The Internet Monk Archives

Water, water everywhere…

By Chaplain Mike

So, while I’ve been thinking about churches, I thought I would try to get a handle on what congregations meet and minister in my community.

First, let me tell you about where I live. It’s a small town in central Indiana, a nice old-fashioned, Midwestern community. The town was founded in 1823. It is the county seat, and we have a historic courthouse that dominates the center of town. The county fairgrounds are here as well, and we hold an annual 4-H fair. Thus, we maintain the rural flavor of the Midwest along with what happens in town.

We have a downtown area, though we are struggling to keep it vital for retail businesses. It consists mainly of offices to serve the courthouse, banks, restaurants and bars, antique shops, and some other retail and service businesses. We have a historic theatre that has been preserved and which plays classic movies and holds special events. Our main retail corridor is on the main highway that runs north and south through town. There you’ll find WalMart, Kohls, two supermarkets, a few car dealerships, other businesses and stores, chain restaurants such as Applebees, Chilis, Bob Evans, and the usual fast food franchises.

We have a county library branch, and may be building a new library building soon. Kids play Little League baseball and softball, get involved at the Boys and Girls Club and at a couple of churches with sports programs, participate with their families at the community center that has an outdoor pool, a gym and workout center, have picnics in some nice parks, and make use of the fine walking and bike trail. We have a private country club as well as a premier golf course that is home to the Indiana PGA, and a few other smaller local courses. Our town has a cinema.

Continue reading “Water, water everywhere…”

The Parish System

By Chaplain Mike

Apparently, American Christians are not the only ones plagued by the spirit of “consumerism” when it comes to their commitment to a local church.

This cartoon is taken from the Dave Walker Guide to the Church, published by Canterbury Press. It originally appeared in the Church Times.

Open Mic: What’s a “Biblical” Church?

By Chaplain Mike

For our open thread discussion today, I would like to ask you some questions based on a quote I read the other day.

I am not going to give the source of the quote because I don’t want to get responses about the person or the ministry or tradition he represents. Suffice to say that he is a respected conservative evangelical pastor and that his work and writings have been reviewed positively here at Internet Monk.

So, in one sense, this is meant to be an entirely theoretical discussion. Take the statement at face value without consideration of the source and evaluate it. Let us know what you think about the approach taken and the ideas stated here.

In another sense, I don’t want comments to be all theory. Please give personal examples and perspectives from real-life congregational experiences.

Here is the quote—

Contrary to much popular wisdom, God has spoken clearly in the Bible about the purpose, leadership, organization, and methods of the local church. He designed churches to be a display of his own glory and wisdom (Eph 3:10). And he deliberately structured them to display for a watching world the close fellowship of the Trinity and the redemption that God has accomplished for us in Christ Jesus (John 13:34-35).

To summarize…

“God has spoken clearly in the Bible” about the local church’s:

Purpose
Leadership
Organization
Methods

God “deliberately structured them” to communicate truth about himself and his salvation.

Here are my questions:

What is a “Biblical” church?

Is that a helpful adjective to use when trying to understand the ecclesial nature of our faith in Christ?

Does the Bible give us specific instructions about how a church should look and function?

If so, why are there so many approaches to “doing church”?

How do you respond to this statement? It’s Open Mic time.

Welcoming the Stranger

koch_ruthboaz — Landscape with Ruth and Boaz (detail), Koch

By Chaplain Mike

Ordinary Time Bible Study 2011
The Book of Ruth (8)

Naomi and Ruth have returned to Bethlehem, where the Lord has visited his people and blessed them with a good harvest. Ruth takes initiative immediately and goes out to glean in the fields to provide for their household. According to the Torah, the poor could harvest grain from the corners of the fields and follow behind the reapers to pick up grain they dropped. Ruth went out and “by chance” found herself in a field belonging to Boaz, one of her deceased father-in-law’s kinsman.

Today we continue our consideration of the story in Ruth, chapter two.

Ruth 2:4-7
Now at that very moment, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “May the Lord be with you!” They replied, “May the Lord bless you!” Boaz asked his servant in charge of the harvesters, “To whom does this young woman belong?” The servant in charge of the harvesters replied, “She’s the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the region of Moab. She asked, ‘May I follow the harvesters and gather grain among the bundles?’ Since she arrived she has been working hard from this morning until now – except for sitting in the resting hut a short time.”

Boaz arrives and exchanges greetings with the field workers. In a book like Ruth, where God is a “hidden” character, his presence is acknowledged primarily by the words of the story’s human actors. In this conversation, Boaz and the harvesters are presented as faithful people who desire God’s blessing for one another.

Though we often overlook the importance of greetings and disdain cliché speech, these simple practices serve an important function in society, sending signals about whether we are living at peace with God and our neighbors.

Continue reading “Welcoming the Stranger”

Luther on the Marks of the Church

By Chaplain Mike

For, thank God, a child seven years old knows what the Church is, namely, the holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd.

• Martin Luther, The Smalcald Articles, III.12

In order to deal with the religious controversies that had emerged between Rome and the Protestants, Martin Luther and others regularly appealed that a council of the Church be held. However, in 1536, when Pope Paul III ordered a council at Mantua in May of 1537, he did so for the express purpose of “the utter extirpation of the poisonous, pestilential Lutheran heresy.”

Thus, it became apparent that there would be no free, general council which would include the Reformers. In light of the situation, Luther drew up The Smalcald Articles as a summary of the Protestant position:

I have accordingly compiled these articles and presented them to our side. They have also been accepted and unanimously confessed by our side, and it has been resolved that, in case the Pope with his adherents should ever be so bold as seriously and in good faith, without lying and cheating, to hold a truly free Christian Council (as, indeed, he would be in duty bound to do), they be publicly delivered in order to set forth the Confession of our Faith. (SA, Preface)

Luther followed this uncompromising statement in 1539 with his treatise, On the Councils and the Church. It consists of three parts:

Part I: Luther argues that the church cannot put its hope for reformation in the councils of the church or the church fathers, but only in the Word of God.

Part II: Luther discusses the apostolic council in Acts 15 and the first four ecumenical councils: (1) Nicaea in 325, (2) Constantinople in 381, (3) Ephesus in 431, and (4) Chalcedon in 451. He concludes that the purpose of councils is to “defend…the ancient faith and the ancient good works in conformity with Scripture” against innovation, and not to establish new articles of faith or good works without or outside of Scripture.

Part III: Luther leaves the matter of councils and turns to a positive exposition of the true marks of the Church according to God’s Word.

It is this third section that we will discuss today.

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A Hymn for Ordinary Time (7): For Ecclesia Week

By Chaplain Mike

The following words are from the Preface to Lyra Fidelium: Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles of the Apostles Creed, by S.J. Stone (1866)

Most clergymen are aware how many of their parishioners, among the poor especially, say the Creed in their private prayers. And they cannot but feel how this excellent use, as also its utterance in public worship, is too often accompanied by a very meagre comprehension of the breadth and depth of meaning contained in each Article of the Confession of Faith.

Such a feeling first suggested to the Author the probable usefulness of a simple and attractive explanation of the Creed in the popular form of a series of Hymns, such as might be sung or said in private devotion, at family prayer, or in public worship.

Prose expositions indeed of every kind are not wanting, from the great work of Bishop Pearson downwards, but these are more adapted for the student than for the general worshipper, for education rather than for devotion; and there can be little doubt but that the poetical form is more likely to be effectual in securing an abiding place in the general mind, and also in exercising an influence upon heart and life.

To this end the Author set about the composition of the following Hymns, and though, now the work is done, he is painfully sensible that he has not reached the point either of fulness or simplicity at which he aimed, he humbly trusts that GOD will make them nevertheless of some use in His Church.

Article IX of the Creed is, “I believe…in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints”.

Stone writes this about the ecclesial nature of our faith: I believe that the Church of Christ is, has been, and will be one and the same: that it is holy in respect of (1) its Author and End, (2) the vocation of all the baptized, (3) the true saints within it: that it is One, by unity of origination, of faith, of hope, of charity, of sacraments, of discipline: that it is Catholic, as being universally disseminated, as teaching all truth, as possessing all graces: that its truly sanctified members have communion with the Holy Trinity, with the Angels, and with all Saints on earth and in Paradise.”

The hymn Stone wrote to seal this truth in their hearts is perhaps the greatest hymn expressing the nature of Christ’s Church that has ever been written. It is reproduced here in its original form, with all verses.

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iMonk Classic: “Basics for the Local Church”

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
From January 13, 2006

Note from Chaplain Mike: For the next week or so, we will have “Ecclesia Week” here on Internet Monk. Our focus will be on discussing some basic perspectives about the Church.

Today’s iMonk Classic is excerpted from a post Michael Spencer wrote in January 2006. He gave these thoughts as a response to some who had begun to tag him with the term, “Emergent.” To answer that characterization of his stance on the church, he gave a direct reply to those who were trying to label him and then outlined the basics of his ecclesiology.

Today, we look at the teaching portion of that post. Consider it “Ecclesiology 101” from the iMonk.

• • •

There is much confusion today about just what the church is.

What characterizes the church?
Are churches necessary?
Is there such a thing as church membership?
Shouldn’t churches be free associations and not formal organizations?
How important is the church to the individual Christian?

These are some of the questions I want to examine.

Continue reading “iMonk Classic: “Basics for the Local Church””

Saturday Ramblings 8.6.11

Since Senior Rambler Jeff Dunn is driving cross-country at the moment, it has fallen to me, Adam Palmer, the completely stationary Junior Rambler, to sweep up the iron filings from the floor of the iMonastery’s smithy.

Here we go:

This week Christian apologist and all-around smart fellow Terry Mattingly wrote a thought-provoking essay about the faith of Anders Breivik, better known as the “Christian” terrorist in Norway who killed 77 people. It’s an interesting look not only at faith but also at the way different cultures define different words, in this case: “fundamentalist.”

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Whatever Happened to…R.B. Thieme, Jr.?

By Chaplain Mike

This one may be a stretch for some of you, I don’t know.

However, for those of us who were involved in churches and schools in the 1960’s and 70’s that subscribed to dispensationalist ideology, the name R.B.Thieme (1918–2009) brings back some memories.

Thieme was pastor at Berachah Church in Houston, Texas for fifty-three years, from 1950-2003. He graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary, where he was heavily influenced by the teaching of Lewis Sperry Chafer. While at DTS, his studies were interrupted by WWII military service, which also had an effect on his approach to life and ministry. He became affectionately known as “The Colonel” and would wear his military uniform in the pulpit on various occasions.

When Thieme became pastor of Berachah, he immediately dismissed the church board and inaugurated a heavy schedule of teaching services—four nights a week and twice on Sunday. His teaching ministry proliferated throughout the country and around the world through lectures, books, and tapes. At one point the ministry was reported to be sending out thirty thousand tapes per month. Those who have been connected with Thieme or influenced by his teaching include Hal Lindsey (he attended Thieme’s church and mentions RBT in The Late Great Planet Earth), Chuck Swindoll, and Dan and Marilyn Quayle.

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Destruction: God’s Alien Work

rembrandt-christ-driving-the-money-changers-from-the-temple-78045 — Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple, Rembrandt

“The Lord will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim,
he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon—
to do his work, his strange work,
and perform his task, his alien task …”

• Isaiah 28:21

“What is more alien to salvation than destruction?
And yet this is what Christ does to his own.”

• Martin Luther

• • •

I had an “aha” moment when I read these words of Martin Luther, and I imagine he had a similar moment when he first thought them. The idea that God who created the heavens and earth is also bent on destruction seems … well, alien. But then again, it explains so much.

A few evenings earlier I came home from a Greek translation class with thoughts of the passage we worked through in Mark 11. In it, Jesus was walking toward Jerusalem and spied a fig tree from afar in full leaf. It was not the season for figs, yet coming close he looked for fruit he knew he would not find. And finding no fruit he pronounced words of destruction over the tree.

Going on into the city, he went to the temple and found the moneychangers conducting business in the court of

Gentiles. Theirs was a legitimate and necessary business conducted in an illegitimate place – and taxed by Caiaphas, the High Priest, who wanted a percentage of the trade. Having tables set up inside the temple area instead of outside necessitated merchandise to be carried in, thus making it a thoroughfare … thus violating the temple laws designed to keep it sanctified for prayer and worship.

Was Jesus angry? Scripture doesn’t say. After he turned over the tables and benches of those changing money and selling doves, he taught them saying, “Is it not written: “‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

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