel is true.

Because that is what it comes down to. In John chapter 17, Jesus prays that we might all be in unity, so that the world would know that God had truly sent Him. As long as local congregations are involved in building their own “kingdoms” or taking potshots at each other, is it any wonder that hungry seekers turn elsewhere to find meaning for their lives?

In this hour, there is a great need for God’s people to get with the program, to see what He sees, to grasp the Master’s plan for reaching the world. The engine that drives the Kingdom of God in any community is not numbers and buildings, it is love and unity among His people who are living there, no matter where they worship. We must not allow ourselves to be deceived into thinking that what we are doing is “working” simply because we have more people and more buildings than someone else. Until our hearts beat with God’s heart, with love and respect for all of His people in our community, until we place at least as high a priority on being a blessing to other believers and working with other congregations as we do on developing our own unique identity, then we have missed the point entirely.

People are not going to believe the Gospel is true just because one or two churches in an area have enough money and members to build their own bowling alley or go on TV. The world is still waiting to see something genuine; they are waiting to see the love of Jesus speak with one voice through the witness of His people, regardless of where they meet. When you stop and think about it, God’s plan really makes a lot of sense. And that is why we have Core Principle #5, printed below. If it is important to Jesus, it has to be important to us.

CRF Core Principle #5

We will place a high priority on working with and supporting the work of the Body of Christ in our community, finding ways to bring believers together across congregational lines in order to become the fullest expression of the Church in our community.

“ … teaching them to observe all that I have commanded …” Matthew 28:19

This week I had the honor to serve as Chaplain of the Day for the Texas House of Representatives. Being present for all the hustle and bustle of the Legislature in session (including hanging out for a while in the office where our son, Jonathan, works on the staff of Rep. Debbie Riddle (R), Houston) brought back some very fond memories. From 1996 to 2000, I was involved with the Texas Legislature as a member of the staff of the Texas Conservative Coalition (TCC). The TCC was created back in 1985 by a small group of conservative legislators who wanted to promote a genuinely conservative philosophy for state government, and a lot of that effort revolves around doing research on issues and analyzing legislation from a uniquely conservative perspective. It is that word “uniquely” that focused our challenge.

You see, in terms of political philosophy and public policy, “conservative” defines a specific and unique point of view. Now, since Texas isn’t as nutty and liberal as, say San Francisco or Seattle or New York City, most people who get elected to the Texas Legislature think they are basically conservative – they usually run on platforms that sound sort of conservative. Then they get to the Capitol and introduce, or vote for, all sorts of legislation that is decidedly NOT conservative, because most of them don’t understand what that term really means. So, the TCC developed a checklist of key conservative principles to help people get a clue.

The checklist included four foundational conservative ideas that conservatives support: limited government, individual liberties, free enterprise and traditional family values. When we studied a proposed new law, we would look to see if it either advanced or hindered one or more of the above principles. For instance, new taxes tend to expand government and give it more power over people; therefore conservatives oppose new taxes in most cases. We eventually began to refer to these ideas as the LIFT principles (after the first letter of each principle). Looking at legislation through the lense of these principles helps people learn what it means to be conservative.

Now, I said all that to say this: for the past 5 weeks we have been discussing the five core principles that I believe God has called us to focus upon in the life of our church. These principles are: relating to each other with Great Commandment love, being a worship-driven church, making prayer the motive of our lives and ministry, being a blessing to the community and building unity among all the churches in our area. Just like the TCC used the LIFT principles to keep our members focused on true conservative values, I believe that we can use these five core spiritual truths to be the plumbline to define, inform and evaluate the nature of our ministry together.

In the Great Commission at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said to teach new disciples to obey all that He had commanded. In light of what we have studied for the past few weeks, I think I can make a case for the proposition that all He commanded can be summed up in these five core principles. The sooner we get into the habit of letting these unique ideas train our thinking and form the foundation of our life and ministry together, the sooner we will see the Great Commission produce fruit in our lives.

The Christian is really simple -- impossible without His power and love -- but, stripped of debates about doctrine and politics -- simple to visualize. These five principles can make that vision a reality.

The First Step Toward Following the Five Core Principles

What is the first thing that flashes through your mind when you hear the word “repent?” Do you feel like you are being accused, like you have been caught doing something wrong and now you are in trouble? If so, then you might be interested to know that this word isn’t really connected to being judged or punished for something; instead, it simply means to change your mind (something that admittedly can produce a change in behavior and keep you out of trouble, too). But, in the verse cited above, Jesus urges His listeners to “repent and believe the Gospel.” Clearly, the emphasis here is on a change of mind: quit believing what you have been believing and believe the Gospel instead!

This simple message was first proclaimed 2,000 years ago, but it is just as urgent today as it ever was. And, I am sad to say, there is still an urgent need to preach it to the Church, because churches today are full of folks who believe something that isn’t the whole Gospel! Most people believe that the Gospel message basically says believe in Jesus and you will be saved. They will cite John 3:16 – God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. But I believe that in order to understand the power of the Gospel, you have to go back a couple of chapters, to John 1:29 – Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. It is here that the Good News really starts: Through Jesus Christ, God has completely and permanently settled the question of who is going to bear the penalty and punishment for Sin – that burden falls on Jesus. The result is that those who have placed their faith in Jesus need never fear that their mistakes, failures, and weaknesses will separate them from God’s eternal and unconditional love. This is the Gospel.

However, most people only get a part of this picture. They start out by faith, accepting Jesus as their Savior, but then they continue in the flesh. They are certainly thankful for the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, but they hold on to the delusion that their relationship to God and their position in Christ is something that depends on their efforts to live right, think right, pray right, do right, etc. Too many of us develop an internal list of things that we feel we have to do to keep God happy with us, and we live by that list! As long as we do a decent job at following the list, we are pretty happy and feel pretty “spiritual.” But, when we blow something on our list, we feel guilty, maybe even a little fearful, and until we go back and somehow “make it right” with God, we have this floating anxiety that tells us we are going to be in big trouble; God is going to get even with us somehow if we don’t repent and get back to doing the list as fast as we can.

Beloved, if this is how you are living, if this is what you believe, then you need to repent and believe the Gospel because you have been believing something that isn’t the Gospel! The Gospel is rooted in the proposition that “God, through Christ, made things right between Himself and the world, and He no longer counts our sins against us.” (II Corinthians 5:19) That doesn’t mean just your past sins, the ones you committed before you were saved, that means all those things on your list that you eventually end up blowing right now and well into the future, too. In other words, in Jesus Christ you are NEVER not forgiven. I see so many Christians struggling with guilt and fear and shame and stress and bitterness and unforgiveness, as well as critical or judgmental attitudes. And you know what this tells me? They haven’t yet believed the Gospel; they have either placed a little faith in the whole Gospel or placed their whole faith in an incomplete Gospel, but they still don’t have the incredible, exciting, amazing BIG PICTURE of what the Gospel really says.

In Luke 7:40-47, we read the story of a prostitute who has been set free by her relationship with Jesus. Her extravagant behavior –anointing him with perfume and washing and kissing his feet and drying them with her hair – has offended the very religious crowd who is present. Jesus offers this simple explanation: she loves Him very much because she knows His forgiveness for her has been HUGE. He goes on to point out that people who feel they have little need to be forgiven, don’t love Him nearly so much.

Here’s what I think: sometimes our lists are just our way to protect us from feeling like we need to be forgiven for anything else, as if our lives could please God without massive infusions of His grace and love and power every minute of every day. His forgiveness is not just what gets us started in the Kingdom, it is what keeps us going. The Gospel is not about what you can do or should do, it is about what He has already done and what He continues to do. If you are in Jesus, you are forgiven ... PERIOD. And you are loved … permanently. Now, go out and live like you believe it.