General Articles

I’m a Misfit at Church, Are You? :: By Jonathan Brentner

Published on: by RR10

It seems to be an annual rite of passage in many Bible-believing churches. As summer draws to a close, pastors assure the faithful that their church remains committed to the Great Commission. It’s the mission of the church, and thus everyone must help fill the building with people in the coming year.

Please know that I don’t doubt the sincerity of these pastors nor their desire to see people come to saving faith in Jesus. I very much share that same longing.

What makes me a misfit in many churches is that I have a different perspective of what it means to fulfill the Great Commission.

What’s missing, in my opinion, is a biblical understanding of all that it means to “make disciples.” Thus, the teaching aspect of Matthew 28:19-20 receives little, if any, consideration.

I believe that Jesus’ command…

Extends Beyond Filling a Building with People

In many “seeker-friendly” churches today, the emphasis is upon butts in the seats rather than genuine disciple-making. As a result, church leaders settle for professions of faith rather than evidence of authentic regeneration in the hearts of those who respond to the Gospel.

Fulfilling the Great Commission thus becomes a matter of getting others to church and the number of professions of faith. The problem with this approach is that pastors duly avoid any and all biblical teaching that might cause divisions among those professing faith.

You will never hear the word “Rapture” in these churches unless it’s in a negative context.

Embraces the Differing Spiritual Gifts of All the Saints

Over the course of my life, I have shared the Gospel with many people, and the Lord has used me to play a part in bringing some to Himself. However, my giftedness lies in other areas than evangelism. In spite of this understanding, I almost always feel a ton of guilt after hearing sermons on the Great Commission.

What’s missing in such messages is that all believers possess differing spiritual gifts that all contribute to the furthering of the Gospel, even if many serve in ways that are not out front and visible.

Several years ago, a family in the church that I attended in Iowa incurred considerable damage to their country home and acreage due to a fierce tornado. The following Saturday, a large number of people from my church showed up to help the family with the cleanup. As a result of our show of support, a neighbor came to saving faith in Christ.

All the passages on spiritual gifts in the New Testament emphasize that Jesus gives His church a wide variety of gifts that differ greatly. Romans 12:3-8 is one such passage that encourages the use of one’s gift to bless the entire body of Christ.

My point is that the proper functioning of all the gifts contributes to the growth of the body of Christ as well as to the furthering of the Gospel, even the ones that very few notice. Gifts that enable the proclamation of the Gospel and God’s Word are equally essential to the proper functioning of the body of Christ.

Has As Its Goal Maturity in Christ

In Colossians 1:28-29, I believe that Paul aptly sums up the goal of disciple-making as bringing believers to maturity in Christ:

“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”

We see this same emphasis in Ephesians 4:11-16; mature saints are those who are “no longer children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (v. 14). If there ever was a time when we see believers tossed “about by every wind of doctrine,” it’s now. Social media intensifies this phenomenon with the many bogus ideas of Christianity that one finds there.

If the goal of church leadership is a building full of people, the true saints will rarely receive teaching by which they can grow to maturity in Christ. If the object of the pastor is not to touch any controversial topic of Scripture lest it offends someone, believers will not hear the full counsel of God that they need in order to mature in Christ.

The purpose of the Great Commission is ultimately to bring saints to maturity in the faith. It’s so much more than a matter of gaining professions of faith.

Signifies that Preaching Must Go Beyond the Milk of God’s Word

Those who attend seeker-friendly churches often hear just the milk of God’s Word consisting of the “basic principles” of the Gospel and simple steps for Christian growth.

In Hebrews 5:12-14, the writer addresses the matter of believers who can only handle the “milk” of God’s Word or its “basic principles.” He puts the responsibility on his readers, but I believe this also applies to pastors and the content of their sermons.

Notice the words of verses 13-14 in regard to this matter:

“for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (vv. 13-14).

I believe that these verses sum up the weakness of the church in America today. How many believers sit in church week after week listening to messages that only provide the “milk” of God’s Word and then support political candidates that wholeheartedly and avidly promote abortion up to and beyond birth as well as the LGBTQ agenda? Such believers lack the proper training in Scripture in order for them to properly “distinguish good from evil.”

The problem with putting the burden on attendance at small groups for spiritual growth is that the leaders are in the same boat as everyone else that hears only the bare necessities of the faith each Sunday. They can only pass on the milk of the Word rather than a deep understanding of the Gospel that’s needed to facilitate maturity in the faith.

Includes Teaching on Our “Blessed Hope”

For those who have read my previous articles, you know that I believe the apostles initially carried out the Great Commission with a message that emphasized Jesus’ appearing for His church. I will not dwell on this matter here.

I am a misfit in many churches for believing that fulfilling the Great Commission should include teaching about our “blessed hope.” It’s a message that both seekers and those already in the faith should hear on a consistent basis.

Implies Commitment to Jesus Rather Than Just to a Local Church

Today, a number of parachurch organizations contribute to the furthering of Jesus’ kingdom. Samaritan’s Purse, for example, is able to go far beyond what any local body of believers could do in ministering to people around the globe after calamities. Groups such as Navigators and Campus Crusade for Christ have impacted a great many college students for the cause of Jesus over the past several decades.

However, I have found that most churches are myopic in this regard as well. Although they recognize the contribution of the above ministries to Jesus’ kingdom, they only care about how one can serve their church. Membership constitutes “commitment to church XYZ” rather than an ongoing dedication to the overall cause of Christ.

Even though I work full-time in my writing ministry — because it does not fit with the preordained functions of the churches that I have recently attended — they regard me as an outsider, a tinkling wind chime that they no longer hear.

Please, please understand that I care deeply about bringing others to Christ and pray daily for the unsaved in my family as well as for those around me that do not know Him. I’m all about furthering the cause of Christ in any way that the Lord leads me. The Lord has used my writing ministry to clearly explain the Gospel to a large number of unsaved people.

My complaint is with churches that only provide the milk of God’s Word on Sunday mornings and provide only a surface understanding of the Gospel and matters such as justification by faith and our hope of glory and eternal life.

Sadly, if I see that a church’s statement of beliefs strongly emphasizes the Great Commission, I instinctively know its pastor will completely ignore Bible prophecy. He will most likely regard it as nonessential to the cause of Christ and furthering His kingdom.

If I see the word “premillennial” in the declaration of a church’s faith, I have discovered that it does not necessarily signify that its pastor believes in a millennium with a restored Israel.

I’m a misfit in most churches primarily because I believe that the apostles fulfilled the Great Commission with an emphasis on future things, and it’s the lack of an emphasis on these things today that is weakening the witness of the church in today’s world.

Apart from an understanding of Bible prophecy shedding light on the day in which we live, believers will continue to walk out of such churches on Sunday morning ill-prepared to meet the challenges of the perilous times in which we live. Many have no clue that we live in biblical times with Jesus’ appearing close at hand.

These things ought not to be.

Maranatha!!

My book, The Triumph of the Redeemed-An eternal Perspective that Calms Our Fears in Perilous Times, is available on Amazon. I wrote this book to fill in the gap of teaching in most churches today that fail to provide a proper understanding of biblical prophecy and thus leave the saints unprepared to deal with the perilous times in which we live.

Note: Please consider signing up for my newsletter on the home page of my website at https://www.jonathanbrentner.com/. It will greatly help me in reaching more people. Thanks!

Jonathan C. Brentner

Website: Our Journey Home

 

The Gospel: A Plan or a Man? :: By Dr. David R. Reagan

Published on: by RR10

I was born into and grew up in a very legalistic church — so legalistic, in fact, that it claimed to be the one and only true church. All other professing Christians were viewed as deceived pagans who were destined to Hell, and rightfully so because they did not agree with us on our “plan of salvation.” That plan was also often referred to as “the five-finger exercise” because it consisted of five points which our preachers would always count out on five fingers of one hand. The five points were: 1) Hear, 2) Believe, 3) Repent, 4) Confess, and 5) Be Baptized.

Some particularly zealous preachers would sometimes add a sixth point: obedience to all New Testament commands. Over and over, I heard it declared that “God had done His part, and now we must do our part.”

This, of course, amounted to salvation by good works, in direct contradiction to Ephesians 2:8-10 where the Apostle Paul specifically stated that we are saved by grace through faith and “not as a result of works.”

Baptismal Obsession

The really BIG point in our plan of salvation was baptism. Yes, we believed in what theologians call “baptismal regeneration.” We thought that baptism magically washed our sins away. Our preachers even had a saying that “you meet the blood of Jesus in the water.”

Accordingly, while I was growing up, I heard sermon after sermon on baptism. I learned that my salvation depended upon being baptized in the right way by the right person for the right reason.

Specifically, I had to be totally immersed by a preacher of my church for the purpose of being saved. The Baptists were constantly attacked from our pulpits because they believed baptism was simply a public manifestation or proclamation of one’s salvation. Our leaders openly scoffed at such an idea, calling it “unbiblical.” The purpose of baptism could only be in order to obtain salvation.

Sermons in the Book of Acts

My turnaround occurred while I was in college. The Holy Spirit led me one day to start reading all the sermons recorded in the book of Acts, and I noticed that they focused not on a mechanical Plan but on a divine Man and His glorious resurrection from the dead.

For example, in the first gospel sermon ever preached by the Apostle Peter on the Day of Pentecost, he focused from the beginning to the end on proving that Jesus was indeed the long-promised Messiah of God. The entire sermon reveals how Jesus fulfilled Bible prophecies about the Messiah, leading up to the climax of the Resurrection.

As I read sermon after sermon recorded in the book of Acts, I noticed that the Resurrection rather than baptism was the central point that was stressed over and over again:

> On the Day of Pentecost, Peter declared that Jesus was raised from the dead, and therefore the Jewish people could know for certain “that God has made Him both Lord and Christ — this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:32, 36).

>When Peter was hauled before the Sanhedrin Council for healing a man in the name of Jesus, he called Jesus “the Holy and Righteous One” whom they had put to death but whom “God raised from the dead” (Acts 3:14-15).

>When Peter was arrested a second time for proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus on the Temple grounds, he declared to the chief priest and the rulers and elders that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:10,12).

>In Acts 4:33, we are told that all the apostles “with great power were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.”

>In the first sermon to a Gentile group, Peter, speaking to the household of the Roman soldier Cornelius, concluded his remarks by asserting that “God raised Him [Jesus] up on the third day” (Acts 10:40).

>We are told in Acts 17:18 that the Apostle Paul spent his time in Athens “preaching Jesus and the resurrection.” In fact, Paul concluded his sermon with these words: “He [God] has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man [Jesus] whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

Paul summed up the central message in these sermons and others in the book of Acts when he wrote these words in his letter to the Romans: “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

The Biblical Concept of Salvation

God’s true plan of salvation focuses on a person. It was revealed in the Old Testament in the book of Joel, where the prophet wrote: “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” (Joel 2:32 NKJV). In Old Testament times, that name was Yahweh; in New Testament times, it became Jesus (Yeshua) — both being divine beings who are part of the Triune God.

In addition to studying the sermons in the book of Acts, I discovered a definition of the Gospel written by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4:

“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…”

A Summary

In summary, the Gospel is the good news that Jesus came to the earth, died for our sins, and was resurrected from the dead, proving that He was God in the flesh and that those who put their faith in Him will be saved. It is not a matter of God doing his part and us doing ours. No! Baptism is not even mentioned. Jesus did everything necessary when He died for our sins on the Cross.

My complete deliverance from baptismal salvation came when I discovered a verse about baptism that I had never heard read aloud in the church of my youth. That verse is 1 Corinthians 1:17. It is a verse that literally jolted my spirit. In it, Paul boldly asserts that “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel…” The gospel is not baptism; it is the joyful news that Jesus loved us enough to come to earth to pay the penalty for our sins, making it possible for us to be reconciled to God.

The focus of all Christian preaching should be a divine Man, Jesus, and not a humanly-devised plan. We should be proclaiming to all humanity that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus, and not by works of any kind (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Hallelujah!

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