Week Seven – Is it right for me to try to convince someone of my beliefs?

(Sorry for the late post, folks. It has been a crazy week here at the House of Maher. This week is especially relevant now with the "Friends for Life" program that COA is doing!)

The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose.

-C. S. Lewis

We are the Bibles the world is reading; We are the creeds the world is needing; We are the sermons the world is heeding.

-Billy Graham

There is no better evangelist in the world than the Holy Spirit.

-Dwight L. Moody

For many people today, “tolerance” no longer means merely a “live and let live” attitude. Rather, it requires an affirmative acceptance of other positions or beliefs as equally valid, or equally good, as the views you hold. How does this square with the basic tenants of Christianity? If Christians are called to spread the gospel, how do we do that effectively in the world today?

Possible readings:

Michael Craven, Drive-by Evangelism, or Missional Rescue Force?,

Rusty Wright, Advocacy Apologetics: Finding Common Ground,

Michael Brown and Becky Hill, Finding Motivation to Tell Others About Jesus,

Bill Hybels, JUST WALK ACROSS THE ROOM, Chap. 1 – The Ultimate Walk Across a Room

Rick Warren, THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE, Day 36 – Made For a Mission

Paul Copan, True For You, But Not For Me, Chap 6 – What Right Do You Have to Convert Others to Your Views?

Week Six – How should a Christian approach work and financial issues?

At a Wednesday evening church meeting a very wealthy man rose to give his testimony.

"I'm a millionaire," he said, "and I attribute it all to the rich blessings of God in my life.

I can still remember the turning point in my faith, like it was yesterday:

I had just earned my first dollar and I went to a church meeting that night.

The speaker was a missionary who told about his work.

I knew that I only had a dollar bill and had to either give it all to God's work or nothing at all.

So at that moment I decided to give my whole dollar to God.

I believe that God blessed that decision, and that is why I am a rich man today."

As he finished it was clear that everyone had been moved by this man's story.

But, as he took his seat, a little old lady sitting in the same pew leaned over and said:

"Wonderful story! I dare you to do it again!"

As Christians, we often told about the need to trust God regarding work and financial issues. But, on the other hand, “waiting on God” can sometimes be used as an excuse for inaction. How can we strike the right balance between deferring to God’s sovereignty and His plans, while also recognizing that God works through the world – including the skills and abilities we’ve been given, the people around us, etc.? Let's also think about what financial success (or non-success) means for a Christian.

Make sure and look at the comments section for another article that was sent in by one of our members!

Possible readings:

Crown Financial Ministries, Why People Accumulate Wealth,

Crown Financial Ministries, Finances and Your Relationship With God,

Kerby Anderson, Bible, Economics and Capitalism,

Ray Cotton, Business and Ethics,

Dan Miller, Are You Losing Your Soul?,

Kevin Brennfleck and Kay Marie Brennfleck, ‘Killer Skills’: When Success Traps You,

Margaret D. Mitchell, Motives Matter in the Workplace

Reminder - No small group this weekend!

Everyone should go to the Congregational Meeting on Sunday night instead!!

Week Five – How should a Christian relate to, and participate in, politics, governance, and the law?

I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: "What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?"

Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.

There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators."' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are.

- Martin Luther King Jr., Letter From Birmingham Jail

Because of the rights and freedoms we have in the United States, Christians have the opportunity to participate in the process of governance and of developing and enforcing laws. How we exercise those rights and freedoms, however, is the source of many vigorous debates among Christians. Each side of those debates can cite many examples – both positive and negative – of churches’ involvement in politics and the law. How instructive are those examples? How, in principle, should Christians relate to politics, governance, and the law? How does it work in practice?

Possible readings:

N.T. Wright, God in Public? Reflections on Faith and Society.

David Skeel and William J. Stuntz, Christianity and the (Modest) Rule of Law.

William Temple, CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL ORDER.

C.S. Lewis, THE WEIGHT OF GLORY, Why I Am Not a Pacifist.

Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson, BLINDED BY MIGHT.

Week Four – How should a Christian relate to, and participate in, the culture?

Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.

-John Wesley

Christianity makes suffering contagious

-Friedrich Nietzsche

Christians are told to be ‘in the world, but not of the world,’ but it is hard not to err in one direction or the other. Too much emphasis on the “evils” of secular culture can lead people to isolate themselves in a bubble of Christian culture. On the other hand, Christians seeking to engage the culture can find themselves changed by it in ways they aren’t aware of. And even when Christians feel like they are striking the right balance, the secular culture might not be too happy to have them involved. What is the proper role of Christians in secular culture? Is there a place for Christian culture, or does that inevitably lead to isolation? And what should we make of the reaction of non-Christians to our involvement in the culture?

This week we are going to talk about the interaction with the culture (media, art, schools, relationships, etc.). NEXT week we are going to talk about politics and the law and the following week we will talk about finances and the workplace.

Michael Gleghorn, Augustine on Popular Culture: Ancient Take on a Modern Problem,

Jerry Solomon, Christianity and Culture,

Susan Wise Bauer, On Slippery Slopes, the Blogosphere, and (oh, yes) Women,

Andy Crouch, Creating Culture,

Philip Jenkins, "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?",

Todd Hertz reviewer, Saved!

Date update

Hi folks, just and update to let you know we will not be meeting on October 26 because of the congregational meeting at COA. Therefore, our last meeting will be on November 16, not November 9.

Week Three – Judgment vs. discernment

Judgment vs. Discernment – How do we deal with unrepentant sin in the Christian community? How do we deal with sins in non-Christians? In ourselves?

Judge not, that ye be not judged.

-Matthew 7:1 (KJV)

Who are you? where ya been? where ya from?
Gossip burning on the tip of your tongue
You lie so much you believe yourself
Judge not lest ye be judged yourself

-Metallica, Holier Than Thou

In an age when many people expect news, conversation, and entertainment to take the form of pithy sound bites, Matthew 7:1 (in some form) is tough to beat. It is short and memorable, and well known even by many non-Christians. But what does "judge not" really mean? And once we figure that out, how do we apply it in our lives?

Resources:

Lewis B. Smedes, Good Question: Who Are We to Judge?,

Roger E. Olson, To Judge, or Not to Judge,

Kerby Anderson, Making Moral Choices,

Timothy Keller, THE REASON FOR GOD, Chap. 3, Christianity is a Straightjacket

Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend, HOW PEOPLE GROW, Chap. 16, Pulling the Weeds: The Problem of Sin and Temptation & Chap. 17, Facing Reality: How Truth Deepens Growth

Week Two – Why does the church view some sins as more serious than others / Does the church do this? Or just Christians?

25"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' 28"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!' 31" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "

-Luke 15:25-32 (NIV)

The story of the prodigal son is one of the earliest parables I remember learning about in Sunday school. Since I was basically a good kid, I remember feeling a kind of kinship with the older brother in the story. I knew I wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t do anything “major” wrong. Sure, if a teacher asked me, I knew that the “right answer” was that the older brother had the wrong attitude. But I felt like, under the circumstances, who could blame him?

My experiences indicate that in churches today, many people see some sins (usually those done by others) as particularly serious, and other sins (usually the ones we’re doing) as less so. What are those opinions based on? Are some sins more serious than others? If so, what, if anything, do we do about it?

Possible readings:

J.I. Packer, All Sins Are Not Equal.

David Neff, Are All Sins Created Equal?.

Thomas Aquinas, THE SUMMA THEOLOGICA, Prima Secundæ Partis, Question 73, On the Comparison of One Sin With Another.

C.S. Lewis, MERE CHRISTIANITY, Book III, Chap. 8, The Great Sin

Week One

If I truly have faith, why do I have doubts? Is it ok to question?

[Thomas] could not be sure that the print of the nails, which the apostles told him they had seen, would admit the putting of his finger into it, or the wound in his side the thrusting in of his hand; nor was it fit to deal so roughly with a living body; yet Thomas ties up his faith to this evidence. . . . The open avowal of this in the presence of the disciples was an offence and discouragement to them. It was not only a sin, but a scandal. As one coward makes many, so does one believer, one sceptic, making his brethren's heart to faint like his heart, Deu. 20:8. Had he only thought this evil, and then laid his hand upon his mouth, to suppress it, his error had remained with himself; but his proclaiming his infidelity, and that so peremptorily, might be of ill consequence to the rest, who were as yet but weak and wavering.

-Matthew Henry Commentary on John 20:19-25

Growing up in the church, many of us know the story – and stigma – associated with “doubting Thomas.” So it seemed appropriate to start a “tough questions” small group with the issue of doubt itself. Matthew Henry, in his commentary on John, seems to take a disapproving view of doubt on the part of Christians; even more so when they express those doubts to others. But is doubt really such a problem? Does it depend, in part, on the nature or origin of the doubt? When we have doubts, how should we respond?

Possible readings:

Michael Gleghorn, Dealing With Doubt.

Mark Buchanan, The Benefit of the Doubt.

Camerin Courtney, The Gift of Doubt.

C.S. Lewis, The Joyful Christian, Belief; Belief and Disbelief; Faith, p. 128-35 (Simon and Schuster 1996)

Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith, Objection #8 – I Still Have Doubts, So I Can’t Be a Christian

Introduction

Welcome to the on-line community of the Tough Questions Small Group which is sponsored by Church of the Apostles.

We will be meeting on Sunday evenings, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. We will start with a pot-luck dinner and some relaxation time. Then we will start the discussion. Week One's topic will be posted by Monday, September 15, 2008, though we will not meet until Sunday, September 21, 2008. Ideally, we will post the question for the following week on the previous Monday. That will give us all time to start thinking and chatting about the topic prior to the meeting.

Also, if you are interested in participating in the discussion, but are unable to make any or all of the Sunday evening meetings, you can certainly throw your two cents' in here.

The topic questions are listed on the right of the blog. Below the list of topics will be a bibliography, with links, if there is an internet link to a particular work.