Hey everybody! A lot of you know me from the Inspired Faith newsletters, but for those who don’t know me yet, allow me to introduce myself…
My name is Troy Johnson, and I’m the GM of Inspired Faith. I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself on our blog and share with you a bit of what Inspired Faith is all about.
As you may have figured out by now if you read our blog, follow us on Facebook or Twitter, and receive our emails, our goal is to be more than “just a publishing company.” We do publish short, inspirational Christian books, and we love offering those books and other relevant gift items to inspire you in your walk with Christ. But we also strive to give you an interactive place to grow in community with other believers.
We all know this walk isn’t easy. At times, it’s downright painful to remain faithful to the Lord when things around us are falling apart. And it’s my belief that we can’t do that without other people encouraging us and holding us accountable to the hope that we all profess together. It’s not about strongarming each other or condemning people who aren’t living up to certain standards. It’s about acknowledging that we all struggle at times. I once heard it said that “A friend is someone who prays for you when you can’t pray for yourself.” And that’s the kind of community we want to create here at Inspired Faith. We want to introduce you to other believers who will pray for you and encourage you when the season you’re in doesn’t allow you to pray for yourself or encourage yourself. Likewise, we want to give you a place where you can encourage others in what they’re going through. I don’t know about you, but nothing gives me more joy than knowing that I made a difference in someone’s life. In our online venues, we invite you to speak love into others’ lives, in the name of Jesus.
That being said, we have a few new, exciting things coming up. We just released two new books, A Time for Prayer and Encouragement for Life. If you haven’t had a chance to check those out, take a look by clicking on the links. They’re beautifully written books that make great devotional tools and great gifts. We’ll also be releasing a new short movie based on ourbook Mothers are Heaven’s Scent and a few new Framed Inspirations, so look for those. And finally, starting tomorrow, we’ll be focusing on specific themes each week in all of our online content to better help you direct your attention to important topics. This first week, we’ll be discussing what it means to imitate Jesus in our emails, on the blog, Twitter, and Facebook. Please join in the discussion and be encouraged!
As always, we appreciate your feedback and ideas. Thanks for being a part of our Inspired Faith community! God bless!
Dancing and flags are used in some churches as acts of worshipping God.
The other day, I was chatting with a friend about churches he had visited recently. He just moved to the area and is still trying to find a church to call home. That particular week, he had visited a church that he said he really didn’t like.
“What didn’t you like about it?” I asked. “Was it more traditional than you’re used to?” I knew the church he had visited. It was an Anglican church that mixed traditional liturgy with contemporary worship.
“No, I don’t mind the traditions,” he said. “It was the worship that bothered me. I don’t agree with churches using flags and stuff in worship. It makes worship too self-centered, like it’s all about the people dancing and not about God.”
“I could understand that,” I said. Then I changed the subject.
I changed the subject because I knew my friend and I disagreed on this subject, but I didn’t think it was worth arguing over. I really could understand his perspective. He didn’t grow up in a tradition that practiced expressive, emotional worship and to see people dancing, waving flags, and shouting in church could certainly come across to him as self-centered and prideful. I, on the other hand, have grown up attending churches that used flags, and I even helped to spear-head the use of flags in worship services at my college.
Even though I see a lot of benefit in using flags and expressively worshiping God, even though I see a scriptural basis for it, I didn’t press the issue with my friend because I see a lot more scriptural basis for acting in love. I could tell by my friend’s tone that he wasn’t open to discussing the merits of flags and dancing in worship. He felt strongly that it was wrong, and arguing with him about it wouldn’t change his mind or give him a better understanding of God’s love. Instead it would cause division between us and probably leave us both with a bad taste in our mouths.
There are times when you disagree with a brother or sister in Christ about something stylistic or cultural, about matters that our salvation doesn’t depend upon. We have to have discernment in those times to know whether to press the issue or not. We shouldn’t always shy away from talking about our disagreements. We need to know that there are safe places to have those disagreements. I can’t begin to tell you how much my life has been changed for the better by debates with fellow Christians who believed things that I didn’t. Even if I didn’t come to agree with them, I walked away with more understanding of another position and more love for people who aren’t exactly like me. God grows us through disagreements when both parties are ready and willing to speak in love.
I’ve also had arguments with fellow believers that ended in bitterness and pigheadedness. We were not arguing out of love and to seek mutual understanding; we were arguing because we couldn’t stand for the other person to go on thinking they were right. We were arguing for selfish reasons, and I never came away from those arguments feeling more like Jesus.
Whether we’re talking about flags, dancing, rubbing ashes on our heads, standing, sitting, kneeling, jumping, shouting, using drums, blowing trumpets, using an organ, remaining silent, hymns, gospel music, giving up something for Lent, or any other method of worship, we have to keep in mind the message behind the methods.
I can pull out scripture that supports the application of every single method of worship I just listed. (If you’d like to see some, leave a comment, but my purpose here is not to defend styles of worship tradition.) But even being able to prove a biblical basis for how you worship doesn’t mean that all believers HAVE to engage in all of those methods all of the time. We need to recognize that different people have had different experiences, and as long as we’re all in agreement that Jesus Christ is Lord of our lives, we’re called to live as one body. May we learn to live at peace in our differences (even when those differences bug us!) and build one another up in Christ.
Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters.Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. 1 Peter 3:8 (NLT)
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Romans 12:18 (NIV)
I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, arein Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. John 17:20-1 (NKJV)
God put our bodies together in such a way that even the parts that seem the least important are valuable. He did this to make all parts of the body work together smoothly, with each part caring about the others. If one part of our body hurts, we hurt all over. If one part of our body is honored, the whole body will be happy. Together you are the body of Christ. Each one of you is part of His body. 1 Corinthians 12:24-7 (CEV)
As I mentioned in a previous post, I was raised in a church that didn’t observe most of the Church calendar. In high school, I remember seeing a friend at school with ashes on her forehead one Ash Wednesday. I thought it was weird that she had a dirty forehead. When other people asked her about it, she explained that at her church, ashes are put on people’s foreheads to commemorate the beginning of Lent.
I knew that people “give up things” for Lent, but I never really understood why. Most of the people I knew growing up who observed Lent didn’t really observe much else about Christianity. (I remember one year, a girl in my class announced to a small group around her that she was giving up wearing underwear for Lent.)
I attended an interdenominational Christian college, where I became friends with some Catholics and Anglicans. These friends passionately observed the Church calendar and everything else that comes along with following Christ. Through those friendships, I learned to respect other Christian traditions, like observing Ash Wednesday and Lent. But I still didn’t have a good grasp on why these traditions were observed.
To help combat our ignorance about the traditional Church calendar, my husband and I went to an Ash Wednesday service today at a church down the road from where we live. Before we went, I googled to make sure it was okay to receive the ashes if we weren’t a member of the church. (It was.) So as we approached the church, I felt nervous. What if you were supposed to do something upon receiving the ashes, and I made a fool of myself for not doing it? Should I wear the ashes all day – even to my very Protestant church later tonight? What would people think? Would everyone at work think I was a Catholic? Would people at my own church feel offended that I attended a *gasp* Catholic church?
As the questions popped into my mind, I decided that, in spite of my nervousness, I was going to go through with it. I would receive the ashes, and I would wear them for the entire day.
In college, the Lord laid it on my heart to work toward reconciliation between fractured denominations. As a Christian growing up in a contemporary Protestant church, I experienced judgmentalism on both sides of the table. Friends at my church spoke condescendingly about Christians who were “too traditional” to have an authentic relationship with God. On the other side of the divide, friends at school who came from traditional church backgrounds would speak condescendingly of Christians like me, who came from “weird, emotional, self-centered” backgrounds. They claimed that we turned worship of God into a frivolous party rather than a sacred reverence.
In college, God stretched me by bringing relationships into my life with Christians of all sorts of backgrounds. Through studying the Bible and theology, I felt convicted about my own attitude toward Christians who worshiped differently than I did. I started to think that maybe Christians on both sides of the table had something worthwhile to offer each other. Sometimes we, as human beings, can be too rigid in our worship of God. But sometimes we can be too frivolous, forgetting what a glorious, awesome God we serve. God is a friend to us, but He is also a holy fire. Reconciliation and fellowship between different denominations helps us all to hold that tension of worshiping God for who He really is, not for who we want Him to be.
Tonight when I attend my contemporary Protestant church with ashes on my forehead, my prayer is that this visual reminder would be received for what it is – a reminder that we are all sinners saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus. I pray that we would be more quick to love and embrace one another in Christ than we are to argue over traditions, calendar days, and styles of worship.
I may not understand or embrace all aspects of every denomination. But I want my heart to be soft enough that I can find the common points we agree on and build bridges of fellowship. May these ashes play a small part in bringing reconciliation, and may they be a reminder today of my need for Jesus.
What about you? Did you grow up in a traditional church or a contemporary church? Have you noticed judgmentalism between Christians of different denominations? Have you ever passed judgment on those who are different from you, like I did with my high school friend when she came to school with ashes? Will you observe Lent this year? If so, what does Lent mean to you?
For some Christians, plugging in at a local church is a breeze. Perhaps their family has been attending a certain church for generations. They are well-known and loved in the church family. They are fed nourishing truths of God and have ample opportunity to serve others. Other Christians came to know Christ in the context of a great church and have never needed to look for fellowship anywhere else. From the moment they entered the building, they were embraced by the local body of Christ.
For some of us, though, finding and staying committed to a local church has been a great challenge in our faith life. We know that we’re called to meet together (Hebrews 10:24-25), but it just hasn’t been easy for us. Maybe we’ve been committed to a local church, but experienced terrible hurt or betrayal that left us with a bitter taste for local church involvement. Or maybe we have such high standards for the ideal local church that we’ve searched and searched for “just the right place” only to come up empty. After years of searching and feeling that nothing fits, perhaps we’ve grown weary and decided to settle for the fellowship of informal gatherings with Christian friends and participation in large, distant communities of faith like Inspired Faith.
As a mediator of online faith community, I certainly don’t want to give the impression that Inspired Faith is nothing more than a cheap substitute for involvement in a local church. I know how powerfully God can communicate through daily devotions, Facebook notes, tweets, and blog posts. Surrounding ourselves with life-giving truths of God is important in all dimensions of our lives. If we’re going to be online, we need to make sure that some of our online content is driving us toward a deeper relationship with God. There are times in our lives when we feel alone, afraid, or depressed, and having online inspiration instantly accessible is key to hearing God’s word in those situations.
That being said, I wouldn’t be honestly sharing God’s word with you if I didn’t highlight the importance of being part of a local community of believers. We see beautiful examples of believers living in community throughout the book of Acts, and we have a specific directive in Hebrews to not give up meeting together, “as some are in the habit of doing.”
Maybe you’re finding yourself in that place where sleeping in on Sunday mornings has become a habit. Maybe you’re finding it near impossible to drag yourself to a church on Wednesday or Thursday or Saturday night. There are so many competing demands in life, and let’s face it–dealing with the imperfections inevitable in any local church may not seem worth the trouble.
But engaging in a local body of believers is essential to our spiritual growth for many reasons. As I already mentioned, it’s worth doing first and foremost because it’s an act of obedience to the Lord. But I think there are some practical reasons why the writer of Hebrews directs us to meet together regularly.
Being a part of a local church provides us with opportunities to serve in our communities.
It forces us to take one or two days out of each week to be around other believers, to worship God, to hear His word preached, and to be reminded to fix our eyes on what is unseen in much of our daily lives.
Even conflicts and shortcomings in local churches are opportunity for our growth in Christ. Remember, churches are full of broken, sinful people being formed into the image of Christ. It might seem like some leaders or church members are beyond redemption. But maybe, God is calling you to reach them. Even if you can’t change their minds or soften their hearts, as a member of a church, you always have authority to intercede on behalf of your church and ask God to bring healing and spiritual fruit to even the most bitter situations.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4 TNIV
Being committed to a local church is not easy, but it is one of the best places for God to grow us through trials. As we persevere in prayer, in love, and in service we become mature and complete in Christ. Let us not give up meeting together!
Have you faced trials and discouragement being part of a local church? Have you gone through periods of spiritual isolation, when it was easier to go it alone than to be engaged in a church body? How has God used your involvement in a local church to mature you?
