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This may be a little late, but I thought I would share this as I mentioned it Sunday.  Last week I attended the Greenwood High School gathering for See You At The Pole.  This was really the first of these types of events I’ve ever attended and I was thoroughly impressed with the students who lead this.  It was a quite, respectful, stand – showing a commitment to prayer.  The best part was that this was almost entirely student driven!  The students spoke, sang, prayed and it was great.  I snapped this picture on my phone that I thought captured the morning.

Students outside Greenwood High School for See You At The Pole

“Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

- 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

“In the beginning, the church was a fellowship of men and women who centered their lives on the living Christ. They had a personal relationship with the Lord. It transformed them and the world around them.    Then the church moved to Greece, where it became a philosophy.    Later it moved to Rome, where it became an institution. Next it moved to Europe, where it became a culture.    Finally it moved to the United States, where it became an enterprise. We’ve got far too many churches and so few fellowships.”    -U.S. Senate Chaplain Richard Halverson, quoted by Karl A. Pohlhaus in his religion column for The Glendale Star [Arizona], July 16, 1998, C5.

How can we move beyond this?  1 John is written by John toward the end of his life and throughout this book he calls the people of the church his, “dear children.”  John calls us the reader his “children” 15 times!  Listen to the words of our spiritual father as he pleads with us to hear and obey.

As he approaches the end of his life, he thinks of his children and writes down all the really important things that we need to know about being the church.  He talks a lot about love, righteousness and remaining pure.  He wants to guard the fellowship and gives us five marks of fellowship in 1 John.

1. Separate

• 1 John 2:15-17, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; 16 for all that is in the world-the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches-comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.”
• The church, or literally ekklesia means the “called out ones.”  We are those who have been called out from the world.  Therefore we should be different, 1 John 1:6 tells us that we can’t claim to have fellowship with God and with the darkness of the world at the same time.
• Sometimes we go a bit too far and form our own ghetto Christian communities. It’s not subbing the world – or being “better” just different.  We should be recognizable as different, we should be light in the world – we’ll talk about that next week.

2. Loving

• This mark helps us to combat the ghetto from forming and our heads from being too puffed up.
• 1 John 3:23, “And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.”
• Our faith should equate to love, that’s what we’ve been talking about.  Lately my children who are very young have started playing together, sometimes they’ll run off into one of their rooms and just start laughing together.  Nothing warms my heart more and nothing warms the heart of the Father more than to see his children get along.
• We here at BGCC encourage, desire, need for every member to be in a small group – whether it’s a BFC or home group.  We want you to be well loved and cared for – we want you to know people you can love and care for.
• We see that the early church met in large groups in the temple and from house to house.  Now houses then could not accommodate the thousands that had been added to the church – so they broke into small groups.
• This love and concern is more than a small group meeting it is giving as well.  Last week we talked about giving which includes finances was a way of worship.  It’s also a mark of fellowship as well.  In ancient Judaism a minyan was a group of ten Jewish men and whatever city in the world had a minyan there was a synagogue.  Why?
  • Well the Jewish people took meeting together seriously and wanted to have services.  They would do this without a synagogue but when they got ten Jewish men they could formally gather as a synagogue.
  • Ten Jewish men, represented ten Jewish families and ten Jewish incomes.  When ten men tithed, or gave a tenth they had one income – that income provided for their rabbi.
  • The rabbi then would tithe and give a tenth – his tenth would provide for the supplies of the synagogue and so church could happen. No one gave anonymously, no one gave less, they all carried their own load and as such their fellowship was sustained.
• We see a model of small group fellowship in the early church and the grandmother of the church – the synagogue was a small group.  Today we must continue to get small as we desire to grow as a church pleasing to God.

3. Discerning

• 1 John 4:1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
• The command to “test the spirits” is plural.  We need to test the spirits.  As we live in a spirit filled community such as this church we need to rely on each other for wisdom.  We have more wisdom together than separately, more insight together than apart.
• Last week we saw in Acts 13:2 that when the church got together to worship, the Spirit gave them the perspective they needed to discern his will.  We need each other to hear the voice of God.  A community that cares, gives, and worships together will discern together.
  • This is why there is a plurality of elders, no one man is capable of discerning the whole and total will of God alone – we need each other.
  • We together as a body of believers have great insight and wisdom into God’s heart and mind.
  • Some churches practice a process of discernment where young people come for prayer and discernment for everything from vocation to marriage.
  • That’s why I want to drag everyone up here who is going off on a mission trip or to Bible college.  Let’s pray for these people and be discerning for them.
• 1 Corinthians 6:3, tells us we will judge angels and that as such we are more than capable of judging daily matters.
• I would delight to hear of a church, or church member who comes to an eldership or other church and says, “Will you please settle this matter between us?”  We don’t need courts to arbitrate, we have the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth among us.

4. Incarnational

• As we discern the voice of the Spirit and move as one body we become Incarnational, it’s a process and we mature in this. Incarnational is not a word evangelicals use often but is popular in other flavors of Christianity.  Simply stated it takes Matthew 25 literally where it says when we minister to people we meet Christ in them, particularly in the poor.
• We meet the incarnate Christ in other and in turn we become Christ to others.  There is an intentional order to the mission statement, it starts with worship, moves into a fully functioning community and then once we’ve done that our love becomes so attractive to the world that evangelism comes naturally.  We must master this.
• 1 John 4:16, “So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.   God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”
• This week it was shown so clearly when we descended on the home of one of our young at heart lades in the church because of the downed trees in her yard. I put out two emails on CCB to the men’s ministry and we had vans, cars and a truck arrive to finish the job.  As we were unloading the branches a family from the church pulled up and went to work raking. It doesn’t have to involve money, that one hour made a huge difference.

5. Confident

• Finally if we exist as a separate, loving, discerning and incarnational community then we will be a confident community.
• 1 John 5:4-6, “for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.”
• Definition of “Fellowship” or Koinonia is literally “common” all things in common – we belong to each other.  Therefore there are times when we lend our spirituality to our neighbor in discipleship, or lend our joy in celebration with each other, or lend our tears in mourning with each other.
  • I remember studying this epistle with another student who had a Bible that had been translated into Hawaiian pidgin where they had a community word for something that belonged to the community or village.  It was a word that literally meant our community owns this.
  • We each have gifts that belong to each other according to Ephesians 4:11-13, “11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.”
  • 1 Corinthians 1:7 says that the church in Corinth wasn’t lacking any gift, why because they had come to share them and I dare say we too are not lacking any spiritual gift among us.
• Look at the diagram and see that God blesses “Me” and gives me gifts.  Why?  So that I might turn around and give them to the church.  How does the church get all its gifts through us, through me!  Our confidence comes from knowing, serving and completing the body of Christ together.

Today is the day some of you need to start loving the church by committing to this place your fellowship.  We call it membership and it’s nothing more than a public commitment of your love for this church.

The most common question I hear from our parents is, “Is my child ready to be baptized?” Needless to say, this is a very important question, one with which parents should and do wrestle. There are a few checkpoints to assess your child’s readiness, but there is no hard and fast rule. There is no universal age where all children reach an age of spiritual maturity. There is also no “right answer” because there is no “right question.” There is no standardized test and required score. Baptism is a lot like a marriage, at some point you’re ready but it’s different for different people.

Our church allows for the Spirit to work – not forcing a decision at a set time or after a set class. We have no baptism class, but believe that as the truth about God is taught, as a spiritual life is modeled in the home and as the Spirit brings conviction a child grows into their faith. Just as sunshine, rain and nutrients provide an environment for a plant’s growth – so do Sunday school teachers, parents and God’s Spirit foster a child’s growth.

As your child approaches that time where they consider baptism I would suggest three key conversations to have with them about baptism…

• What did Jesus do for you?

This conversation focuses on a knowledge of the work of Christ and the application it has to us today.  We can not be baptized into Christ without some knowledge of his work.  A child can demonstrate a grasp of this simply by saying, “He died for me.”

• Do you have sin that needs to be forgiven?

This is the most important conversation to have!  It focuses on the need to apply the work of Christ to us.  We should not be baptized into Christ if we don’t realize we need it!  A child easily can show how they understand this simply by saying, “Yes, I was wrong to hit my brother and Jesus needs to forgive me!”  When a child understands they have sin and need forgiveness from God – why should you wait?

• What will be different after you’re baptized?

This will be the start of many future conversations which will start with, “What do you think Jesus would want you to do?”  Of all the conversations a deep understanding of this is least important as they can not know all the changes that will come as a result of following Jesus!  An understanding as simple as, “I’ll be a Christian,” or “I’ll be special to God,” could show that your child gets the idea that baptism means a change in their life.

Your child might not have the “right answer” to all these questions – but if they show comprehension and conviction then they might be ready. Understanding the consequences of sin and the need for forgiveness, coupled with a serious conviction is a sure sign of the Spirit moving them to baptism. After all how many of us truly, fully understand what Jesus did and where he’ll lead us once we surrender to him? These are answers we grow into,  baptism is just the start.  Baptism doesn’t celebrate a fully mature faith, it celebrates a healthy maturing faith! The work is not over, it is starting and it is thriving.

Don’t be afraid to have these conversations early or often – have them at their prompting or as you see God at work in their heart. These conversations will probably come after their own friends are baptized.  While peer pressure can lead some into baptism prematurely it can also signal a readiness among a group of children who have had shared experiences and most likely a common maturity.

There is a delicate balance, a hesitation to baptize too early and a fear against waiting too long.  This balance can only be achieved through prayer.  Pray as a parent, pray with your child and pray that the Spirit will lead you into the truth.

One of the most frequent questions graduating seniors and their parents have is, “Should I (my child) go to a Bible college?” The short answer is, “No…unless you’re preparing for ministry. ” Bible college is for ministry preparation and is the best for ministry preparation. It is not for those desiring to study for any other vocation for reasons that will be described. Bible college is a great choice for those studying to enter ministry is because they offer…

• Christian world view on life and ministry.
• Christian professors to serve as mentors.
• A network of professional ministers for life.
• An advantage to those who might have a challenge in entering ministry – such as women in conservative church associations.

If however you want to study for another vocation a traditional Bible college is not the way to go. There are Bible colleges which in addition are also liberal arts colleges. These Christian liberal arts colleges can be a great choices for more people. They are particularly helpful for those considering ministry but who have some doubts. It allows a student to sample ministry preparation without loosing any credits from a non-accredited school. This is the case as many Bible colleges (particularly ministry preparation schools) are often not regionally accredited. Transferring credits from a non-accredited school is difficult and in some cases impossible. A few things to look out for when evaluating accreditation…

• The “ABHE” is not a regional accrediting body. Which means most secular school will not accept their accreditation.
• Some schools tout being recognized and or listed in the “Higher Education Directory” but this is not accreditation. This status simply means they can confer degrees and receive federal student funding.

That said, ministry preparation is not best served by a religion department in a secular school – although many take this route. If you had your choice at the start you would not want this option, if you could chose. The reason is being: secular religious study denies many of the more orthodox Christian tenets. Primarily because theology taught in secular schools is often taught skeptically and critically when it comes to the authorship of the Bible.

• Basic truths such as scriptural inspiration, traditional authorship, etc. are denied in academia.
• Many churches do not like hiring secular graduates with “religion” degrees as they often lack ministry preparation and only have academic knowledge of theology.

In summary, Bible colleges are for people preparing for ministry, Christian liberal arts colleges are for people considering ministry and for those wanting to study for other vocations (which require higher education) in a Christian setting. Obviously state schools are a great choice for those grounded in their faith who require no specific “sacred education” and the plurality of Christian campus organizations provide for great spiritual growth opportunities. A lot of great choices, no “right answer” and with prayer you will be able to discern the best fit for you!

Additional Resources:

• Click here for a list of Bible colleges associated with the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ.
• Click here for a list of Christian liberal arts colleges in North America.