Church Archives - call me pasturescott

all about the pronouns

Anywhere you find an anemic church, the problem can easily be traced. The issue is certainly not with Jesus, or his Word, or our mission statements. When Jesus said “I will build My church…and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it“ he meant exactly what he said. Peter said some pretty cool stuff in that exchange, but the church isn’t built on him. The church is built on My.

We gotta get the pronouns right. Weak churches have switched the pronouns from “His” church to “our” church. They love their ‘us-four-and-no-more’ little kingdoms or their mega-fancy Sunday events.

Wherever the church operates as His, flying under his banner, you can rest assured mountains are being moved, exiles are finding a home, bondages are being broken, devils are sent into pigs, the poor are being prioritized, the last are first, the first are last, nets are dropping, the gospel is thriving, and Christ is all and in all.

To be “His” Church requires ongoing repentance, faith, and being led by the Spirit. To say that “Jesus is Lord” is to say in the same breath “I am not.” It requires absolute reliance upon and unashamed allegiance to Christ. In essence, “not about me” becomes “all about You, Jesus.” Pronouns.

A powerless church has a nasty flesh-eating disease. Cancer, too-long undetected, has metastasized throughout the system and the body slowly dies.

The late Francis Schaeffer explains:

The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat.

The real problem is this:

the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit.
The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.¹

Good News

The gospel won’t allow us just to leave that hanging there, as if there were no hope, no remedy. ‘Twould be easy to harp all day about all the wrongs in the church, but we cannot ignore the fascinating picture of the end-time Church.

Paul said she’s still His church and he takes responsibility to bathe her and iron her garments and heal her disease-ravaged body. Our bridegroom Lord is not finished with his bride. Right now she’s “prone to wander,” but his love in the end makes her stay.

There is coming a day when we will see her high up in the bridal chamber “making herself ready” for eternal matrimony with the Lover of her soul. Her destiny is enfolded into Him.

O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above!²

Gospel grammar is important. This is our hope: He is Lord and we are made for him. Selah, beloved

¹Francis A. Schaeffer, No Little People (Wheaton, 2003), 66.

²Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Robert Robinson, 1758

GUEST POST: Tim Sheetz Pictures a Better Church

Over the course of my many God-blessed years I’ve had the joy of meeting some of the best people on earth. It’s been my pleasure to rub shoulders and elbows with those quality servants of God who exude humility and righteous compassion. Tim ranks high – oh so very high – on my list.

For many years, Tim and the beloved staff of Handi*Camp (part of the H*VMI family) allowed me the privilege of speaking at one of their several camps for persons with disabilities. These are my tribe, and I’m more at home with them than most audiences with whom I share. Tim is an anointed teacher and leader, and I’ve been most drawn to the kind humility of Christ he embodies. I love his heart and you’ll see it way out there on his sleeve in this article which first appeared in H*V’s monthly publication.

Picture This…
By Tim Sheetz, Executive Director, Handi*Vangelism Ministries International (H*VMI)

The old adage is so true, “A picture is worth 1000 words!”

Pictures have a way of making things very real. They help us to be “there” for the moment. Although I don’t “do Facebook!” I understand that this is one of the reasons it’s so popular today…

Throughout His ministry, Jesus used word pictures to stimulate His listeners to action or to challenge traditional thinking. I know you can easily run a video in your mind of The Prodigal Son and of the Good Samaritan. I know you can picture the dear woman scouring her house for the lost coin. These video pictures were valuable teaching tools then and now.

There is something I would love for you to picture. When we finish painting this word picture, it just may challenge your concept of “church.” Start by bringing up in your mind a picture of the front door of your church.

As you enter the door, picture the three greeters just inside: a young boy who has cerebral palsy and a mild intellectual disability is sitting in his wheelchair with his parents beside him. In addition to the verbal greeting you receive from his parents, there’s a warm, welcoming smile from their young son.

As you scan the sanctuary to find a seat, you can see that there are cutout sections in some of the rows of pews. These are occupied by others in wheelchairs. They are comfortable there, knowing that preparations were made to make them feel welcome and an important part of all who have come to worship this morning.

You recognize a woman who is visually impaired, sitting on one side of the sanctuary. It’s her customary seat in your church. Lying beside her is her guide dog. In her lap is this Sunday’s church bulletin and several sheets of paper on which are the hymns to be sung this morning. These were prepared in advance for her—all in large print.

In front of the sanctuary, a Sign Language interpreter is in place in front of several Deaf people. They’re all “talking” together as they wait for the service to begin.

In the way back of the sanctuary is a couple who has recently lost a child. Tears are already flowing, even before the prelude music begins. They anticipate that the hymns they will hear will be even more rich with meaning because of their profound grief. They are comfortable being there. They realize that their tears are welcome and that others, as they come by to hug them, will shed tears, as well, for the loss of their child. This congregation has been thoughtfully advised by the caring pastor about the grief journey this couple is on and how important it is to not stand back and isolate them, making their heartbreak even more intense. And, by the way, the pastor has also previously reminded your congregation that all around you in church are people who are struggling with other hurts—abuse, mental health issues. They may not be as easily recognizable; but, they are people who should also feel welcome to worship.

You’re just about to take your seat, when there’s a sudden burst of sound and movement a few pews down from the back of your church. It’s startling at first, but then, you and other worshippers smile, remembering it’s the young man with autism. He’s there with his family; there to worship God in his own way. Because the congregation accepts him, he and his parents can be there. His noisy distractions will come and go through the service, but you know that you and everyone there will soon tune those out as you focus on the One you have all come to worship.

Jesus is the One drawing this picture in your mind! And, as this Masterful Artist draws, tears of joy and excitement are in His eyes. THIS is the way He intends for His church to be. In the Gospels, He paid close attention to people who were hurting and disabled.

ALL were welcome in His presence. ALL were valuable to Him. While He was walking on this earth, He instilled hearts that would care in His disciples.

That’s what He wants in His church today—and in your heart and mine.

Get the picture???

I’m wondering…does your place of worship look anything like this? Feel free to share your own real-life pictures below.

Red Sky At Night

Blood Moon over Jerusalem; Photo Courtesy CNN

It appears the world survived last night’s Super Blood Moon event. And Isaac Newton’s ‘100% certain’ prophecy of an asteroid hitting the earth on the 25th. And (so far) Shemitah.

Does this mean there’s no apocalypse to come?

Sorry. If you’re hoping I’ll say no, I couldn’t possibly. There’s yet a Piper (not John, heavens) to pay for the kosmos and the earth-dwellers who insist on their treason against the Almighty.

Just not last night.

Collective whew, amiright?

Even we believers ought to be grateful to the long-suffering mercies of God to extend the deadline to fallen humanity. Don’t even get me started on the pre-trib rapturists (of whom I was part for several decades) who woke up grieving they’re somehow left behind (again). Another time perhaps.

Before the set kill-date of the 25th went into full bloom and certainly before last night’s lunar event, I wondered before the Lord if we (speaking of the church) might be painting a worse-case shemitah scenario prematurely.

I said aloud,

What if this this seven-year cycle we just completed doesn’t look like burning buildings, falling asteroids, crashing markets, Russia amassing at the borders of Israel, and the world generally on fire?

And then I thought the unthinkable, startling even myself:

What if the present apocalyptic event looks more like a man in a robe standing before the world leaders, begging them to repent of the atrocities of the countries they represent?

*no Revelation 6:2 or 17:9 comments, please*

Out-of-the-blue it came, a thought filling my inner airspace like a mushroom cloud: could it be that God is setting the current stage, not with bombs bursting in air and nuclear winter, but more quietly, less helter-skelter, with a (coughcough) Pope issuing a sobering warning to the planet?

Easy. Hear me out.

What if, just what if, God has used at the close of this current shemitah a controversial vessel through whom to say “My wrath is coming, and this is your final warning”?

What if – again, only what if – God is giving us another cycle of seven years in which to get our global house in order?

Please. I’m not even setting dates.

Just … what if???

What if you knew (none of us do, so let me rephrase that) –

What if you actually had seven more years, but only seven more years, after which the things many were freaking out about during this multiple-sign month, will actually happen? Burning buildings, plagues, mountains splitting, massive earthquakes, global martyrdoms, har-meggido, the Great Deceiver, demons unleashed, great apostasy, stars falling…etc, etc…

Believe me, these things are on God’s unamendable calendar, which Revelation 18 unfolds in gruesome detail. And we may not have seven years. But still, we have (in a manner of speaking) some time.

So what will you do with the time left? As for me, I’d like to be engaged in a holy, meaningful, and supremely purposeful enterprise.

On the asteroid-less night of the 25th, our home was jammed from stem to stern with worshipping millennials. The shekinah cloud descended, but not the smoke of torment. There was favor and shalom in our home.

I looked around the three rooms teeming with these beautiful folk and thought if I had opportunity to share my thinking in this post with them, I’d just bet some of them would begin to worry less about getting asked out for a date, should they change their major or not, getting a callback from that store’s hiring manager, what color should they consider for their bedroom, and the like. They might go back to these thoughts as soon as the late-night air hit them on the way home, but just for then, in that sacred space of time, they’d be moved to consider.

A few might even think about surrendering to a Christly cause bigger than themselves, less pay, less notoriety and go after God with all their heart, mind, and soul. In the time they have left.

In South Africa. In Honduras. In the Inner City. In Dangerous Places. Needy Regions. Anywhere but “Here”. Anywhere but Comfort City. Or Marking Time Avenue.

Mariners have a saying, “red sky at night, sailor’s delight.” For now the coast is clear for us, but time is cycling down like sands in an hourglass. The next port might be the end of the world.

What might you surrender to in this sailing weather?

Before it all goes to hell.