How Would You Describe Central Presbyterian Church?

At "Take Ten" one recent Sunday, I was waiting to pour myself a cup of coffee.  Just ahead of me were a man and woman I did not recall seeing before at our church.  As we stood there waiting our turn, I introduced myself and asked if they had enjoyed the worship service.  They smiled and enthusiastically told me that both the sermon and the music had been very meaningful.  They were husband and wife, new to Summit, and had been visiting several local churches, trying to find a church home.

A few days later, I needed to take the train to Manhattan for the day.  By chance, on the station platform waiting for the New York train I saw the same man I had chatted with a few days before at CPC's "Take Ten."  We recognized each other.  He said his name was Chris, and I asked if he would mind if I shared a seat with him ---- I wanted to be a little bit welcoming to this newcomer to Summit.

Our train had barely left the station, when Chris asked me to tell him about Central Church ---- "Does Central Church emphasize mainly evangelism (as 'conservative' churches do) or mainly social justice (as 'liberal' churches do)", he asked?  WOW!

How does one give a simple answer to that question?

I started by telling Chris that Central Church has about 750 members, and was established more than 100 years ago as a Presbyterian church; that  like any church, we have evolved over the years and today we continue to evolve.  I told Chris that if he had put his question to any ten members at Central, he might have heard ten different answers, because each of us try to continue growing ---- not to increase the number of church members, as much as increasing our impact on the lives of our members, and our impact on the Summit community and beyond.

I noted that the particular spiritual gifts and callings of our congregation's leaders, together with our social context (Summit, a small-sized city, 30 miles from New York City) necessarily means that Central Church tends to be better at some roles and doing some kinds of ministry, than other things.  Some churches are better at evangelism, I said; others at teaching and discipleship; others at gathered worship and preaching; and others at service to those in need.

We know that no one Christian individual can have all the spiritual gifts and carry out all ministries equally well.  Chris saw my point, and said, "Nor can one congregation have all the spiritual gifts (at least not all in proportion) and therefore it may be unable to do all things equally well."

"Okay, said Chris, "but let's focus on Central Church ---- how is it different from other area churches?"

"Well, Chris," I said, "and this is just my opinion, we seem to have four major areas of ministry:

     a.) connecting people to God.  We seek to do this through evangelism, pre-K 

          through high school-level Sunday School classes and activities, meaningful 

          worship and music, and adult spiritual development through various media. 

          These efforts are being made year-round, but perhaps they are most effective 

          at Christmas-time and Easter.

     b.) connecting people to one another.  We continually seek member participation

          in our church activities.  Many friendships are born out of these joint activities.

          For example, while many churches have 8 or 10 on-going committees ---- 

          Central Church has 19 "teams" reporting to the governing body (The Session),

          creating many participation opportunities.  Of course, some members are very

          active as leaders and other members may seldom be seen.  But the 

          opportunities are there.  Perhaps we could do a better job in the cultivation of 

          participation, but that is an on-going challenge.  Actually, today's church 

          members typically have already many participation opportunities outside of   

          Central Church. 

         

     c.) connecting people to the community.  We seek and find many opportunities 

          for our members to practice mercy and justice for people in our community 

          who are outside our church. Mindful of what Jesus taught, we give both time 

          and money to those in need of mercy and justice, even though our resources

          are not unlimited.

     d.) connecting people to the culture.  We try to integrate our faith with our work. 

          Our faith is not just a "Sunday thing."  We encourage each other to live by our 

          faith and the teachings of Jesus, all week long.  Some people call this a kind

          of ministering and serving to the world:  witness.

I told Chris we do not actually give attention and engage equally in all four of these areas of ministry. However, we attempt to engage in all four areas concurrently, to the extent of our collective individual gifts and resources of time and money.

Chris said our conversation had been helpful, and that he thought he and his wife would want to get to know better the opportunities at Central Presbyterian Church.

I saw them again at our next "Take Ten"!

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal growth this year at CPC.

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Do You Have A Relationship With God?

Long before I retired, I worked in an office in Manhattan.  From time to time after work some of us would stop off at a nearby pub for some relaxed chat on our way home. After a year or two of these impromptu sessions, one day we got to talking about God. Some of us would get quite specific about how we were trying to approach God.

One member of this conversation was Peter, a late-thirties father of two young kids, who worked in Sales for our firm.  Peter told us he was his own boss ---- that he did not believe there was a God who cares about humankind, so he saw a need to be his own Savior.

Another member of our group was George.  He was older than the rest of us ---- probably in his late fifties.  He worked in the Accounting Dept. and liked his daily life to be well-organized and low-risk.  George said he looked to God as his helper, teacher and through Jesus as the model for his daily life.  As some of us heard George say that he always tried to obey God's law (being really righteous and really moral) we wondered if this was just so George could be his own Savior and bargain better for his own salvation.  We were thinking that if George gave God things in the hope that they would earn George blessings in heaven, then was he actually doing anything at all for God? It would be for George's benefit only.  Do you remember the Pharisees of Jesus' time, who were so fixated on the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law?

George admitted that he obeyed God in order to get things from God.  He said that when circumstances in his life went wrong, he was angry at God or at himself, since he believed that anyone who is "good" deserves a comfortable life.  When he is criticized, he continued, he is furious or devastated, because it is critical that he think of himself as a "good person."   George felt that threats to that self-image must be destroyed at all costs.  He said that his prayer life consisted mainly of petition, and it would heat up only when he was in "a time of need." George admitted that his main purpose in prayer was to control his environment.

George said of himself, "I obey, therefore, I am accepted by God."  He agreed that his motivation was based on fear and insecurity, and that his self-view would swing between two poles.  "If and when I am living up to my standards," he said, "I feel confident, but then I am prone to be proud and unsympathetic to failing people."  "If and when I am not living up to my standards," he continued, "I feel humble but not confident ---- I feel like a failure.  My identity and self-worth are based mainly on how hard I work, or how moral I am ---- and so I must look down on those I perceive as lazy or immoral."

The viewpoints of Peter and George had left us puzzled.  Both men were saying, in effect, that they were avoiding God as Savior and Lord.  Each of them was trying to keep control of their lives by looking to something besides God for salvation.  Eventually, someone spoke up and said that "religious legalism and irreligious relativism" are just different strategies for "self-salvation."

A week later some of us happened to meet again at our nearby pub.  Peter and George were not there, but our friend Jack joined us. Someone recalled the earlier comments of Peter and George the week before, which had been unsettling for some of us.  For Jack's benefit, we recounted the prior week's discussion.

Jack listened with great interest, and he explained that he is a member of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.  The Senior Pastor of that church, a man named Timothy Keller, had been preaching recently on this very subject ---- one's relationship with God.

Jack quoted Pastor Keller as saying, "My identity is not built on my record or my performance, but on God's love for me in Christ.  My prayer life consists of generous stretches of praise and adoration.  My main purpose is fellowship with God.  My self-view is not based on my moral achievement.  In Christ, I am simultaneously sinful and lost, yet accepted in Christ.  I am so bad that he had to die for me, and I am so loved that he was glad to die for me."

Jack stopped to take a breath, and then continued to paraphrase Pastor Keller:  "This leads me to deep humility and confidence at the same time.  My identity and self-view are centered on one who died for me.  I am saved by sheer grace, so I cannot look down on those who believe or practice something different from me.  Only by grace am I what I am."  Unlike the view of George ("I obey, therefore. I am accepted"), Jack believed "I am accepted, therefore I obey."

"Only an experience of grace," said Jack, "can change us so we do not avoid Jesus Christ as Savior, but do good things for goodness's sake, for God's sake.  What is this grace?  It is not fundamentally an invitation to get more religious.  No, though we often fail to obey the moral law, the deeper problem is why we are trying to obey it.  Even our efforts to obey it may just have been a way of seeking to be our own Savior."

In Jack's opinion, our friend Peter's way to live does not involve any attempt to repent. Then, too, George's way to live involves only repentance of his sins.  But, followers of the third way to live described by Pastor Timothy Keller, repent both their sins and their self-righteousness.

"So," concluded Jack, "we must change not so much the amount but the object of our faith.  We have to do more than just subscribe to a set of doctrines about Christ.  It is more than that ---- we must transfer our trust from our own works and record, to Christ's work and record.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal growth this year at CPC.

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Two Wolves

In the summer of 2004, my wife and I spent a week living on a Blackfeet Indian reservation in western Montana.  We were members of a volunteer project sponsored by a national organization that gives a helping hand to needy communities.  It was a little like CPC's High School Mission trips, except ours was not church-sponsored.

We spent time with some very friendly Blackfeet Indian families, and were invited to their community meetings.  On one occasion, a tribal elder shared a lesson I still remember, even to this day.  But, could this lesson really be relevant to any of us ---- we live so far from the reservation?

          "An old Indian grandfather said to his grandson who came to him with

          anger at a friend who had done him an injustice .  .  .  .  'Let me tell 

          you a story.'

          I, too, at times, have felt a great hate for those that have taken too much,

          with no sorrow for what they do.  But hate wears you down, and does

          not hurt your enemy.  It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy 

          would die.  I have struggled with these feelings many times."

          He continued .  .  . ."It is as if there are two wolves inside me.  One is

          good and does no harm.  He lives in harmony with all around him, and 

          does not take offense when no offense was intended.  He will only fight 

          when it is right to do so, and in the right way.  He saves all his energy for

          the right fight.

          But the other wolf, ahhh.  He is full of anger.  The littlest thing will set him

          into a fit of temper.  He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason.  He

          cannot think because his anger and hate are so great.  It is helpless anger,

          for his anger will change nothing.

          Sometimes it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of

          them try to dominate my spirit."

          The boy looked intently into his grandfather's eyes and asked .  .  . "Which

          one wins, Grandfather?"

          The grandfather smiled and quietly said .  .  . "The one I feed."

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Feed the love within you and your anger will starve to death!

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal growth this year at CPC.

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Do We Sometimes Have More Than One Motive For Helping The Needy?

I have a friend with a large house on the Jersey Shore, and a 45-foot boat on which he invites friends to go fishing.  He mentioned the other day how his cleaning lady had asked him for some help to pay the medical bills of a sick mother.  The mother has no medical insurance, and she had already been in the hospital for three weeks.  My friend said he was glad to help.  "My cleaning lady has so little and I have so much," he said.  He gave her $300.

My friend said he realized that his gift would cover only a small portion of the hospital bill, and now he felt guilty that he had not given more.   But, he said, at first he was not inclined to give her anything, and then guilt induced him to give the $300.

There was no spontaneous generosity here.  He seems not to have been moved by compassion.

What kind of love do you think God requires?  Showing mercy is commanded both by Jesus and often in Scripture.  But shouldn't it be initiated by a willing heart, and not just be in response to a command?  What is the right way to respond to the mercy of God which we have received as his grace ---- a huge benefit we receive but have not earned?

One way to look at it is to ask, "How selfish are we if we eat steak and drive two cars, while many in the rest of the world are starving?" This may create great emotional conflicts in the hearts of some Christians who hear such questions.  We may feel guilty!  However, all sorts of defense mechanisms are quickly engaged.  "Can I help it if I was born in this rich country?"  "How will it help anyone if I stop driving two cars?" "Don't I have the right to enjoy the fruits of my labor?"  Soon, with an anxious weariness, we  turn away from books or speakers who simply make us feel guilty toward the needy.

True mercy is spontaneous ---- it is an expansive love which comes from an awareness of the grace of God.  The deeper the awareness of this free grace of God, the more generous we might (hopefully) become.  One measure of a Christian may be whether he or she loves to give.  How regularly are we aware of God's gift of grace to us?  Is it something we want to repay by passing something like it along to others?

To put it another way, think of showing mercy to the needy as our "sacrifice of praise" for God's gift of grace to us.  It truly is a "sacrifice" on our part, because whatever we give ---- be it money or our supportive time, for example ---- we have given it away freely, and we do not have it any more.  The risen Lord of our salvation is not here bodily for us to anoint his feet, so instead we have the opportunity to help the needy as a "sacrifice" to show our love and honor for Christ.

Why is generosity a mark of being a Christian?  Imagine a person who is deathly ill. The doctor announces to him that there is a medicine which can certainly cure him.  Without it, he has no hope.  "However," says the doctor, "it is extremely expensive.  You will have to sell your cars, even your home, to buy it.  You may not wish to spend so much."  The man turns to the doctor and says, "What do my cars mean to me now?  What good will my house be?  I must have that medicine; it is precious to me.  These other things which were so important to me before now look pale by comparison to the medicine.  They are expendable now.  Give me the medicine!"

The awareness of the grace of God (like a miracle medicine) is equally that precious to us.  Our possessions, our money, our time, all become eternally and utterly expendable.  They used to be crucial to our happiness.  They will no longer be so, as awareness increases that we have the gift of God's grace.

A sensitive social conscience and a life poured out in deeds of mercy to the needy, are the inevitable signs of a person who really understands the nature of God's grace given to us.  Guilt should not be the only motivation for helping the needy.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal growth this year at CPC.

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Would A Loving God Really Send People To HELL?

"In our culture, divine judgment is one of Christianity's most offensive doctrines."  So says Timothy Keller, pastor of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, a church with 6,000 regular attendees at five services each Sunday.  As a minister and preacher, he says, he often finds himself speaking on Biblical texts that teach the wrath of God, the final judgment, and the doctrine of Hell.

In Christianity, suggests Keller, God is both a God of love and of justice.  Many believe that a loving God can't be a judging God filled with wrath and anger, Keller continues. "If he is loving and perfect, he should forgive and accept everyone.  He shouldn't get angry."

Keller then points out that all loving persons are sometimes filled with wrath, not just despite but because of their love.  If you love a person, he says, and you see someone ruining them with unwise actions and relationships ---- even done by the loved person themselves ---- you get angry.

"Ah," says Keller, "fighting evil and injustice in the world is one thing, but sending people to Hell is quite another.  The Bible speaks of eternal punishment, but sending people to Hell as popularly envisioned is much more extreme.

I remember that as a college freshman I was required to take a Humanities course with a challenging reading list.  One of the requirements was to read Dante's Inferno and discuss in class the symbolism and fearful consequences of possibly going to Hell when we die. The instructor came prepared, with a selection of reproduction pictures of a flaming landscape rendered by famous Renaissance painters.  His portfolio showed in excruciating detail each of the layers of Hell, as Dante visualized them, and to this day I can recall these dreadful scenes.

Keller's analysis continues:  "Modern people inevitably think Hell works like this:  God gives us time, but if we haven't made the right choices by the end of our lives, he casts our souls into Hell for all eternity.  As the poor souls fall through space, they cry out for mercy, but God says "Too late!  You had your chance!  Now you will suffer!"  But, says Keller, this caricature misunderstands the very nature of evil.

The Biblical picture, according to Keller, is that sin is our separation from the presence of God, which is the source of all joy and indeed of all love, wisdom, and good things of any sort.  Since we were originally created for God's immediate presence, only before his face will we thrive, flourish, and achieve our highest potential.  If we were to lose his presence totally, that would be Hell ---- the loss of our capability for giving or receiving love or joy.

A traditional image of Hell, Keller tells us, is that of fire.  Fire disintegrates.  Even in this life we can see the kind of soul disintegration that self-centeredness creates.  We know how selfishness and self-absorption leads to bitterness, envy, anxiety, paranoid thoughts, and the mental denials and distortions that accompany them.

Now ask the question:  "What if when we die we don't end, but spiritually our life extends on into eternity?"  Hell, then, is the trajectory of a soul, living a self-absorbed, self-centered life, going on and on forever.

Keller concludes that Hell is simply one's freely chosen identity to be separated from God on a trajectory that goes on for a billion years.  We see small examples of this process in addictions to drugs, alcohol, gambling and pornography.  First, there is some kind of dependency (but not on God), says Keller, and as time goes on one needs more and more of the addictive substance to get an equal kick, which leads to less and less satisfaction. Second, there is isolation increasingly, by one's blame of others and circumstances, in order to justify one's own behavior.  When we build our lives on anything but God, says Keller, that thing ---- though perhaps a "good" thing in a sense (for example, wealth) ---- becomes an enslaving addiction, something we must have to be happy.  Keller believes that this personal dependency can go on forever, with increasing isolation, denial, delusion and self-absorption.  

People go to Heaven, Keller says, because they love God and want to submit to him. People go to Hell because they want to be away from God, because they do not want somebody telling them how to live their lives.  They want to be their own savior, their own lord.  They want to live their lives their own way.  That's Hell.  Keller believes that Hell is eternal, but it is not inevitable.  God gives you what you want.  He says that Heaven and Hell essentially are our freely chosen identities, going on forever.  And, says Keller, you stay wanting it; you cannot suddenly change your mind.

So, Keller leaves us with this thought:  It is not a question of God "sending" us to Hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will BE Hell unless we nip it in the bud.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal growth this year at CPC.

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