Given the fact that we're in the midst of studying Ephesians in our Wednesday night bible study, it's quite timely that Mark Roberts has begun blogging an address he gave to the PCUSA General Council. The focus of his address is a study of Ephesians 4. Part 3, which was posted today, is a home run. I cannot say "amen" loudly enough.

In reaction to the perceived excesses of the church growth movement some have retreated into a mindset that says numerical growth doesn't matter, only spiritual growth matters. This is a false dichotomy. In fact, spiritual growth and vitality leads to numerical growth. If it doesn't, then it is not true spiritual growth. True spiritual growth is not just about learning doctrine, but about taking on the mission of God. Doctrinal purity without a missional focus is a recipe for pharisitical self-righteousness. True spiritual growth leads to numerical growth not through the latest techniques or ministry fads, but through the body of Christ living out its faith with Christ-like compassion and Holy Spirit-empowered boldness.

Granted, numerical growth without spiritual growth is equally dangerous, but that topic has been done to death by many others. My concern is that the church does not overreact and become insular. As I commented during our previous Wednesday study on church history, the church is a pendulum constantly swinging between extremes never reaching equilibrium. As flawed human beings, that's a good thing. We need to keep moving while hopefully minimizing the apex of our swings.

In our Wednesday night services for the past few months, we've been doing what I call a cooperative bible study. That is, I try to act more as a facilitator than a teacher. I really enjoy being a moderator for this kind of study, even though it is difficult for me to keep my mouth shut sometimes. For the last couple weeks we've been studying the "five-fold" (or four-fold) gifts in Ephesians 4. We encountered a situation where one bible dictionary gave a definition of evangelist as "one who evangelizes"...not very helpful. My comment at the time was "time to get a new bible dictionary". So I thought I would post some bible dictionary recommendations.

On a budget (free online):

The International Standard bible Encyclopedia - This work has been revised and expanded (the current edition is nearly 5,000 pages) but the first edition is still useful and it's available free online.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary - Another good free online tool.

The basics:

The New Unger's Bible Dictionary - This is a good tool to have. I reference it often.

Vine's Expository Dictionary - Older and not as detailed as Unger's, but still quite useful.

Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary - I don't personally have a copy of this work yet, but it's been recommended by a number of people as "Vine's for the 21st century".

If I've missed a bible dictionary that you've found particularly helpful, leave a comment.

A couple weeks ago the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, Thomas Trask, resigned his position with two years left on his term. Before taking office in Springfield, Rev. Trask was my pastor. I have the utmost respect for him and I pray God continues to bless him in whatever he does. At the General Council meetings next month, new leadership will be elected. I don't think it's hyperbole to say that this is a significant turning point in our fellowship. It goes without saying that we need to be in prayer regarding this decision over the next two weeks.

Some of the "young guns" (younger than me, at least chronologically) in the A/G including Brad Leach from Church of the King in Berkley have started the FutureAG blog to discuss this decision. While it's advertised as a temporary blog just for the next few weeks, I really hope it turns into something more. The interaction I've seen on this blog so far has been very positive, thoughtful, and encouraging. Case in point, yesterday's post by Paul Stewart entitled Identity Crisis and the ensuing comments. While the conversation is primarily among pastors, feel free to at least eavesdrop.

Once again Scot McKnight simply knocks one out of the ballpark, this time in a post on Christianity Today's Out of Ur blog. Be sure to read the comments, too. Good stuff.

David Wayne, the Jolly Blogger, has written a few posts recently that tie in nicely to our current Sunday series, "Loving Like Jesus". I thought I'd pass them along.

Good Friday Christianity vs. A Christianity that Condemns

Why We Haven't Changed the World

David is one of the more thoughtful and gracious "Godbloggers" out there, yet he's not above stirring the pot every now and then. My kind of guy.

As Scot McKnight said, David Fitch gets it. I think so too. 

Rick Meigs has a good post this morning over at The Blind Beggar about the tyranny of personal preferences. For too long Christians have considered the church service to be their refuge from the outside world, just like the "hideout" most little boys have growing up. It's a place to escape, to feel comfortable and safe, to be reassured and "fed". It's a place where we can pretend we're superheroes without actually having to fight any monsters. We've turned the church service into a clubhouse meeting.

Don't misunderstand, we need to be safe and reassured. We need to be comforted and healed. The church (i.e. the body of Christ) needs to perform that function. The church service (i.e. the main meeting where we invite the community to show up) should be a time when we set aside our personal preferences and do our best to communicate the Gospel in terms and forms that the "uninitiated" can grasp. Of course, that assumes that we actually care enough to invite the community to show up.

Rick quotes Breaking the Missional Code* which is a book I've just finished reading. There's a whole lot there to digest, but I'll probably reference it more in future posts. I highly recommend the book to anyone who is concerned about the growth of the Kingdom of God in North America. We no longer have the "home field advantage" trying to reach our community. We're living in post-Christian society and we need to start acting like it.

* You may be asking "what in the world does 'missional' mean?" You could just read the book to find out but if you just can't wait, check out Rick's other site, Friend of Missional.

Anyone who has read my blog or attended our church for any length of time knows that one of my big pet peeves is radical individualism. God created us as dependent creatures, to live any other way is to rebel against God's design. God himself exists in a state of radical community, something we call the Trinity. He has called His people to be a radical community, special people that live differently than the world around us. The church MUST become a transformed community living a true alternative lifestyle as the Body of Christ or it isn't really the church at all and will never have the impact on the world that God intends. Dan Edelen began a series yesterday on being the Body of Christ and continues it today with a great post on forging real community. As I've mentioned before, Mark Roberts is also blogging on the meaning of "church". I highly recommend keeping an eye on both of these series.

Mark Roberts has been blogging a great series called What is a Church? He started with a theological discussion of the NT definition of "church" (ekklesia), but has now begun to address the more practical applications of the definition. Today's post was particularly good. He focuses on the idea that the church is really meant be "an alternative society, a thumbnail sketch of the kingdom of God." I like this definition. As Dr. Roberts notes, however, we rarely achieve that goal.

Keith Schooley recently blogged about the issue of the Christian subculture. What's the difference between a subculture and an alternative society? I think of a subculture in mathematical terms. A subset in mathematics is a grouping that retains some elements of the superset, but excludes some elements. That is what the church has become, a subset of the larger culture. We exclude (or claim to exclude) some elements of modern society like pornography and abortion, yet retain many of the elements of modern society such as materialism and radical individualism.

An alternative society, on the other hand, is more like an intersection. There are still common elements, but there are differences that make us unique not by what we exclude but by what we include. For example, we share cultural elements such as food or the arts but we should be unique in our Kingdom focus. Characteristics such as our devotion to God, our devotion to brotherly love, the fruit of the Spirit, and our life priorities (i.e how we spend our time and money) should be the unique characteristics that define our society.

Being a subculture is easy. In fact, everyone is a part of at least one subculture whether they realize it or not. Being an alternative society, however, takes conscious effort. It's swimming upstream. That's what we're called by God to do. He hasn't called us to add religion to our already over-stuffed lives, He has called us to be transformed. Not a subset of the existing culture, but an alternative to it.