Pastoral Team Forum - Question 1

In our recent series, Wise Lives: Pursuing Skillful Living in the Proverbs, our pastoral team decided that it may be beneficial to hold a Pastoral Team Forum during the sermon time on one Sunday morning, in order to answer questions about the spiritual life. What I'll attempt to do here, over the next few blog entries, is to touch upon the questions that the Pastoral Team covered during our November 26th forum.

The first question was this: What do we mean when we talk about a "spiritual person"?

To answer this question, first we want to be clear on what we don't mean when we talk about a spiritual person. Too often we equate being "spiritual" with some sort of a role, as if the being "spiritual" is only reserved for deacons or pastors or missionaries. This leads some - perhaps men and women who are successful and hard-working in the marketplace - to think that, if they really want to be "spiritual," they have to quit their jobs, attend a seminary, and go into vocational ministry. But we want to move away from the notion that only certain roles in life or kinds of people can pursue spirituality.

Secondly, we want to recognize that the spiritual life does not look the same for all people, but rather it can be expressed in many different ways for different people. So then, being "spiritual" does not necessarily mean that you have to sell everything and live in a monastery, or that you have to move to Calcutta to work with the indigent, or even that you have to be up at four in the morning each day to pray for four hours before your workday begins. To be a "spiritual person" may look different for different people.

Essentially, however, we believe that a spiritual person is one who is living out life as God originally intended - that is, they are living and doing all things for His glory. Each of us was created by God to reflect His glory in this world. So then, when the world looks at you, a believer in Jesus Christ, they ought to see how your life is a reflection of the worth of God, in His beauty and goodness and moral perfection. They see your life point upwards towards Him.

And this can be done whether you're a pastor or a paramedic, whether you're a missionary or in the military. Do you conduct yourself as a student in such a way that God is glorified? How about as an accountant? How about as a son, or daughter, or mother, or father, or brother, or sister? How about as a neighbor, or as a driver, or as a member of the community? How about in the way that you spend your money, or in the goals that you pursue, or in the relationships that you have - are these all done in such a way that God is glorified? That's how we are to pursue being a "spiritual person."

In regards to this topic, there is one article that I would highly recommend, written by John Piper, entitled, "How to Drink Orange Juice to the Glory of God".

Through the work that Jesus Christ has done on the cross, the Father has reconciled to Himself all who place their faith in His Son. For that reason, we now have an opportunity, which we did not have before coming to Christ, to glorify God in anything and everything that we do. It is when we pursue this that we begin pursuing the spiritual life.

Grateful

We praise God for a wonderful Thanksgiving Banquet on Saturday evening. As a church, we are so grateful to God for the many people who gave of their time, their hands, and their gifts in order for us to have an enjoyable evening of relaxing fellowship around a table filled with great food. We were blessed to see so many new faces and to be given the opportunity, as a community of believers, to testify of God's grace and goodness in our lives and in the life of our church.

The testimony part of Thanksgiving Banquet is done now. But the long-lasting relationships that we strive to see as a result of our Thanksgiving Banquet... this continues with you and all of us as we seek to demonstrate God's love through the sharing of lives with our friends, families, co-workers, neighbors, and community. May this be a challenge to you, even in the coming week, to continue fostering deep friendships with people outside of AABC, for the glory of God.

May God be praised and pleased by all that has taken place and by all that will result from our Thanksgiving Banquet!

Building Bridges with New Faces

Thanksgiving Banquet is 4 days away. Have you been praying hard for this upcoming outreach event (and, by praying hard, we mean praying consistently and intentionally)? Prayer in preparation is vital for this event, in which we desire to be a testimony - to our friends, neighbors, co-workers, and community - of God's goodness in our lives and in the life of our church, and also we desire to build long-lasting relationships with those who come and join us on this relaxing evening of food and thanksgiving.

If you're like me, you may have some hesitation or anxiety when it comes to meeting new people and seeing new faces at church for the first time. Questions may run through your mind... Do I have to talk to this person, or should I just let whoever brought him/her talk to this person tonight? How do I keep a conversation going without sounding fake? What in the world am I supposed to talk about? These are questions that face us - not only during Thanksgiving Banquet, but even on Sunday mornings when a newcomer walks through our doors.

Perhaps the first question we ought to be asking ourselves when meeting someone new is this: What would it look like for me to show the genuine love of Christ to this person as an overflow of the love that Christ has shown to me? So then, rather than being concerned with What do I talk about? or How do I make conversation without sounding artificial?, we are concerned not with how we look, but how we love. Instead of trying to sustain an awkward conversation, we can show genuine interest in people, learn about them, let them tell their story, and hear about their needs.

Every person at AABC who brings a friend to church for the first time is hoping deep inside that others at AABC will come alongside and build relationships with this friend too. Don't leave your brothers and sisters to reach out on their own. Partner with them, support them, and show love with them.

As you endeavor to show love to people you're meeting for the first time, you might find it easier to do so through finding and building bridges - common interests and common ideas. If you find that you and this new friend love Korean food, set up a time for your family and theirs to go out to Korean food together! If you and this new friend love flag football, invite them to join you on Sunday afternoon for football! If you and this new friend both have concerns about your children adjusting to a new school or a new class, get together for coffee to chat!

Show love - love goes beyond the sharing of polite conversation to the sharing of lives. Build bridges - find common interests or ideas upon which you can build relationships.

If you're bringing a friend to church, lean on your community to support you. And if you're part of the community, support your friend-bringing brothers and sisters by showing love with them.

Creation, Cremation, and the Body

A few weeks ago, my wife and I attended the memorial service for my wife's maternal grandmother. It was the first memorial service I'd attended in more than 5 years. But along with this, we also witnessed, along with the family, the cremation of her body. This was new to me, and while the death of loved ones always provokes in us thoughts and questions about the fragility of life, this particular occasion sparked in me a new question: Is cremation biblical?

Perhaps one or two Sundays afterwards, the pastoral team at AABC received a question through the tear-off portion of the bulletin asking about 1) whether cremation is biblical and 2) whether being cremated would prevent a person from going to heaven. These are good questions to tackle.

First, however, we should recognize that these are two separate questions. The second one is slightly easier, so we'll tackle that one first. We should be clear that even if cremation was not biblical, that would not preclude a genuine believer from eternal life. When a person places their faith in Jesus Christ as the only sufficient substitute for the punishment that they deserved for their sins, the blood of Jesus Christ covers all of their sins. For this same reason, even though many view suicide as a sinful act, even suicide would not keep a genuine believer from eternal life in heaven. Cremation, if it were sinful, ought to be viewed the same way.

The bigger question before us, however, is whether or not cremation is biblical. We really only have two places in Scripture which refer to the burning of bodies. The first is in 1 Samuel 31:12, where the bodies of King Saul and his sons are burned and their bones buried. This narrative account is simply a description of what happened, saying little to nothing about whether the burning of bodies is right or wrong. The second passage is in Amos 6:10, referring to a time when God will judge Israel, and a man will need to burn the bodies of all the relatives in his house. Likely in this passage, the bodies need to be burned because the judgment upon Israel was in the form of a plague, and burning the bodies would be better for health and cleanliness.

While through the centuries, it seems that burial was the customary method of dealing with dead bodies, there does not seem to be anywhere in the Bible that says that cremation is wrong per se, so long as the body, which God has created, is respected (just as ought to be the case with burial).

More than likely, the issue of cremation arises when we, as believers, consider the promised resurrection of the body that is to come one day. As we see in Romans 8:23 and in 1 Corinthians 15, we look forward to a day when the bodies of those who identify with Jesus Christ will be raised again as He was, and believers will have imperishable bodies to reflect God's glory as He originally intended when He created us.

But some will ask, how will God resurrect my dead body if I've been cremated? Certainly, the cremated remains of a dead body may simply fill a small urn with ash, but let us not forget that even buried bodies undergo tremendous decay. But the ability to be resurrected does not depend on whether your bones are intact or you are in a box or in an urn. No, it depends on the power of God. If our great God, as the almighty Creator of the universe, can create all the universe from nothing and form Adam and Eve from the dust, then I have no doubt that He will be able to piece together (or perhaps re-create entirely) my dead remains - whether buried, cremated, or something else.

So then, while cremation is not unbiblical, but again no single sin can prevent a genuine believer in Jesus Christ from obtaining eternal life, the bottom line for us as believers is that God has promised His children a resurrection - a day is coming when Christ will reign, and there will be no more disease, no more decay, and no more death. And what's more, there will be no more sin, and even better, no more desire to sin... for the affections of our renewed hearts and minds and bodies will finally be given over wholly to the one we have always wanted them to be for... our Lord Jesus Christ.

Praying Hard

What does it mean when we say that we should pray hard for something? That was a question posed to me earlier this week. Perhaps we throw the term around often... don't forget to pray hard for the people you want to invite to Thanksgiving Banquet... pray hard for your country as we enter election time... pray hard for me tomorrow since I have an exam...

I don't believe praying hard means closing your eyes really tight for real when you pray (on the recent C6 East Asia trip, there were countless times when we prayed hard for a community while walking through it with our eyes open). I don't believe praying hard necessarily means speaking your prayer words with more intensity or passion. So, what does it mean to pray hard?

Pray with consistency and intentionality. For me, to pray hard means to pray consistently concerning a matter and to set out time intentionally to pray. Intentionality in prayer means much more than a half-awake oh-I-almost-forgot-to-pray-about-______ moment before bed and then a quick prayer regarding it.

But it's also not necessarily the case that praying hard will mean that prayer has a better chance of being answered. Ultimately, prayer is an expression of faith and dependence on the Lord as well as a submission to Him that He would do that which most delights Himself. I hope that I'm praying hard for those things which God would be pleased to grant. But if I'm praying hard for those things which God would not be pleased to grant, then I hope that the Spirit of God is moving in me to recognize this, that my heart might be transformed so that I might begin praying hard for the right things.

Preparation for Corporate Worship

Well, the weekend is coming, and our time of corporate worship together is just about 48 hours away. Perhaps you're wondering why anyone would bother to count down the hours before just another Sunday morning at church? That's because coming to church on a Sunday morning must mean more than rolling out of bed, trudging to the car in the cold, and stumbling into the chair at church half-awake. We both know that. Often times, a good morning at church, in which you're focused on all that's taking place, your time of worship through song is sweet and refreshing, and your fellowship with one another is deep and meaningful... all this takes preparation. And that preparation likely begins on Saturday, if not even on Friday.

What preparation? Well, for starters, be wise about your Saturday evening so that you'll be refreshed and ready to go on Sunday morning. Is there any doubt that showing up on time and focused on Sunday morning will be harder to do if you've been playing video games or surfing the web until about 4:30 in the morning? Your Saturday evening will affect your Sunday morning, so if you want to come early on Sunday morning, you'll have to think about your Saturday evening.

Also, make sure (even today) that you have already begun praying for the weekend ahead - for all of the ministries, for the hearts and lives of the people at AABC, for the pastoral staff. Everything that goes on on a Sunday morning needs the strong prayer support of our church upholding it. Are you praying for your church, praying for your worship leaders, your Sunday School teachers, your pastors, and your brothers and sisters?

Relationally with one another, we can also prepare. There may be broken relationships that need to be mended. In fact, bitterness or tension between individuals may be the one big thing that gnaws at the back of their minds and hinders their Sunday morning experience. These need to be dealt with. Go, be reconciled to your brother or sister.

If you're looking for a way to spur one another on in preparation for a Sunday morning, schedule an early morning breakfast with a friend before (not during!) church. Give each other a wake-up call in the morning, meet up at La Madeleine or Breadwinners at 7am, share with one another, pray for each other and pray for the church together, and then head over to church together. You'll find yourself arriving at church already prepared and already refreshed for corporate worship.

So, are you making your preparations? You've got 48 hours. Looking forward to seeing you soon.