Discipline in the Church

In this “anything goes-world,” where should the Christian church stand on the issue of discipline? Since Christ died for all, and we are saved by grace and not by our works, should a local church be silent when her members persist to live in a way that disrupts the effective operation of a local church or that casts an unfavorable light on Christianity?

In the days of the apostles, it was a big deal when Christians failed to walk in a way that was becoming of a Christian. And even though we can’t be saved by doing all the right things, I believe that local churches today should be proactive in exhorting her members to be good examples, and that there are practical reasons why it is not in a local church’s best interest to allow rampant disorderly conduct.

Paul the apostle wrote to the church at Thessalonica regarding the members of that local church who refused to work. Hearing of this problem in that church, he reminded them that “if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10b). Furthermore, Paul wrote in his epistle to command those disorderly church members to get a job so they could eat their own bread.

And here is what Paul instructed the church body at large to do if those members did not get in line: “If any obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed” (verse 14)! Boy, that’s strong language. But you know, I truly believe that all Scripture is verbally inspired by God. Hence, I believe that this guidance written by Paul the apostle is consistent with the will of God.

Similarly, in the fifth chapter of Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth, he instructs the church to discipline a disorderly member of that church as well.

But even though there is biblical authority for appropriate church discipline, in many ways, discipline in the church has gone by the wayside. Not only is this an anything goes-world, but also just about anything goes in some Christian churches today.

Details as to why I say this are beyond the scope of what I can address in this post, but I base my statement on what I have observed in the many local churches I visit and minister to and on national church news that continues to reveal how far the Christian church has strayed from her biblical roots. The good news is that God is still working on His Church.

Copyright © 2012 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

The Southern Baptists’ Plan to Change St. Louis

(Article first published as The Southern Baptists' Plan to Change St. Louis  on Technorati)

To the Southern Baptists, St. Louis is one of North America’s great unreached urban centers. According to the Association of Religion Data Archives, only 14.8 percent of metro St. Louis’ 2.8 million people are affiliated with an evangelical church. Nearly half of the population is not affiliated with any religious group.

The local Southern Baptists have a plan to change that.

Through their Send North America: St. Louis initiative, local Southern Baptist churches have already begun efforts to start more than 75 new churches in the city during the next five years. Their church planting efforts are not without a cause. They believe that as a result of these new churches crime in the city will go down, dropout rates will decrease, and teen pregnancies will go down. “These things are heart issues,” says Kenny Petty, a Southern Baptist church planter in St. Louis, the Baptist Press quoted him as saying. “And there’s only one thing that can deal with the heart of man and that’s the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

I believe the Southern Baptists have the right idea. Christians need to believe in the power of the gospel to change the hearts of men. In doing so, we will change the hearts of our cities for the better: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” the Bible says (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV).

As the Republican presidential candidates campaign for their party’s nomination, what amazes me is the amount of money these guys can raise. In American politics, they talk about tens of millions of dollars as if it’s nothing. I am a firm believer that we definitely need godly men and women in government. And the kinds of monies these candidates raise say that by and large Americans have not given up on the political process to solve many of our nation’s ills.

But there is a role that we as Christians must play to heal our nation. We must invest in the souls and the hearts of men. We do this by financially supporting and getting involved in evangelism. For God is the only one who can radically change the heart and soul.

The Southern Baptists’ mission to plant 75 churches in one metropolitan city requires substantial investment of time and monies. The truth is that through Send North America, the North American Mission Board’s national strategy aimed at church planting, the goal is to plant churches in 29 major cities and other areas throughout the continent, according to the Baptist Press.

Copyright © 2012 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Called to Be Faithful

As Christians, we are God’s stewards. He has committed certain gifts and resources to each of us. In the end, we must give account of our stewardship, and we will be rewarded accordingly. It behooves us then to be faithful to God.

Having been a senior pastor of local churches in the past, I know how important it is to have church workers who are faithful to God. A church body absolutely cannot function effectively without faithful church workers. Moreover, my conviction is that the Lord’s work is the most important work in the world. It is the only work that we can do that has eternal consequences.

It is good for us to be faithful on our job, in our family life, or in school, but we should be even more faithful to God.

Nevertheless, I believe most if not all of you will agree that not everyone who claims to be a Christian is committed to faithfulness in serving the Lord. Sometimes, I hear church members say something like, “If I had a more important position in the church, or if I had a more visible role, I would be more faithful.”

Even pastors sometimes embrace this errant thinking. For example, I know of instances in which a pastor has put a man in the church in a position of authority, such as on the board of deacons, in hopes that it will motivate the person to be more faithful to God. But hear what Jesus said: “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much” (Luke 16:10).

Wow! This is a powerful truth. It tells us that faithfulness has nothing to do with what we have to work with. Faithfulness is not a product of our resources but of our character. If a person is faithful, he will exhibit faithfulness even if all he has to do is some insignificant role that gets him no recognition. On the other hand, if one is unfaithful, simply making him the king will not change him. He will simply be an unfaithful man with a crown on his head.

If you want to know if a person will be faithful in a prominent position, observe his stewardship in a far less significant role.

Now, I don’t want to get too preachy here, but let me ask you something. First, think about the gifts and resources God has blessed you with that you can use to serve Him and glorify Him. Then think on what Jesus said in the verse above, regarding faithfulness. Now for the question: By your own assessment, would you consider yourself to be faithful to God?

Copyright © 2012 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Survey Reveals Pastors' Beliefs on Creation and Evolution

I was reading the results of a recent LifeWay Research survey in which 1000 American Protestant pastors were asked whether they believe that man is the product of creation or of evolution. They were also questioned as to whether they believe Adam and Eve are literal people, and whether or not the earth is approximately 6000 years old. This approximation of the age of the current earth can be arrived at by using a series of genealogies and life spans as recorded in the Bible.

This report really got my attention since those questions speak to how much pastors believe what the Bible says. Of course, I can’t address all three of these issues in the space I normally devote to a blog post. If you want to, you can click on the link above and read the results of the entire survey. I will limit my discussion to the subject of creation and evolution.

In the survey, the pastors were asked to respond to this question: “I believe God used evolution to create people.” To this statement, 73 percent of pastors disagree, 64 of them strongly disagree and 8 percent of them somewhat disagree. Twelve percent somewhat agree that God used evolution, another 12 percent strongly agree, and four percent are unsure.

Did I mention that those who were surveyed are American Protestant pastors? That means they are men and women who preach and teach the Bible. What they believe about the Bible greatly influences what their followers believe. Furthermore, all reputable versions of the Bible give but one explanation as to how the human race came about or how our world came about.

“In the beginning God created the heaven, and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). That’s the very first verse of the Bible. And every other passage in the Bible that addresses how our world came about is consistent with that very first verse of the Bible. Moreover, "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them," the Bible declares" (verse 27).

Even though, according to the results of the survey, 73 percent of pastors either strongly agree or somewhat agree that God created people, I still see the message of the survey as unsettling. The findings speak to the authority—or the lack thereof—many pastors attribute to the Scriptures. And based on the survey, 27 percent, more than one out of every four American Protestant pastors, do not believe God created people or are unsure—even though the Bible repeatedly says He did!

According to the survey, about one in five pastors agree that most of their congregation believe in evolution. But—only about a third of pastors teach on creationism and evolution more than once a year. So there’s the catch 22: People need to hear about creationism in order to believe it, but pastors must believe it before they will preach it.

Copyright ©2012 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

What Is A Disciple?

Sometimes we refer to Christians as believers or disciples. Some Christians may even use the terms interchangeably. In this post, I want to address the question, what is a disciple? In doing so, it should become abundantly clear that these two terms—believer and disciple—are not the same.

In simplest terms, a disciple denotes one who follows a teacher. For instance, Jesus was, among other things, a great teacher. He had twelve men who followed Him wherever He went. This they did to the intent that they might learn of Him and that they might experience the kind of fellowship He enjoyed with the heavenly Father. Based on the aforementioned definition of a disciple, these twelve men were Jesus’ disciples, and they were thusly referred to throughout the records of the gospel.

Because this was the relationship these twelve men had with Christ, He was proactive in teaching them. In the book of Matthew, chapter 17, for instance, a man brought his son who was possessed with a demon and asked Jesus’ disciples to help his son. Because earlier Jesus had given His disciples power to cast out demons, He was displeased that they failed to deliver the man's son. “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?” Jesus said to His disciples (Matthew 17:17, KJV).

Note the words above, “how long shall I be with you.” The point is that Jesus knew He would not be with His disciples forever. He was on earth for just a season and afterward He would return to heaven to His Father. At times, He was not pleased with the progress of these twelve men whom He referred to as His disciples.

One day, Jesus was speaking to some Jews, and as He spoke some of those Jews believed on Him. “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31, KJV). So from this passage, we conclude that a disciple of Christ is a person who after becoming a believer, continues in the teachings of the Lord.

You might say that to become a believer is the means but to become a disciple is the end. It is good when a person repents of his sins and places His trust in what Christ did on the cross. All of heaven rejoices when that occurs. But God’s ultimate will is for each man and each woman to become a disciple of the teachings of His Son Jesus Christ. Hence, in the Great Commission, we are commanded, "Go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19, NIV).

Copyright © 2012 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

What Happens to People Who Go to Church

Every week, millions of Americans attend local Christian churches for numerous reasons. But how effective are Christian churches in impacting the lives of those who attend? Well, one of the best ways to know what happens to people who go to church is to ask them. That’s what the Barna Group did through a survey, and the results were released earlier this week.

In this post, I want to zero in on two findings of the survey. The first has to do with the extent to which churchgoers said their lives had been changed through church attendance. According to the study, only one-fourth of all Americans who had been to church before said their lives had been changed or greatly affected thereby. Nearly half of all churchgoers said their life had not been changed at all as a result of church attendance.

The second area has to do with the insights churchgoers gained through church attendance. According to the survey results, 61% of churchgoers said they could not recall a significant or important new insight or understanding gained as a result of their last visit to church. Even among those who had attended church in the past week, relative to the time of the survey, half admitted they could not recall a significant insight they had gained.

Reflecting on the results of the study, I believe it is vitally important that we more effectively proclaim the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So many people today are searching for answers to the tough questions in life, and I know the gospel provides those answers. Also, many people desire a new lease on life, and I am pursuaded that the gospel provides that as well. These should be among the benefits of church attendance.

I wrote a previous post entitled, How Healthy are America’s Churches? Based on a very extensive study that had been done, it was found that the spiritual health of America’s churches are on a downward trend. Perhaps the findings of the Barna Group’s recent study shed some light on the problem. Why go to church if over time you don’t sense your life is being positively impacted, or if you don’t feel as though you are gaining any new insights for living?

Copyright © 2012 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Your Faith and Your Goals in Life

What are your goals in life? This question is important because having goals in life is one of the things that give our life purpose. If you have no goals in life but to simply exist, then your life will have very little purpose. The main point I want to emphasize in this post is that your faith in God plays a vital role in your ability to reach your goals in life.

“Everything is possible for him who believes,” Jesus said (Mark 9:23, NIV). This is such an awesome verse. It underscores the power of our faith. It says, in effect, that impossible does not belong in the vocabulary of a Christian.

You know, sometimes, people think they can’t achieve a certain goal in life because of the family they were born in, or their educational background, or their financial status, or their race, etc. I am not ignoring the reality of these hurdles that some people have to cross in life. But these are not the kind of challenges that limit us from achieving our goals in life. As Christians, no matter what our goals in life are, Jesus says we are only limited by our faith.

Success in life will not happen automatically just because we are Christians. Yes, I know that every Christian has God on his or her side. But again I say success in life is not happenstance for Christians. For instance, I know some people who I believe are genuine Christians, but they live a passive life and embrace a defeatist attitude. They seem to be content accepting whatever hand life deals them. My point is that in order for us to be victorious in life, not only do we need God on our side, but also we must be willing to have faith in God and in what we can achieve through Him.

Since I posed the question at the beginning of this post, you may have been wondering what kind of goals in life I have in mind. Well, I am not only talking about your goals in life as they relate to ministry. You may also have personal goals in life such as educational and career aspirations or family goals. Believe me when I say that God is interested in every facet of your life. But it is your faith in Him that will define the limits of what you can achieve in life.

Copyright © 2012 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Pastor Paula White Appointed to Succeed Pastor Zachery Tims

(Article first published as Pastor Paula White Appointed to Succeed Pastor Zachery Tims on Technorati)

Last Thursday, leaders of the New Destiny Christian Center, a Florida megachurch founded by the late Zachery Tims, made it official that Paula White is the church’s new senior pastor. This announcement came on the heels of weeks of much speculation that she would be the new leader. But this decision on the part of church leaders is not without controversy.

Riva Tims, former wife of Zachery Tims, announced last Thursday that she had filed a lawsuit against the church. She and her husband started New Destiny over 15 years ago. The couple divorced in 2009, and Riva left to start her own church. Her ex-husband, the late Zachery Tims, was found dead in a New York hotel last August. According to the Christian post, Riva Tims referred to the selection process that handed Paula White the job as the new senior pastor as “negligent and illegal” as well as “deceptive.” Also, she refers to New Destiny as her children’s lawful inheritance.

OK, enough for the background. What shall I say about this matter? Oh, yeah, here we go: The church did not belong to Zachery Tims, it does not belong to Paula White, it does not belong to the board of directors, it does not belong to Riva Tims, and it does not belong to her children. The last time I checked, the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the head of the church (Colossians 1:18).

That brings me to a second point about the Paula White-appointment. Because Christ is the head of the church, church leaders should be God-fearing and must conduct the church’s business in a way that brings glory to His name. In this case, that is not what appears to have been done. This I say because Pastor Ira V. Hilliard, pastor of New Light Christian Center Church in Houston, Texas, resigned from the board of bishops who were charged with aiding New Destiny in the transitional process. In a December 15 video, he said: “My commitment to integrity will not allow me to support something that I believe is deception and that compromises previously agreed upon procedure and protocol.”

What a mess. From what I can see, the congregation at New Destiny Christian Church has not been well served by its board and other subordinate leaders. But the good news is that the church is not without help. Christ is still Lord, and He neither slumbers nor sleep.

Copyright © 2012 by Frank King. All rights reserved.