Trust~the crux of life...

"The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, For in God the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock."

Isaiah 26: 3,4

What should be the main priorities of the local church?

Worship. Others. If we could visualize the priorities of a church, I would see it this way: Faithful attendance and participation in spirit and truth in worship on Mt. Zion every Lord’s Day. This would be the top, the crest of the mountain. From there, the priority of the church should be each other, our families and our fellow members. This is the beginning of the “rivers” that flow from the origin of the Spirit (the top of the mountain) to the Church, and then down the mountain into the valley of the world. Worship and mountains are frequently associated with each other in the Bible. This is because we are to understand the connection between worshipping God in the heavens and our entering into those heavens with God when we worship.
Christian education is absolutely crucial as a priority for the church and esp. for the family. A church can have an intimate link with the support of parents and their responsibility to provide/give a Christian education to their children. I see a parochial school/co-op system to be a great way to educate children. A full-fledge day school can be a great way to go to, though the cost is a significant issue and the fact that they often compete with the church in their tendency to take center place in the family’s life and culture is a problem. Hear me, I would love to send one or all of my kids to a godly day-school, but I am concerned about how children are so loaded up with schoolwork that it crowds out everything else in their life.

One critique that I would have of the CREC is its placing its priority of the church in only worship, family, and Christian Ed. Worship yes, ministry to strengthen the family, absolutely, and a high regard for Christian ed. yes. But what is missing? The Church for the world. We should worship, build up “our community” (the family, the local church’s ministry and fellowship itself and devotion to a Christian ed.) and then, we must orient ourselves towards hospitality and involvement in the institutions of the city i.e. (City council, volunteering, community events, Boy Scouts etc.); You name it, places where there is potential in the city-the world- for relational development with the lost. We must get involved in the place where God has put us in the world. We aren’t here to isolate ourselves from the world and hole ourselves up in our church bldg’s, families, cars, cubicles at work, little Christian schools and then back again. Where is the time to invest in sinners (Jesus was a friend with notorious sinners wasn’t He?) if we spend all our spare time running our kids to soccer practice, piano lessons, debate club, church activities that we could let go, and 2 hours of homework every night that we must help our children with? But let’s face it. There’s not enough time to devote to friendship with the lost if we are too busy with 50 day-school activities, too many church events, and if our families are shy and overly independent from others. I think we need to rethink the way we do some things. We need to prioritize people more with the way we arrange our lives and institutions, to the degree that we are able. I am not against the day-school model. I am concerned however that families in them are too busy with homework loads and other functions. Can we provide more time for them to do their schoolwork at school? I think their is room for flexibility. I would love to send some of my kids to a day-school but the cost and homework are major issues for me.

In sum: Faithful worship, healthy families and a solid Christian education are the most potent things for evangelism, but they are not sufficient without face-to-face contact and involvement with the world outside.

So, to return.. Worship. Others. We learn to worship God individually and corporately and then we build our church up in its fellowship and community..By doing so, we strengthen the broader Church and our families as well. Healthy marriages and families in turn, build up the Church. They both feed into one another. After this, we pour out ourselves in faithfulness through relationships in our respective vocations and in ministry to the community (Chaplaincy, prison ministry, friendship evangelism and hospitality, pregnancy care center volunteering, nursing home visitation etc. etc.,) The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is to minister mercy to the poor, dysfunctional, and messed up people of the world. God will bless us with growth if we do these types of things. I believe He will bless us with gospel growth, and not just sheep-stealing from other churches.

On the subject of interpretation~something to think about

"The medieval theory of levels of meaning in the biblical text, with all its undoubted defects, flourished because it is true, while the modern theory of a single meaning, with all its demonstrable virtues, is false. Until the historical-critical method becomes critical of its own theoretical foundations and develops a hermeneutical theory adequate to the nature of the text which it is interpreting, it will remain restricted-as it deserves to be-to the guild and the academy, where the question of truth can endlessly be deferred."

David Steinmetz

This is not approving fanciful allegory but it is saying that there are multiple levels of meaning in Scripture. It is important to teach and preach the central truth and force of a text, but never, never are we to be either confusing or reductionistic/simplistic when summarizing the Bible's teaching. The Bible is profoundly simple, poetic and deep/complex at the same time.. If only I and other preachers could be that too. It's hard, pray for us!

The gospel message is a threat to all dominant powers

"Of course, when we pray in the name of Jesus, we find, again and again, that what we want to pray for subtly changes as we focus on Jesus himself. Part of the game is the readiness, in great things and small, to put our plans and hopes on hold and let God remake them as we gaze upon him, revealed in the inglorious glory of the manger, in the powerless power of the cross...."

N.T. Wright

Wright goes on his statement to show of course that the cross was the true power. The little humble King born in the animal trough would crush the great power of Caesar Augustus' Rome through conversion only 4 centuries later.