Local Church

The contemporary culture in the USA is populated with a host of perspectives on the church that are wrong and without a shred of biblical support. We have an entire collection of people under the label ‘Nones’. These are folks that claim to have a faith relationship with the God of the Ages. But, they want nothing to do with the church. You cannot say ‘I love Jesus’, but I don’t want anything to do with the church of which He is the Head. 

Then we have folks who NEVER darken the door of the gathered body of Christ. They say things like – ‘I would rather be in the woods and thinking about Jesus than in church thinking about hunting in the woods.’ What? That is pure bunk!!!

There is no perfect church so stop looking for one. Further, if you go there it will no longer be perfect. The church is full of sinners. God did not send his Son to make bad people good. He sent his Son to make dead people alive.

When a person becomes a true believer through unconditional faith in Christ, they become participants in the New Covenant. There are several types of Covenants. There are Conditional Covenants; the Mosaic Covenant is an example of a conditional Covenant. There are Unconditional Covenants. The ‘New Covenant’ is an example of this type. If you are a member of the NT church you are a member of an unconditional covenant. You are a slave to righteousness & to Christ. Slaves honor all that their masters call upon them to do.

This includes obeying the One Another Commands of the NT.

This includes living life in community.

This includes actively representing Christ in the marketplace – making disciples as you share the gospel.

This includes willing submission to the Elder/Shepherds that God has placed in your assembly.

This includes participation in all that your local church agrees upon as God’s direction for that assembly.

Hebrews 10:22-24 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. . . . And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

Your active role in your church ministers to others. Be there!!!

Are They Redeemed?

Our focus is Evangelism; what does and what does not meet the NT criteria for effective evangelism.

Let me clarify. The problem I highlighted by using Bellevue Baptist in Memphis is not unique to that church. The issue is widespread and very pervasive. One of the causal reasons for this syndrome of greater membership than attendance is driven by a corrupt metric that has been embraced by nearly all of the SB churches. That metric is numbers. More is better and biggest is best. Healthy churches have a greater number of people attending than they have on the membership roles. Unhealthy churches the opposite.

This unrelenting pursuit of numbers has corrupted the glorious ministry of evangelism. Multiple substitute approaches emerged. In 1954 the tag line for SB was ‘A Million More in 54’. That highlights the problem I am presenting. Numbers mattered more than TRUTH. The membership of SB churches swelled but with scores of people who after a very brief time following their ‘profession of faith’ never darkened the door of the church again. Even more tragic is the fact that when confronted with this they steadfastly cling to their ‘profession’ from days gone by. Folks the irrefutable evidence of regeneration is transformation. When there is no transformation you can take it to the bank, there has been no regeneration.

Any and all approaches to evangelism that give higher priority to numbers than to genuine transformation and disciples who make other disciples are spurious. This does not demand immediate maturity. That is a matter of sanctification. But, it does demand progress in the life of the one professing Christ toward the likeness of Christ.

Biblical Literacy is a crucial dynamic in evangelism. A deficient level of Biblical Literacy produced a host of canned evangelistic ‘programs’. Canned programs produce ‘professors but not possessors’. These approaches to evangelism are driven more by immediate results than by presenting the whole counsel of God with integrity. Some examples of this would be the ‘ABC’ approach; Admit, Believe, Confess. Another is the Four Spiritual Laws or Evangelism Explosion. The people using these approaches do not comprehend the damage this approach has done to the church by filling the pews with people who profess to know Christ but in fact do not.

Jesus said – by their fruit you will know them. Their ‘fruit’ shows they are not redeemed.