1st
Timothy 1:3-7
“3 As I urged you
upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct
certain men not to teach strange doctrines, 4 nor to pay
attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation
rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. 5 But
the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and
a sincere faith. 6 For
some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless
discussion, 7 wanting to be teachers of the Law, even
though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about
which they make confident assertions.”
Introduction
Have you ever come to the point
that you’re really tired of hearing terms that are used so frequently that it
makes your ears hurt? Back in the 1970s
it was the phrase “sit on it” which became popular because of the television
show Happy Days. In the 1980s words like “rad” and “narly”
were used to a disgusting point. There
were so many tiring terms used in the 1990s I don’t even think I can begin to
bring any of them up. As we crossed into
the 21st century things were not any different, especially in the
theological and church world.
Faulty Leadership-“Casting A Vision”
In the 1980s, while attending the
Criswell College in Dallas, Texas, I came into contact with a term. It wasn’t used by the professors or any of
the guest speakers, from what I recall, but at some point it was brought to my
attention. It was “casting a
vision.” At first it sounded Biblical
but as time went on I became more leery of it, and I think for good
reason. I was told that it was the job
of the pastor to “cast the vision” for the local church to follow. It was up to him to give clear guidance as to
the direction for that church regarding that year.
Often Proverbs 29:18 was quoted
from the King James Version, “Where there is no vision, the people
perish…” There are two problems with
using this verse in this manner. First,
they never continue quoting the verse, “…but he that keepeth the law, happy is
he.” That means the verse is not fully
being explained in context. Second, the
NASB renders it, “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law.” This brings a little deeper meaning to the
idea that is being related. The NIV
probably comes even closer to the perception, “Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint; but blessed is the
one who heeds wisdom's instruction.” But
I believe it is the NLT that gets the prize for exacting the meaning from the
verse, “When people do not accept divine
guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful.” In other words the truest sense of the verse
is not given when used as part of the “casting the vision” image. This verse which is often used as an excuse
for this idea does not even come close to what is being noted.
Here is the reason I believe this
concept is doctrinally unsound and clearly unbiblical: Because it exacts the concept of authority
over the local church to a fallen individual rather than adhering to the
leadership of the Lord Jesus as Head of the church, a proper instructing from the
Holy Scriptures, and following the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is my belief, and I believe the Bible will
bear this out, that the direction of a local church can and often does come
from several different avenues. The term
“casting a vision” is a business model and is another excuse of one person or
group of people attempting to overpower another group of people. The power of Congregationalism runs contrary
to this because in it the people, being empowered by the revelation of God (His
word, the Bible) and the Holy Spirit can determine together what the will of
God is for that local body.
Faulty Terms-Missional, Christ Followers
That brings me to another term
that I find both doctrinally unsound and unbiblical, Missional. I am so tired of hearing about “being a
Missional church” or “being a people with a Missional calling.” I spoke with one of the men several years ago
who helped craft the definition of this word.
When he was speaking to the group I was in, he stated that the word was
being thrown around in the Emergent circles and didn’t seem to have any real
meaning (which is typical of anything Post-modern). They came up with the definition so it could
be used in some form of context and its main purpose was to be used to replace
the name Christian. Why? What was the reason? Because, it had become politicized and there
were groups (such as Coptic Christians) who had the name but as a community
would take up arms to fight alongside Israel.
My response was, “WHAT?????!!!”
Another term that is being way
over used, which is closer to a Biblical view, is “Christ followers.” This is often used for many of the same
reasons as Missional but is also used to keep people from identifying them with
any one denominational group or another.
Here the idea is that if we use this term rather than Christian, people
will identify us as people who are following the Person Jesus rather than a
group, idea, or philosophy.
In both the Missional folks and
“Christ followers” crowd think that since the name Christian is being used in a
disparaging way then we should jettison the name altogether. There are several problems with this. First, it ignores Scripture. In Acts 11:26 it states that “…the disciples
were first called Christians in Antioch.”
When this occurred it was not a positive thing, this word was used unfavorably. The word “Christian” in the Greek means
“little Christ.” In other words the
disciples in Antioch walked so close to the Lord that they could be identified
with being His offspring. After several
years we have king Agippa talking to the apostle Paul stating, “… ‘In a short
time you will persuade me to become a Christian.’” By this time the movement that was originally
called “the Way” in Acts 9:2 has now become identified as “Christians.” As evidence of this in 1st Peter
4:16 the apostle Peter exhorted his readers by saying, “but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not
to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.” Peter uses this name as distinguishing those
who follow Christ in suffering verses those who are persecuting them. This tells us that no matter how society
views our name, we should bare it with distinction not run from it.
The second issue I have with these
groups is that it ignores history. We
have mountains of scholarly writings from centuries past that refer to us as
Christians. Luther, Calvin, Arminius,
Wesley, Whitfield, Edwards, Tozer, Lewis, Criswell, Spurgeon, Moody, and many,
many others. This is unquestionable a
very, very short list. If we continue
down this fast trek to ignore the name Christian we will eventually loose
contact with those men and women from the past who wrote calling us Christians.
The third issue I have with these
groups is that they are following cultural dictates of heretics like Brian
McLaren, Rob Bell and Doug Pagitt. All
three of these men are leaders of what use to be known as the Emergent Church
Movement (and its different variations).
All three espouse using the word Missional, considering the fact that
the Emergent Church Movement coined the term.
All three men deny the Trinity of God.
All three men deny the reality of eternal punishment in Hell. All three deny the atonement through Christ
alone. All three deny the authority of
the Bible. All three believe that there is
an evolutionary occurrence emerging out of the churches. If they oppose us on so many levels then why
do we use terms, words, and ideas that they espouse? Because it’s popular? Pretty poor excuse!
What Should We Do?
There are several things we need
to do in regards to both of these issues and to correct course to a more
Biblically based and Spirit lead way of living:
First, as pastors we need to seek
God’s face on our faces. We need to pray
that the Holy Spirit will lead our churches by guiding our people to live more
Biblically. We need to pray that our
people will seek the face of God for their families and His control over their
lives. We need to pray that any visions
that are “casts” only come from the work of the Holy Spirit coming from the
people of God as they adhere to the word of Truth. The beauty of this all is that it encourages
congregational participation. And fits
more into the mode of what Paul exhorts in his discussion of spiritual gifts in
1st Corinthians 12:14-31. In
that passage he points out that we are to live as a body placing importance on
our Lord and doing what He created us to do.
Second, let’s embrace who we
are…Christians! There should be nothing
embarrassing about being someone who is called by this name. Sure there will be those who bring
embarrassment to the name and to the Cause, but they have always been here
(Acts 5). No matter what we call
ourselves someone will always use it for the sake of politics or to make money
or to even cause wars. Regardless, it is
something we should take seriously and individually, as well as community wise,
in order to live up too.
Finally, pastors need to stick
with reading and preaching the Bible. I
advocate doctrinal and verse by verse expository preaching. Bring the Bible alive by explaining what it
means and how that affects our people’s lives.
I believe this also allows us to become more sensitive to the work of
the Spirit because He never works contrary to His word. If we fear unrestraint activity from the
congregations regarding ministry then solid preaching of Scripture (both
doctrinal and expositional) as well as sound shepherding will help curve any
unbiblical activities. We should not be
scared of modernization but need to be cautious just the same of things that
appear to be inappropriate. If our
congregation seem unwilling to move forward that means discipleship is needed
not just planning activities.
Let me know what you think,
Steven Swaim
President and Founder, Be Devoted Ministries
Pastor, Lawrence Springs Baptist Church-Grand
Saline, TX
