CS Lewis or Taylor Swift | Do Christians have to side with Israel? | 5 mind-shifts about Re-Inventing Church | How to design LOVE in
Episode Summary
In this episode Danielle tests Derek to see if he can tell the difference between Taylor Swift song lyrics and quotes from his favorite author, CS Lewis. They also tackle the hot topic of how to respond to people in the church who believe that the church should be more focused on the events happening in Israel that they currently are. Are Christians obligated by their faith to support Israel no matter what the cost? Then Derek reflects on 5 Mind-Shifting insights about Reinventing church that he’s learned over the past year of strategizing about a whole-church overhaul. Finally, they talk about a recent church baptism experience and consider what it might look like for churches to design love into all they do.
SHOW NOTES
FROM THE PASTOR’S INBOX
Do Christians have to side with Israel? “I am not sure how to put my heart into words without being disrespectful… the apple of God’s eye, Israel came under a very horrific attack recently. Why hasn’t our church leadership called us to immediately intercede. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for our church. We should be supporting Israel unequivocally”
There’s a lot going on:
With the US and Israel.
- Many see the US as the “new Israel.” And Americans as God’s “new chosen people.”
- The Puritans referred to US as the “promised land.”
- John Cotton preached on 2 Sam 7:10 claiming it as a verse of God’s promise of America, “I will appoint a place for my people, I will plant them in a place of their own”
- The Founding fathers when they were creating the seal for the United States proposed an image of Moses extending his hand over the ocean.
- So, it’s built into our national identity, a kinship with Israel.
With the Church and Israel.
- Many of the opinions about the special place of Israel are based on a theological construct called Dispensationalism.
- It’s a fairly recent school of thought, originating with John Darby in the mid 1800’s – early 1900’s, the Scofield bible, etc.
- It promotes a clear and literal distinction between God’s methods through different eras, it sees the church & Israel as separate entities.
- It has a distinct end times theology
- And a distinct definition of the ethnic and national significance of Israel. Instead of seeing the flow of God’s people through history, it breaks it up into very clear epochs. And believes in the end, the literal nation of Israel will be re-grafted in as God’s people.
- That is a lot of theological assumption. I’m more from the school that the new Israel is not a nationalistic movement but a messianic revival among the Jewish people.
- Our job isn’t to pray for the success of the nation but to pray for them to come to Jesus
- There is one verse everyone points to – pray for the peace of Jerusalem – Ps 122
- Not even GOD supports Israel when they are disobedient and far from Him, it doesn’t make sense that he would require Christians to support everything they do unequivocally.
- Yes we should pray for Israel and pray for peace just like we should for any other country, yes there is no denying that they have had a special place in the heart of God, but no, I don’t think this means that we must support everything the nation of Israel does unequivocally.
REINVENTING CHURCH TOPIC
Five Mind-shifting Insights about Reinventing Church
- The modern church is over-inspired and under-trained.
- Moving people from “wow” look what they did to to “aha” I could do that.
- Thinking of the church as a training center. What does it look like starting with Sundays?
- Every church should define discipleship locally
- Starting with understanding the local predicament and then asking what kind of disciple would it take to make a difference in this local environment.
- Dream disciple – clearly define the key characteristics of discipleship that your congregation is aspiring to.
- Churches generally misuse their core values
- We often either ignore the values or use them to measure the wrong things. Instead, core values are like the rudder on a ship keeping us from going to the right or to the left.
- New scorecard – churches need a new way to measure effective spiritual growth other than the core values.
- People are desperate to find their purpose in life
- This is one of the universal cries in everyone’s heart, Christian or non-Christian. What is my purpose in life? Why am I here?
- We are changing the Finish line and moving discipleship outside the walls of the church. Helping people to find their purpose in the world outside our walls is one of our new obsessions.
- Helping people to find their calling is the cornerstone of our new vision.
- People’s experience of church is tied to a strict but unwritten social contract.
- People have a clear expectation of what the church provides for them and what they provide for the church. We are upending this unwritten code. It needs to instruct how we do change.
- We had a mini-uproar last Easter. We have traditionally done an Easter egg hunt at the church and this year provided eggs for people to do an egg hunt in their own neighborhood. This broke the social contract.
WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK?
How to Design Love In
We should ask this question in all our ministries. At our recent beach baptism this showed up by having hosts walk people out to the baptizing pastor. During the walk they listened to their story, calmed their nerves, encouraged them, rejoiced with them. What seemed like an inefficient and unnecessary detail, turned out to be a way that we designed love into an experience that could have felt impersonal.
LINKS & RESOURCES
Full Transcript
Inspiration for Taylor Swift / CS Lewis Game — Chapel Street Church
Clarity House Consulting
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