A Plethoric Number of Comments
Well, I learned this weekend that my best friend got married before I went to China. I knew he was engaged, but he up and got hitched without even letting me know. Considering the boy was practically a brother, I figured he would've at least called. What bothers me though is that my name is signed to his wedding certificate as a witness even though I was not there. If he asked me, that's one thing, but to sign my name to a document holding me accountable to his marriage without my approval out right ticks me off. I am, right now, flabbergasted at the amount of divorces there are in the church. I am disturbed how many people think divorce is o.k., when God says in Malachi 2:16, "I hate divorce." I just don't get it. Right now, I am leary of his decision. If, and I pray to God that this if never fufills, he gets a divorce, I am held accountable as a witness. My name says that I approved and made sure that the Lord had called them together. But, I haven't done either of the two. So, right now, I'm a little upset with that whole situation for the sake of the gospel.
On the other hand, I was encouraged tremendously by the middle school's report time at Porter last night. They are solid. Wow. They went on a mission trip to share the gospel in 7th and 8th grade. I never did that, well technically I did but not really, until college. I was encouraged by their faith and by their theology. They put on a skit dealing with calvanism as middle schoolers. I was impressed. They are a blessing to Porter, and God allowed me to worship and glorify Him last night even though I didn't get to here a highly anticipated sermon from Hebrews.
Lastly, let's go back to that skit I mentioned. Let me sumarize it. There were 3 characters: an unbeliever and 2 believers. The nonbeliever asked one of the believers why she believed in Jesus. So, that believer went and did research, for 7 months, about her beliefs. She was prepared to defend creationism, calvanism, and other intellectual arguments. Her friend, the other Christian, just answered the unbelievers question, and he became a believer right there. No in depth study, no man-centered argument, no nothing but the Word of God was needed.
That skit hit me like a ton of bricks. I looked at my life and the life of Porter college. When was the last time anyone from Porter led someone to Christ? When was the last time an unbeliever stepped through the doors of our college department? I can't remember it's been so long, and that is pathetic. When was the last time a discussion about calvanism/armenianism was brought up? When was the last time you heard someone argue about the highest form of worship?
When and where did we lose focus? I'm not saying that these "intellectual debates" aren't good, it's just that you will not hear them much out of the U.S. People outside of the U.S. do good to have part of a Bible, much less a chance to argue this stuff. We have let knowledge get in the way of heart. I know I have. I am guiltiest of them all. Two years ago I shared all the time. This past year I barely shared. I read and got smart, but nobody other than me was benefitted. Instead of using what little I knew to make Christ known on campus, I was busy bulding my internal bank of knowledge up so I could argue with someone. I have missed it. God spoke volumes to me last night. I need to stop worrying about books, except the Word, and I need to share. I need to be making disciples for His glory. I need to be about the people and not about myself. Wow. Praise God for opening the eyes of my utterly depraved and sinful heart to the realties of truth I've failed to do.
I'm done.
posted by Jon Canler at 5:23 PM
7 Comments:
Great post, Jon. I have felt that way about our college department for quite sometime. I have several friends, both lost and saved, from work who I would love to come to Porter, but I know that they will be turned off by some of the discussion that goes on. Just tonight, in fact, I was talking with a girl at work who has been married for less than a year and is looking for a church to attend regularly . I recommneded Porter to her, but I held my tongue about the college department becasue if she came I know she would not come back, and I can't tell you how much that disappoints me. I want to see our college ministry grow, not become a place where only the few who "bear through it" will return or come consistently. I think a big problem that we have (especially myself) is that the majority of people who are college age are not as spiritually mature as we think they are (I hope this does not sound arrogant, becasue I am in no way shape or form as spiritually mature as I could and should be). We tend to forget that those few visitors who do come may be very young in their faith, or that they may not be believers at all. I think it is important that we reach out to these people especially, because this is a pivotal time in all of our lives, being in college and all.
On another note, I hope and pray that we will be able to find some space on campus soon, becasue I think that we will never reach our potential until we get something going down there. I feel a lot of times that we are waiting for people to come to Porter instead of going out and getting them ourselves. The Great Commision says to go, not sit back and wait. I feel that we as a college ministry are doing too much "sitting" and virtually no going, myself included. Anyway, those are my thoughts on the subject. I hope I didn't step on any toes or anything, this is certainly not a shot at the college leadership or specific people, but our attitude as a whole.
I agree Coops. In the 2 years I've been here, I have grown by leaps and bounds as the gospel is brought every time I step through the doors of the church. I can see God's sanctification process in my life daily. The one thing I don't see is Christ's reproduction of Himself in someone else through me. In those 2 years, I can only think of 2 people who have become belivers in our college department. 2 people in 2 years with an average of like 60 in college on Sunday mornings. That just isn't right, and I myself am totally guilty. We, as a ministry, do a lot of in reach and not enough out reach. We converse about in depth topics but fail miserably when it comes to do the very command Christ gave in Matthew 28. We are on a campus of 35000 people where 95% are lost, and only 2 people are saved at PMBC in 2 years. That scares me. What are we doing? Where are our priorities? We get the Word like none other on Sundays and Wednesdays, that's why I joined Porter, but it's like we don't apply it to our lives. My prayer is for an attitude change for us all, starting with myself first. An attitude that we may be about "preaching the gospel" in the context of sharing in order to bring people to Him. My prayer is for our sanctification, our call to seek out the Lord in every free minute of our day so that we may be prepared to do His will and not ours. I pray for attitudes and priorities.
Also, tonight, 6-21 @ 7 will be our first summer bible study at the Gotchers. Dustin will be bringin the Word from John 15. I hope to see everyone there, at least those of you who read this who are in Lexington.
A lot of truth in this post.
As I recently told Lambo... when I attended Broadway Christian Church back in the early-mid 1990's, I heard a great sermon which had the premise that God doesn't have a lock on the grace business. Christians are to reflect the grace of the Father to each other and to the world. Don't just casually read over that... think about the grace that God has shown us -- He has not only tolerated but forgiven our bouts of deceit, lust, arrogance, rebellion, dishonesty, sexual impurity, idolatry, indifference, hypocrisy, godless language... need I go on? That's the grace we should exhibit to all mankind... friend or foe.
Bruised egos and hurt feelings that result from "theology club" arguments (as opposed to Bible study) don't shine forth God's grace and worth to a grace-starved world, especially if that world is jaded college students. As you know, college kids need something more to live for than Calvanism. As you also know, our glorious Savior provides that (as well as something to die for).
Your college minister, I'm sure, would be elated to talk to students who are committed to (NOT "interested in") transforming Porter College into a better-balanced (in/out-reach) ministry. I encourage you to get together, buy him lunch, and take some ownership in your college ministry.
Jon, your a pimp. Great word man. My feelings exactly. Though not neccesarily toward the college class because I dont know much about what's going on these days. But for me personally, this is right where God has had me for about 4 months now. Its like I'm having to unlearn a lot of crap so I can reach my lesbian neighbors who Sarah and I are good friends with. Thank you.
Jon, great post brother. I am proud of you for your courage to state those truths in your blog. It does, indeed, take courage to see that we have been pursuing knowledge of God as opposed to pursuing God Himself. We have all been guilty at one time or another, I'm sure. I know I have. Do you know when I went through that? In college. Don't beat yourself up, but do continue making strides to be a college student who cares more about the souls of the lost than the amount of knowledge in your brain.
Well said- I am at a Methodist Bible College in the UK yet my background is calvinism, for two years we have had arguements about armenianism and calvinism- but at the end of the day what will this profit me when I am faced with the quesstion why are you a Christian... as I was last week or when I am meeting a back slidden Christian next wednesday. Is it my doctrines that will attract them to my faith or is it to refer to your last post- love. Jesus answered this for me, 'by this will all people know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another'
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