I have been personally studying and focusing on being intentional to build spiritual disciplines into my life and schedule.  One of the books that I am reading on this topic is Richard Foster’s A Celebration of Discipline. Foster had a great statement on the chapter regarding meditation that I think is an accurate commentary on American Christianity.  He writes:

“The history of religion is the story of an almost desperate scramble to have a king, a mediator, a priest, a pastor, a go-between. In this way we do not need to go to God ourselves.  Such an approach saves us from the need to change, for to be in the presence of God is to change. We do not need to observe Western culture very closely to realize that we are captivated by the religion of the mediator.”

Foster is correct in suggesting that it is the tendency in the American church to rely on the pastor or spiritual leader as the mediator between God and the people of God.  This means that we have a bunch of Christians walking around waiting to be fed not by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God but through the words of a pastor.  This is building a church that is full of spiritual infants who wait for the food of the Word on Sundays and then starve the rest of the week.  We need to be a group of Christians who seek God through His Word daily through spiritual disciplines.  God, make us a people desperate to seek You and to be changed by You!

If you are a person who frequents Christian bookstores like myself, you may have noticed a new sign beside some specific titles in LifeWay Christian Stores.  This new sign reads as follows:

“READ WITH DISCERNMENT. This book may contain thoughts, ideas, or concepts that could be considered inconsistent with historical evangelical theology. Therefore, we encourage you to read it with extra discernment. For important background information and additional insight related to this book, please review the Author Briefing and related content at www.lifewaystores.com/readwithdiscernment “

This sign encourages Christian readers to read with their eyes open and through the lens of discerning truth for themselves.  This is a very wise statement and should, in my opinion, be handed out to everyone who purchases any book besides the Word of God from a Christian bookstore.  

These signs were, however, not placed next to all the books in the store but rather were placed strategically next to books by authors who are considered part of the Emergent Church including Donald Miller, Rob Bell, and Brian McLaren.  This is very interesting considering the many other books that also twist theology and minimize the Gospel.  I am not Emergent and do not embrace the idea of reforming the message of the Gospel, but I do think that LifeWay is going in a good direction by warning people to not be blind sheep that fall into the pit of bad theology.

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to preach at Bethesda Methodist Church in a little small town outside of Pulaski, Tennessee.  This was a very interesting and neat experience for me in that this is one of the churches where my quadruple great-grandfather preached and ministered.  He was a Methodist circuit-riding preacher which would be similar to a pastor today traveling and taking care of multiple churches.  It was a very great experience to be the last Birdsong to preach at this church since he did.  

The service last weekend was a homecoming for the church who had not held weekly services, except homecomings, in a little over 50 years.  This homecoming was very encouraging to me and reminded me of what a blessing it is to have a family who has embraced Jesus Christ for generations.  It was neat to stand in the very spot where my many great grandfather stood and to open the same Word of God that he opened to encourage a people seeking to follow after God over a 100 years after His time and ministry on earth had ended.  

This not only brought up gratefulness about having a family seeking after Christ, but also the wonderful truth that the God and Savior whose grace and mercy were proclaimed in that old white church years and years ago is the same God that we worshiped last Sunday morning.  God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Let us live lives in pursuit of Jesus Christ so generations to come can see and hear stories of how a faithful and gracious God worked in our lives and used us to proclaim His glory!

On May 7th, 2008, a group of influential Christian leaders including Timothy George, OS Guiness, Rich Mouw, and Dallas Willard gathered together to define what it means to be an evangelical Christian.  The document that came out of this meeting is called The Evangelical Manifesto.  This document has had its critics and champions.  Some notable and well respected Christians have decided not to sign this document for various reasons.  Dr. Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, did not sign due to its lack of a strong theology in defining evangelicals and their roles in society.  Dr. Ergun Caner, the President of Liberty University’s Seminary, did not sign the document either due to the minimizing of the influence that evangelicals can have through politics and political endeavors.  Hate it or love it, The Evangelical Manifesto has made some noteworthy points that should be discussed and has made, in my opinion, an overall excellent job at defining evangelicals and the Biblical role that we as evangelical Christians should play in the world around us.  

The first quotes that I want to pass along come from the section of the manifesto focusing on the fact that evangelicals have failed to live out what they have claimed to preach:

“We confess that we evangelicals have betrayed our beliefs by our own behavior.  All to often we have trumpeted the gospel of Jesus, but we have replaced biblical truths with therapeutic techniques, worship with entertainment, discipleship with growth in human potential, church growth with business entrepreneurialism, concern for the church and the local congregation with expressions of the faith that are churchless and little better than vapid spirituality, meeting real needs with pandering to felt needs, and mission principles with marketing precepts.  In the process we have become known for commercial, diluted, and feel-good gospels of health, wealth, human potential, and religious happy talk, each of which is indistinguishable from the passing fashions of the surrounding world.” - p. 11

The manifesto states above that we have taken the message of the gospel, which we have been called to embrace personally first and foremost and then to embody to the world, and have exchanged it for false gospels which come in many forms.  This is so true and convicting at the same time.  The manifesto then goes on to address the spiritual condition that many evangelicals find themselves:

“All to often we have traced our roots to powerful movements of spiritual revival and reformation, but we ourselves are often atheists unawares, secularists in practice who live in a world without windows to the supernatural, and often carry our Christian lives in a manner that has little operational need for God.” - p. 12

Our false gospels that we have created leave no need for the true gospel.  If our whole spiritual lives are based on our own good works and performance or spiritual activities, we have no need for God because we have our acts together.  

The manifesto then goes on to describe what a holistic discipleship of embracing and embodying the gospel would look like in today’s world:

“We call for a more complete understanding of discipleship that applies faith with integrity to every calling and sphere of life, the secular as well as the spiritual, and the physical as well as the religious; and that thinks wider than politics in contributing to the arts, the sciences, the media, and the creation of culture in all its variety.” - p. 14

This is the call made by The Evangelical Manifesto to embrace and embody a holistic gospel that impacts culture through contributing in all spheres of life driven by a Christ-centered worldview. 

I spent some time last week in the picture of the early church in the end of Acts 2.  This passage talks about the people of this early church community devoting themselves to four priorities: the apostle’s teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread (communion), and prayer.  One thing that really struck me in my rereading of this passage was that the first priority the apostle’s teaching or the teaching of the Word of God is the priority that is most minimized in the American church.  The priority of the early church that was the driving priority behind the rest has been neglected.  We have minimized the preaching and teaching of the Word of God and have replaced it by a story and humor driven message that seeks to tickle the ears of its hearers but leaves no truth and no long-term impact beyond a tickle down the spine.  The truth has been minimized.  When we have churches and ministries that minimize the truth found in God’s Word, we are building churches on the sand.  These are churches with no foundational truth found in a Christian worldview derived from the study of God’s Word.  We are not just building churches on the sand.  We are building people on a theology that is empty.  When the trials, temptations, and struggles of life come their way, they need the truth of God’s Word to stand on.  They need to have been taught to be able to search the scriptures for themselves to be able to receive comfort from the Author of scripture.  They need a relationship with Jesus Christ that comes through the preaching of God’s Word not a theology that comes with a great big smile and promises your best life now.  When the smiles turn to tears, a sales pitch for a better life will not suffice.  Only Jesus Christ and His Word will sustain us and be the foundation of a ministry.

North Point Community Church’s ministry environments help them to effectively fulfill their mission as a church:

Our mission is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating environments where people are encouraged and equipped to pursue intimacy with God, community with insiders and influence with outsiders.

What I love about the mission and environments of North Point is that they are focused on both outreach and discipleship.  They are able to make church non-threatening and attractive in a way that unchurched people would feel comfortable and can meet Jesus.  They are also deep and focused on biblical community, accountability, and discipleship via small groups.  These intentional environments are the strategic tools that help to bring people from the foyer all the way to the kitchen table.

North Point Community Church’s middle school ministry is called Xtreme while the high school ministry is called Inside Out.  Both of these ministries are very similar in teaching principles and formats.  The major difference is the level at which the lessons are taught.  The messages and lessons are intended to be specifically for the middle school or high school.  These ministries seek to communicate the following 7 Checkpoints (which come out of an Andy Stanley book by that name):

1. Spiritual Disciplines- making your relationship with God and scripture an important part of your daily schedule
2. Authentic Faith- learning to trust and depend on God
3. Moral Boundaries- establishing limits on personal desires for the sake of your future potential
4. Wise Choices- understanding how to make decisions which are based on God’s perspective
5. Healthy Friendships- developing relationships which encourage positive lifestyle and spiritual growth
6. Others First- establishing a personal vision to make a difference in the lives of others
7. Ultimate Authority- choosing to respect and follow the leaders that God has put into your life

Kid Stuf is one of the most interesting children’s ministry concepts that I have ever seen.  It is a worship service for elementary children who have been through Up Street and their parents.  This is a high-energy, drama-driven service that seeks to entertain and connect to both children and parents.  Entertainment is part of the program, but it is not the only goal.  Kid Stuf was designed to make sure parents know what their kids are learning at church in order to discuss it with them when they get back home.  This allows parents to look for strategic teaching opportunities to connect what their children are learning at church with what goes on at home and in the children’s world.  Since Kid Stuf is an extension of the Up Street ministry environment, it does not have specific teaching points.  It does have some key priorities that I want to pass along:

• Family Centered- establish a consistent shared experience for parents and kids
• Kid Focused- target everyday issues in a kid’s life and world
• Virtue Driven- emphasize a specific virtue to help kids develop faith and character
• Creatively Wired- use innovative and creative tools to communicate a timeless message
• User Friendly- create a predictable and non-threatening place for families to bring friends
• Volunteer Fueled- develop a strategy to recruit and maintain volunteers

One thing that really impressed me about all of North Point Community Church’s ministry environments is that each environment had several teaching points which would be driven home with the children and students over the course of their time within that environment.  The environment that I am going to start with is the birth to preschool ministry environment called Waumba Land.  The name comes from the Swahilian word “Waumba” which means creator.  So the environment name is “Land of the Creator.”  While in Waumba Land, the kids are focusing on the following teaching points:

• God made me.
• God loves me.
• Jesus wants to be my friend forever.

Last Sunday, I was in Atlanta for the Passion Conference and decided to stay over Saturday night and go to North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia where Andy Stanley is pastor.  While at North Point, I went on their tour of the ministry environments that they have from birth through high school.  I really enjoyed the trip and learned a lot from the tour so I figured that I would pass the information along over the next few days. 

I have had the opportunity to come in as a visitor to several large churches and of those churches North Point is for sure the largest.  I was really impressed with the general hospitality and friendliness of the volunteers.  I was quickly directed to guest parking and was greeted enthusiastically at the door.  The volunteers were very helpful and focused on making sure I had everything I needed. 

One neat and innovative thing that North Point seeks to do for first time visitors is that they have a form on their website where people can sign up and let the volunteer team know that they will be coming.  This then allows the church to be intentional about placing a volunteer with the visiting family to show them around the campus.  Visitors are also given reserved seats in the worship service which is a blessing considering North Point runs approximately 20,000 people through Sunday morning services on their three Atlanta campuses. 

This hospitality and service to people who are not members of the church or who do not know Jesus Christ and are just coming to check it out helps to form the foyer experience of the North Point ministry philosophy.  This allows people to feel comfortable in a new environment that they may be apprehensious about.  I was really impressed with the friendliness and welcoming spirit of the North Point volunteers to make sure people feel comfortable and are open to experience God and possibly coming back to church again!