by Ryan Smith | May 24, 2017
“Everybody wants to go to heaven,” the old saying goes, “but nobody wants to die.”
If you were to judge heaven based on cultural statements or assumptions, heaven is a glorious personal playground in the sky – the culmination of our individualistic wants and desires all fulfilled into perpetuity.
- I can golf all I want!
- Money? Ha! I can simply think stuff into being!
- I can fly!
- No more politics!
- No more calories!
- No more rainy days (unless you’re into that kind of thing…introverts).
Heaven will be our own personal paradise.
There are just a few problems with the aforementioned statements. While each of these ideas is grounded in the sure and steady foundation of cultural assumption, there is one small hurdle to overcome…
None of these statements are validated by the Bible.
The Bible paints a beautiful, almost unimaginable, portrait of heaven, but it admittedly does so with broad strokes. There is a lot we do not know about heaven, but there is a lot we do know.
One thing we know about heaven is that it is not an individualistic utopia. In fact, by the Bible’s description of heaven, there are many people who would likely hate it.
How do you know if you would hate heaven?
If you love being the center of your own world and desires, you are going to hate heaven.
Heaven is where God is and where He brings His church to dwell for eternity. Ultimately, if we truly love God, we will love heaven. But one diagnostic we can use to discern whether or not we will love heaven is to ask ourselves how we feel about God’s church in the here and now.
If you don’t love the church, you are going to hate heaven.
Why? Because the church will be there…all of it. And when you get tired of the people there, your kids aren’t entertained, or you just cannot sing one more chorus of ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ (Rev. 4:8), there is nowhere else to go. There is no Second Church of Heaven.
Someone once said the church would be great if it wasn’t for the people. Everyone knows the church is full of hypocrites and they are all going to be there in heaven. Repentant? Yes. Forgiven? Yes. But really? Them?
The church is about Jesus. The community, the accountability, the structure, the authority, the forgiveness, the family – it is all from Jesus, by Jesus and for Jesus.
No one has been hurt by the church more than Jesus; yet He died for her.
He died for her that He would be glorified in welcoming her to an eternal dwelling. If you do not love the church or you do not love Jesus, you will not want to be in heaven.
Individualistic self-glory will not be a priority in heaven. It turns out the old saying holds more truth than it realizes. Following Christ requires death to self – now and in eternity. Our appetites, authority, autonomy, our will, all bowed down to the sovereignty of Christ. Sometimes this also means our preferences, social barriers, even the walls we build up so no one else can see into our hearts.
Everybody wants to go to heaven some day, but God has given us the opportunity to experience some of heaven on earth before we die. However, in true Jesus fashion, it is not the easy route, and it is not what you would expect.
Do you want to prepare for heaven? Start now by praying with other believers. Meet with other believers. Praise Jesus with other believers. Be identified with and accountable to a local church of believers.
Ultimately, we love the church because we love Jesus. Heaven is about Jesus. But in few ways are we more like Jesus than when we sacrificially love the church – now and in eternity.
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col. 3:12-16).
by Ryan Smith | May 9, 2017
The Millennial generation is marked as people born between 1982 and 2000. They’re the late teenagers and early 30-somethings of today. To some, the term, “Millennial” is a derogatory term denoting laziness, participation trophies, entitlement and obliviousness to the challenges of the real world.
Countless blogs and articles have been written about how Millennials are fleeing the church in droves, denying Christianity and will be the demise of the local church upon their impending slide into cultural homogeny.
Many cry out against the church for not attracting Millennials and point to statistics, showing the lack of their presence in a number of our churches as an indication of Christianity’s need to sound the alarm.
So will the Millennial generation be the one to watch the church die – safely hidden behind coffee shop windows?
Our church is in a university town. We are blessed to have a front row seat to this generation and how their unique upbringing and attributes shape their worldview. We have coffee together, worship together, serve together, and from them, we have learned a great deal about our future.
These aren’t the Millennials you’ll see on TV or plastered in headlines. For Christian Millennials, the revolution will not be televised, but it is still a revolution. Will the Millennial generation kill the church in America? Far from it. I would like to offer a few reasons why Millennials just may save it.
Millennials and Truth
We get lied to a lot. The rise of opportunistic media outlets has created a marketing tornado where everything from new politics to new shampoo can bring ultimate and fulfilling happiness.
When TV was new (Boomers), we were glued to the screen with open minds, drinking in everything they told us. It’s on TV, so it must be true.
When the internet was new (Gen-Xers), we were glued to the screen with open minds, drinking in everything it sold us. It’s on the internet, so it must be true.
We embraced everything new technology told us and sold us so much that it began to mold us.
The Millennial generation has grown up with countless channels and access to immediate global information as givens. They aren’t as quick to be told and sold because, in many ways, all the voices have become white noise. Rather than being molded around the Information Age, Millennials have molded the Information Age around them.
News no longer comes through a carefully marketed and over-slanted TV channel; it comes from a feed – a few select sources the individual trusts and wants to hear from. The Millennial generation hears a thousand voices, but listens to only a few.
And what are they listening for? Real. Substance. Perspective. They want the truth.
The same sources that cite an exodus of Millennials from the church are also beginning to record a new trend. It’s not just that Millennials are no longer checking the Christian box because they’re American or because it is the socially advantageous default answer. It is not popular for Millennials to be Christians. However, the rise of the “Nones” (those who mark “none” as religious affiliation) is a bit of a misnomer. It’s not necessarily that there are less Christian Millennials. It’s that Millennials are more honest about their faith. “Nones” is the new default.
For those who do identify as Christian, it is not because it’s the popular thing to do; it’s because they are following Christ and aren’t ashamed to let people know it. The Millennials I see aren’t Christians just because their parents were. Many Millennial Christians I talk with have undergone a “reconversion” of sorts. Meaning they grew up in the church under Americanized Christianity, but once running into the buzz-saw of the real world, they began to ask real questions of the Scriptures and find real answers. The Gospel is new and fresh to them in a way it wasn’t when they were younger. The Gospel many were served at a younger age was platitudes and moralism that burned out once moralism became relative and platitudes were found to be without weight.
Many of them left “the faith,” but they didn’t leave God. They actually felt like they never truly understood Him. As the church has focused on the Word and the Gospel, Millennials have returned to find not the shifting sand they once knew, but the solid rock of the Gospel that gives them security in the storm.
Millennials and Stability
There is a reason the tiny-house movement is a thing. There is a reason corporate coffee is giving way to local roasteries. Instant coffee at home in the morning is being replaced by in-home tedious brewing methods, and a trip to the backyard garden for vegetables is just as likely as a trip to the mass-market grocery store. Millennials value organic. They value local. They care much more about where and how something was “resourced” than what its packaging looks like.
Millennials are more interested in depth than width.
For Millennials, national stability is seen through the filter of 9/11, and job security is shadowed under the 2008 financial crisis. What has been modeled for this generation is not stick to it and advance, but no matter how much loyalty you give, nothing is for sure. Studies have shown that Millennials are much more risk-averse than previous generations. They care less about money and, in many cases, are much more frugal than their parents.
As a result, stability is seen not on the national or financial level but the local and communal. The dollar and advancing careers are not paramount, but the enjoyment of work and the workplace is. If nothing is certain in the job-field, you might as well enjoy what you’re doing and do what you love. Careers are not about stuff, but impact.
This is what makes Millennials unique in the local church. For decades, the paradigm has been “big church at all costs.” The flashiest, most entertaining, most attractive message was the one that filled the seats. It was pragmatic. It was watered down. It was a cheaply-built house.
Christian Millennials, in large part, are seeing through the flash-bang of the Americanized church and are being drawn by something else. Today’s college worship band is less likely to idolize Chris Tomlin, and more likely to seek after Martin Luther and Isaac Watts. Shared liturgy is replacing pragmatic entertainment, and Christian Millennials care much more about what is inside their Bibles than what the outside looks like.
Millennials are soaking up the Gospel even when it offends. They are not looking to be pampered; they are looking to be trained. They don’t want the newest faith fad; they want the deepest and most-tried truths. Everything is constantly in motion in the world of a Millennial. They see the Gospel as the one thing that is unchanging – even if it’s uncomfortable. Even if it’s less flashy. Even if it might cost them. At least it’s true. They know everything else crumbles.
Millennials and Community
The greatest thing the local church can offer Millennials is not a pizza bash and a concert. Millennials value the community of older believers in the local church.
Millennials are constantly connected to each other. They don’t need another opportunity to gather with other Millennials. They want the opportunity to be with older believers. If Christianity is real and the endurance of the faith is possible, they want to know the paths that are surest, the woods that are most dangerous and value the wisdom of a saint who has gone before.
As the world has shrunk, the desire for community has grown. The voices Millennials are selectively listening to aren’t the newest – they’re the most honest.
You want to host a relationship conference? Don’t highlight the latest trends on love and dating advice from a good-looking 25-year-old. Give the couple in their 60s or 70s who radiantly display the Gospel in their marriage the mic. Watch the Millennials soak it up.
The church is not at a disadvantage with Christian Millennials. Rather, the church can offer this generation something they get nowhere else – a diverse community of saints. The path of righteousness is narrow, and few find it. Millennials are seeking it and will stick to it once shown where it is.
Is this true about every Millennial? No. Like any generation, they are in large part the result of the world they inherited and the way they were raised (it wasn’t the kids who handed out the participation trophies).
No generation is perfect (Boomers – remember the sexual revolution? GenXers – remember JNCO jeans?). But as Gospel truth is handed down from generation to generation, we should have bright hopes for the Gospel in the hands of this one. Even more, we should have bright hopes for the church led by this generation.
Only God can build His church and the gates of hell will not stand against it. The church doesn’t need saving – Jesus took care of that. It just needs some reorientation. God, in His grace, is leading the church in this generation toward the true north of the Gospel.
Let us rally around our Millennial brothers and sisters, show them the way and thank our great God that His patience is longsuffering and His love endures throughout all generations.
by Ryan Smith | May 3, 2017
We live in a culture inundated with voices. Everyone has an idea, an opinion or a set of steps for us to follow.
But how often do we stop to consider the voices we are hearing?
In 1 Thess. 2:13, Paul says to this young persecuted church, “This is why we constantly thank God, because when you received the message about God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the message of God.”
The Gospel is the message of God.
So why is it so important they receive the message of God rather than the message of man? What’s the difference? Paul knows there is power in the message of God that is not in the message of man.
Stop and consider the messages you are hearing; the voice from the screen, from the page, from the friend, from the church. Are they messages of man or the message of God? Sadly, they can look eerily similar yet be tragically different.
The difference between the message of man and the message of God is simple: means and ends. The message of man holds man and self as the chief end. The message of God holds God as the chief end. Those seem pretty different. However, the message of man can wholeheartedly be infused with the means of God to make it sound like the message of God.
Here’s an example:
Did you know God loves you? In fact, He is head-over-heels for you! He has an amazing life planned for you. The Bible says He has plans to prosper and not to harm you – to give you hope and a future – everything you dream. It also breaks his heart that you are in this spot with your relationships, finances, low sense of self-worth or even doubt.
Did you know Jesus died on the cross to show you how much He loves you? He gave us His Word to give us places to turn when we need encouragement, support or answers.
Will you give God your storm today? Will you break off the chains of fear? Will you remember these verses when you start to doubt that you are anything less than perfect – just as God made you and sees you?
You deserve more than this, and God wants to give it to you.
Q: Message of man or message of God?
A: Message of man.
What’s difficult about the message of man is that so much of it is absolutely true! God does love you. He does want what’s best for you. But what is often done in offering the contemporary Christian Gospel (which is really no gospel at all) is that the right elements are offered:
YOU -> GLORY -> GOD.
But they are in the wrong order:
GOD -> GLORY -> YOU.
Same elements, same words; it even has the Bible in it. However, the chief end is not a glorious God – it’s a better you. You are the end. God is the means.
While they look similar, there are a few areas where these two messages tragically diverge.
THE BIBLE. The Bible is used merely to support a point.
The message of man views the Bible as a resource to consult, not an authority to stand under. Often verses or promises are applied in a way that supposedly benefits the listener, but the fact that these promises were given to different people at different times for different reasons is ignored. The Bible is seen as sufficient, authoritative, and inerrant – until it conflicts with other voices. But the Bible is not another voice to be consulted or considered. It is the transformative story of the Good News of Christ.
THE CROSS. The cross is used just as a means to display the love of Christ.
While the cross does display the love of Christ, it equally displays the wrath of God as the just penalty on the sin of man. To understand the cross, the ideas of atonement, justification, and sacrifice must be conveyed as well. Not that these big words have to be used. It can be as simple as “Jesus died in our place.” Jesus didn’t die on the cross because he was a really nice guy who like Van Gogh, mutilated himself as a sign of affection. Jesus bore the wrath of God you and I deserve so that we might be freed from that penalty. We are crucified with Christ so that we may live with Christ.
SIN. Sin is not something we have done; it’s something done to or around us.
We must walk through the storms of life – whatever they may be. The message of man identifies those storms as sin. The Bible says sin is something we have done because we have hearts that love sin (our way and deception) more than God (His way and truth). We don’t need to be freed from the storm around us. We need to be freed from the sin inside us.
What’s so condemning about the Gospel of man is that you and I are terrible gods.
The earth and everything in it was made for the glory of God, not the glory of us. We cannot bear the weight of glory. We will turn it into pride that consumes, abuses and ultimately destroys us and those in our path (cue flashback to Gollum and the ring).
The Bible continually reinforces the ideas of personal responsibility, holiness and the primacy of a glorious God – things lost in the message of man. They may not make us feel good about ourselves, but they will lead us to worship a BIG glorious God. In so doing, we learn how to rightly see ourselves in light of the surpassing view of God.
The Gospel is not about how God fits into our story, but how we fit into God’s story. It is the message of God and it is more than enough.
Cling to the Word of God. Cling to the message of the gospel. Cling to the cross of Christ. In so doing, like the church in Thessalonica, no matter what comes your way, you can stand and say, “Jesus is better.”
by Ryan Smith | Mar 28, 2017
I bought a book because I had seen someone tweet about it. Without investing the time to gather actual information, I saw a headline and decided to act (how modern of me). Two clicks and two days (thank you Amazon Prime!) later, I was sitting down to read my new book.
It didn’t take long to realize I was not the target audience for this book. The book’s examples were about heart-to-heart talks with girlfriends. It continually used female pronouns to refer to the reader, and it included a lot of crying…a lot of crying.
Before you string me up for being a chauvinist, allow me to elaborate. Once I realized this was a book targeted at a woman’s heart and experience, I was actually even more excited to read it. It would be good for me.
The book was highlighted as being Gospel-centered, and I certainly found it to be so. The challenges to my personal pride and worldview were greatly helped in light of God’s sovereignty, goodness and strength.
As I read this book from a female perspective intended to relate to the heart of a woman, I was encouraged by the appeal to theology, application and emotion as a three-stranded cord.
As I walked through the final chapters, however, I began to ponder a certain question: do women see the Gospel through a different lens than men; and if so, are there elements of the Gospel I may not be fully experiencing or enjoying?
Let me be clear (I know I’m walking on hot stones here), I rejoice with Paul in his inclusive exaltation of a Gospel that transcends race, social status and gender (Gal. 3:28). The fact that God created man in His image (male and female He created them – Gen. 1:27) tells us much about God Himself as well as His care for the complementary, yet equal, relationship between the two genders.
But it also makes me realize something. Painting with a broad brush, there are distinctive aspects of the male or female experience that help us absorb the world in unique ways. Just look at the marketing and discussion emphasis for any upcoming men’s or women’s conferences. There are differences. They are on purpose, and they are not bad.
I see the Gospel through a man’s eyes. There is nothing I can do about it, and I don’t believe it is a deficiency (just as I don’t believe it is a deficiency to view the Gospel from a female point of view).
There obviously are not two different Gospels, but one unified Gospel. There are, however, different aspects about me as a person (nationality, background, sex, etc.) that create a unique paradigm that may be somewhat different from another’s paradigm as we both observe objective truth.
This is one reason why we as the church need each other. We need people of different strengths and experiences to speak into our lives.
Also, men in the church need women in the church. We need to value their experiences and viewpoints.
So let me ask you a question, men. When was the last time you sat down with your wife (sister/mom/aunt) and asked her what the most precious thing about the Gospel is to her? Would you both answer that question in the same way? Why or why not?
To me as a man, a large part of my love for the Gospel stems from a responsive call to stand and fight – to defend – to hold the line – to be in awe of God the Warrior who crushes the head of the serpent and gets the girl in the end – his bride, the Church.
Men’s books and devotionals I have read bear this out. There is a fire ignited in the chest of a man of God to follow God into battle as the Scotts followed William Wallace – face paint and all (kilt optional).
To me, the Gospel is a challenge to acknowledge Kingship and Lordship. Sanctification is a fight to put to death the old man of self. Endurance in Christ is like a marathoner with blistered feet who dies falling over the finish line (insert man-grunts).
But I admit, I do struggle with some of the passages about being Jesus’ bride in Revelation, surrounded by virgins as the bridegroom returns to establish his home. The more romantic aspects of Hosea and Song of Solomon are understood on a logical level, but I perceive there is an intimacy and degree of joy that may be more fully understood and embraced by my sisters in Christ.
Obviously these are somewhat generalized observations. Individual men and women find themselves at varying degrees on these scales, and glory to God for that diversity!
But I want to ask my sisters in Christ a question – and pardon any degree of ignorance from which this stems:
What are the most compelling aspects of the Gospel to you as a woman?
I would love to hear your perspective as a comment to this post or in any other available and appropriate means. I believe we can appreciate another’s biblical viewpoint of something we hold dear even if we can’t fully understand it experientially.
I want to fully know and enjoy the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I want to stand with you and point at our great and glorious Savior. And if we can help open each other’s eyes to greater beauties (even if only nuanced aspects) of the Gospel, then glory to God for the diversity and beauty in His church!
by Ryan Smith | Mar 14, 2017
“Are you sure you’re not called to ministry?”
Yes. I had answered the question a dozen times. However, I appreciated his well-meaning support and investment in me as a young man. To a degree, I felt like I was letting him down. But I simply wasn’t called to vocational ministry.
I was a church rat from the womb. I loved the local church and had found more than a home there. It was a place and people I could serve, grow with, invest in and learn from.
The local church was my base. No matter what else I was doing, investing in the church was what I did.
Still, on my proverbial Pauline road to Damascus, no light had shown around me. No voice had called out to me in a thunderous tone. I never saw a burning bush. My name was never changed. I’d seen many walk an aisle in tearful revelation surrendering to ministry.
But I hadn’t. I simply was not called.
“Let me ask you one more question. I promise this will be the last time.”
Okay. I was prepared again to softly reject him.
“What in your life would show you otherwise?”
It was an interesting question and honestly, one I had never considered. That question, however, led me on a journey of self-evaluation that to this day shapes my call as a pastor and gives me faith in the dimly-lit path ahead.
How can we tell what God’s call is on our life?
Like some of you, I have sat across from young men and women seeking to know God’s call on their lives. And this question is not limited to vocational ministry.
How do I know if I am called to…Adopt a child? Change jobs? Lead out where there is little direction? Speak up and into what area?
Let us consider four areas of your life. What are your passions, experiences, affirmations and opportunities?
Passion
What lights you up? When you see a blog, a buzzword, or hear about an opportunity in an area, what is it that pings your radar? We all inherently have things we would gladly do for the rest of our lives if X, Y, and Z were not an issue. What do you love to do? What are you passionate about?
Experience
Moses doubted his call from God, but it is apparent God had been equipping him from birth. He was a Hebrew, yet trained under the skillful hand of Pharaoh’s house. What unique experiences do you have? Whether positive or negative, our past experiences can often be the tools most readily sharpened for our future. What do you know a lot about? What have you done or experienced that some have not? What do you have experience in?
Affirmation
This one is important. If we learned anything from American Idol (and we all did), it’s that people can have passion and even a degree of experience in something, yet it is obviously not going to bring a fruitful future for them. What do your most intimate friends and family members say they could see you doing? Have you ever asked? What about someone who has only watched you from a distance, but cares about you? What about your local church? Your pastor? What would they affirm as your gifting? Outside affirmation can be one of the greatest resources in helping us see the God-given road ahead. Sometimes we can’t see what others see. Sometimes we need someone to lovingly open or close a door for us.
Opportunity
I’ve heard it said that when God closes a door, He opens a window. Sometimes, however, I think we need to quit looking for ways to get out of our own house. Where has God placed you? Who has He placed around you? What opportunities could you grasp today that could lead you to a future you are excited about? Where has God given you opportunities to take a first step?
It seems the place where our passion, experience, affirmation and opportunity overlap is fertile soil to determine (at least in part) God’s call and direction in our lives.
Granted, there may be times God calls us completely out of our comfort zone. We can all cite biblical examples of this. But they are usually not the norm.
We may be firmly convicted by the Spirit to glorify God in a difficult place. Some of our roads are uphill and rocky. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t the right roads.
So what about you? Is there something about your God-given passion, experience, affirmation, and opportunity you might be ignoring or not seeing while looking for more drastic signs of God’s leading?
Let us all give thanks to God that He uses sinners like us for His glory – wherever we are called. And let us ask together where He might be calling us next.