Matt Capps Christian Theology, Christianity, Culture, Faith, Gospel, Pastoral Ministry, Religion, The Great Commission Resurgence, The Southern Baptist Convention, Theology, Thoughts

Are some Christians being unfairly shamed out of the public sphere?

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Alan Noble is the managing editor and co-founder of Christ and Pop Culture and is an assistant professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University.

Noble recently wrote a thought provoking article on Christians and the public square for The Atlantic titled Is Evangelical Morality Still Acceptable in America?

Is evangelical Christian morality still viable in American public life?

…There is a fear that in an increasingly secularized society, there will be less tolerance for people who wish to act upon their deeply held religious beliefs, except in narrowly defined, privatized spaces. This is a fundamentally American concern: Will I have the right to serve God as I believe I am obligated to?

Often, Christian claims to religious liberty are framed as homophobia and misogyny, rather than disagreement grounded in morality.

Often, the Christian defense of what they believe is their religious liberty is framed as fundamental hatefulness, homophobia, and misogyny, rather than disagreement grounded in morality. Much to the shame of the faith, a few who claim to be Christian really are motivated by hate. Those who disagree with them see little point in engaging with them on these issues, which is understandable, but it’s unfair and counterproductive to extend that attitude to all evangelical Christians. If the evangelical worldview is deemed invalid in the public sphere, then the public sphere loses the value of being public. American discourse will be marked by paranoid conformity, rather than principled and earnest disagreement. And our ability to prophetically speak to one another and to our nation’s troubles will be restrained.

I encourage you to read the whole thing.

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Matt Capps Biblical Theology, Christian Theology, Christianity, Faith, Gospel, Pastoral Ministry, Religion, The Great Commission Resurgence, The Southern Baptist Convention, Theology

Jonah and The Mission of God

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This is the first message in a series on the book of Jonah that Philip Nation and I are preaching at The Fellowship in Nashville, TN. The sermon starts at around 23:30 (and ends at 54:40…Boom! Almost 30 minutes on the dot.)

Matt Capps Christian Theology, Christianity, Faith, Gospel, Pastoral Ministry, Religion, The Great Commission Resurgence, The Southern Baptist Convention, Theology

7 Disciplines to Strengthen Evangelistic Focus

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Rick Segal of Bethlehem College and Seminary recently wrote a helpful article on evangelism and spending time with unbelievers titled Are You Too Christian for Non-Christians?. Ask yourself, how much time do you spend with unbelieving individuals? What is the quality of your social relationships with unbelievers? Segal offers seven disciplines to strengthen your evangelistic focus in everyday life.

1. Pray for the unbelievers in your life by name.

Margaret Thatcher once famously said, “There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families…” Her point being that we must regard each other at human scale, not as mere components of larger social institutions. The same can be said of the way we use the term “the lost.” Of course our hearts grieve for the millions who do not know Jesus, but we don’t know the millions, personally. Most of us do know personally at least dozens, some of us hundreds, and rather than lump these precious individuals into one big prayer cohort, we could begin to take their given names before the Lord in prayer. Start writing their names down and praying over them at least once a week.

2. Be intentional in pursuing relationships and scheduling time with unbelievers.

If you don’t make engagement with unbelieving people a priority, your life will gravitate automatically toward the pleasures and comforts of the church community cul de sac. Identify two people outside of your Christian circle with whom you think you would enjoy spending more time. Look for two more who appear to need someone to come alongside of them as they struggle with burdens in their lives. Target one other with whom you seem to have the least in common, but enough of a relationship that you could see it becoming, with a little work, a friendship. You needn’t feel that you to need to sacrifice any of your principles or values to love someone else. It’s what we’re commanded to do. Love God. Love our neighbors.

3. Don’t withdraw from unbelieving family members. Lean in.

Family members are people with whom, like it or not, you are already in relationship. You already love them, and they already love you, despite theological differences. Don’t make them a project, just love them as members of your family. Be sincerely interested in what they’re interested in, even if you find it hard to be interested. Know their struggles. Encourage them. Affirm them. Don’t be estranged. Lean in and never give up on any of them. Above all else, pray for them.

4. Love your neighbors.

Know your neighbors. Help your neighbors. Enjoy your neighbors. Be the epoxy that glues your neighbors into a neighborhood. Practice hospitality. Make your home a place that your neighbors associate with their love for each other.

5. Appreciate your workplace as the best place.

For most Christians, the workplace is the place where we will spend the most time with unbelieving people. Work requires us to collaborate with others to see it to completion. Relationships in the workplace are sometimes even easier to develop than with family members. You share more time and, in time, more in common. Don’t allow your Christianity to be a wedge that separates you from co-workers. You needn’t compromise your values, nor engage in any unbiblical activities to secure a co-worker’s esteem or affection, but you do need to take an active interest in your coworkers as fellow human beings, not just the other spokes in a wheel you happen to share. Appreciate that people in the workplace are not the means of getting your work done, they are the objects of your work as an ambassador for Christ.

6. Harvest relationships from your children’s activities.

Children are now involved in lots of activities, year round. If you have several children, the breadth of your relationship universe is substantial across the expanse of all the other coaches, parents and teammates. So, go deep. Work these crowds. Befriend people in these communities. Do things with them. Bring them together in your home with family members, co-workers and neighbors. A word of warning: don’t permit all of your kids’ activities to take place in Christian-only programs.

7. Take up a new hobby, especially one shared in groups.

Diversions from responsibilities can be personally renewing and restorative, and great venues for evangelism. Find something fun or interesting to do or learn in which you are not fulfilling a specific responsibility or obligation to anyone — just taking your mind off of things for awhile. But, find something that requires you to do it with other people. Here you’ll likely meet people of all different walks, the bond being the shared interest in the hobby. It will help to find something in which someone else, perhaps an unbeliever, will have to be invested in you to help you along. This can be the leaven of really great relationships.

The truth is the product of this hypothetical formula is not a score, it is joy. There are few greater joys in life than sharing the gospel with another person, even fewer greater joys than knowing you have been used as means, immediately or eventually, in another’s conversion in Christ. Yes, we rejoice in corporate worship, in Christian fellowship, and in private devotion, and also in the essential work of sharing Christ with those who do not yet know him.

Read the whole thing here.

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Matt Capps Christian Theology, Christianity, Culture, Faith, Gospel, Pastoral Ministry, Religion, The Great Commission Resurgence, The Southern Baptist Convention, Theology

The Persecuted Church and American Christianity

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Yesterday Faith Street published an article by Russell Moore titled “Could the Persecuted Church Rescue American Christianity?” Here is an excerpt.

We have grown accustomed to an American civil religion, nominally Christian, where in many places it does someone social good to join a church. To say “I’m not a Christian” has been in those places the equivalent of saying “I’m not a good person.” This has inflated membership rolls, yes, but it has done so at the expense of what Jesus calls the gospel: the call to carry a cross.

Moreover, this nominal Christianity has emphasized the “values” and “meaning” aspects of Christianity while often downplaying the “strangeness” of Christianity, namely the conviction that a previously dead man is alive and returning to judge the living and the dead.

This Bible Belt experiment will not long survive the secularizing of American culture, where increasingly even the “values” seem strange to the culture. The church will survive, and, I believe, flourish — but it will mean the stripping away of the almost-gospels we’ve grown accustomed to.

Moore continues:

When we encounter those persecuted around the world, we see a glimpse of what Jesus has called all of us to. We see the sort of faith that isn’t a means to an end. We see the sort of faith that joins the global Body of Christ, across time and space, in the confession of a different sort of reign. We see a gospel that isn’t the American Dream with heaven at the end.

Read the whole thing. It is worth your time.

Matt Capps Biblical Theology, Christian Theology, Christianity, Faith, Gospel, Pastoral Ministry, Religion, The Great Commission Resurgence, The Southern Baptist Convention, Theology

Jesus Came Preaching

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Timothy George (Th.D., Harvard University) just published an article in the First Things journal titled “Jesus Came Preaching“. George starts the article by examining the uniqueness of a preaching Savior:

“At the heart of the Christian faith is a Savior who was a preacher. “And Jesus came preaching” (Mark 1:14). This stands in contrast to the gods of Olympus or the deities of the Roman pantheon whose interaction with mortals, when it happened at all, was transient, ephemeral, detached, like a circle touching a tangent. Zeus thundered, but he did not preach. Nor did the dying and rising savior gods of the mystery religions. There were ablutions and incantations and the babbling utterances of the Sibylline Oracles but nothing that could rightly be called a sermon.”

At the end of the article, George expounds on the power of preaching in the ancient world, and issues a challenge for pastors today. His words provide a powerful reminder to all Bible teachers – especially pastors.

The preachers of the early church were not merely expressing their personal opinions or providing entertainment to their listeners. No, they were in the vanguard of the militia Christi, the army of Jesus that sheds no blood. Their preaching propelled redemptive history forward toward the consummation of all things. This is certainly how Matthew 24:14 has been understood, from the age of the apostles right through the dawn of the modern ecumenical movement: “And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

The promise still stands and the task yet remains, for God ever renews his church through new forms of preaching—the martyrs, the monks, the mendicants, the missionaries, the reformers, the awakeners, the pastors and the teachers. Where such proclamation is faithful to the living and written Word of God and enlivened by the Spirit, it is an effective means of grace and a sure sign of the true church.

To read the whole article, click here.

Matt Capps Christian Theology, Christianity, Faith, Gospel, Pastoral Ministry, The Great Commission Resurgence, The Southern Baptist Convention, Theology

10 Truths About Evangelism

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This was previously posted by Mack Stiles at the Crossway blog. I thought I would pass it on! Stiles is the author of Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus.

1. Our evangelistic efforts must stem from a biblical understanding of evangelism.

There are so many ways to go wrong in evangelism—impulses of fear on the one side, vain ambition on the other—that if we do not nail down a truly biblical understanding, we will quickly veer off course. So we start by understanding that biblical evangelism is teaching the gospel with the aim to persuade.

2. Evangelism is often the label given to things that are not evangelism.

Is sharing your testimony evangelism? Is defending the Christian faith evangelism? How about doing good deeds for the oppressed? Certainly those are good things that serve and support evangelism. But they are not evangelism itself. We must not confuse the gospel with the fruit of the gospel.

3. Evangelism entails teaching the gospel first and foremost.

God teaches us the gospel through his Word; we can’t just  ”figure it out” on our own. So it stands to reason that we must speak and teach the gospel to others: the truth about who God is, why we’re in the mess we’re in, what Jesus came to do, and how we are to respond to him. It’s no wonder that Paul often described his evangelistic ministry as a teaching ministry.

4. Evangelism aims to persuade.

We want to see people move from darkness to light. Having that aim helps us know what things to talk about and what things to lay aside. Evangelism isn’t just data transfer; we must listen to people, hear their objections, and model gentleness because we know that souls are at stake. And we know what it means to truly convert: a true Christian has put his complete faith and trust in Jesus, so much so that he has repented of a lifestyle of unbelief and sin. Understanding this guards us from false conversions, which are the assisted suicide of the church.

5. Evangelism flourishes in a culture of evangelism.

Much instruction is given about personal evangelism. And that’s right and good since we’re each called to testify to our own personal encounter with Jesus. But when people are pulling together to share the gospel, when there is less emphasis on getting “a decision,” when the people of God are pitching in to teach the gospel together, a culture forms that leads us to ask “Are we all helping our non-Christian friends understand the gospel?” rather than “Who has led the most people to Jesus?”

6. Evangelistic programs will kill evangelism.

We need to replace evangelistic programs with a culture of evangelism. Programs are to evangelism what sugar is to nutrition: a strict diet of evangelistic programs produces malnourished evangelism. So, we should feel a healthy unease with regard to evangelistic programs. We must use them strategically and in moderation, if at all.

7. Evangelism is designed for the church and the church is designed for evangelism.

A healthy church with a culture of evangelism is the key to great evangelism. Jesus did not forget the gospel when he built his church; in fact, a healthy church is meant to display the gospel. Think of the ways that the gathered church displays the gospel: we sing the gospel, we see the gospel in the sacraments, and we hear the gospel when we preach and pray. A healthy culture of evangelism does not aim at remaking the church for the sake of evangelism. Instead, we must highlight the way God designed the church to display and proclaim the gospel simply by being the church.

8. Evangelism is undergirded by love and unity.

Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). In that same discourse, he prayed that his disciples would be unified “so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20–21). Jesus says the love we have for one another in the church is evidence that we are truly converted. And when we are unified in the church, we show the world that Jesus is the Son of God. Love confirms our discipleship, and unity confirms Christ’s deity. What a powerful witness!

9. A culture of evangelism is strengthened by right practices and right attitudes.

We need to make sure that we see evangelism as a spiritual discipline. Just as we pray for our non-Christian friends, we must be intentional about sharing our faith with them. Furthermore, we must never assume the gospel in conversations with non-Christians lest we lose it. We need to view the gospel as the center of how we align our lives to God as well as come to God in salvation.

10. Evangelism must be modeled.

One of the greatest needs in our churches today is for church leaders to boldly model what it means to be an ambassador of the gospel. Pastors and elders must lead the way in sharing their faith, teaching others how to be ambassadors for Christ, and calling their congregations to do the same.

Matt Capps Biblical Theology, Christian Theology, Christianity, Faith, Gospel, Pastoral Ministry, Religion, The Great Commission Resurgence, The Southern Baptist Convention, Theology

How Do We Mobilize The Church For Evangelism?

Jeff Vanderstelt has some really good things to say about evangelism. Vanderstelt is a pastor at Soma Communities, an A29 church in Tacoma, WA.

I am always challenged by Jeff’s teaching. I’ve also hung out with Jeff and his crew a few times now, and I can tell you that he is a leader with a heart for leaders and deeply loves the church. Enjoy the video!

Matt Capps Christian Theology, Christianity, Faith, Gospel, LifeWay, LifeWay Church Resources, Pastoral Ministry, Religion, The Great Commission Resurgence, The Southern Baptist Convention, Theology

10 Tips For Leading A Small Group

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Groups are absolutely essential to the health and mission of a church. They are likely the starting point for community, discipleship, and service in your church. In fact, recent research shows that people involved in groups are healthier spiritually than those who aren’t. People in groups read the Bible more, pray more, give more, and serve more. Simply stated: groups matter.

What happens when groups gather also matters. I found Rick Howerton‘s list 10 Practices of Great Small Group Facilitators helpful. Here are his very practical suggestions.

  1. Do ice-breakers that everyone participates in and that build individual trust and team unity.
  2. Affirm each person when they speak, especially early in the group’s life.
  3. Draw everyone into the conversation. When there is a person who seems slow to jump into the discussion, graciously ask their opinion or request their input.
  4. Be relaxed yourself. A relaxed facilitator creates a relaxed environment.
  5. When asking the group to speak of a sensitive life issue or situation, be the first to tell your story.
  6. Involve your apprentice when possible.
  7. Talk less than 30% of the time.
  8. Converse with those in your group between group gatherings.
  9. When you don’t know the answer to a question asked of you, say you don’t know but that you’ll try to find out and that you’ll get back to the group with the answer to the question.
  10. React to delicate situations/moments with grace and sensitivity.

This list origionally appeared on ChurchLeaders.com

Matt Capps Biblical Theology, Christian Theology, Christianity, Faith, Gospel, LifeWay, LifeWay Church Resources, Pastoral Ministry, Religion, The Gospel Project, The Great Commission Resurgence, The Southern Baptist Convention, Theology

Jesus and the Ten Commandments

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This post origionally appeared at The Gospel Project blog in a series on the Ten Commandments. 

For too many Christians the Ten Commandments are impossible imperatives. While we would affirm that God’s commands are good, they seem to bring nothing more than a moral burden that crushes us under the weight of God’s holiness. Our difficulty with the Ten Commandments can be resolved by understanding the aim of God’s law in the context of redemptive history. Furthermore, when we fail to see the context in which the law was given, we tend to overlook the relationship of the law of God to the grace of God.

You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Me…I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. –Exodus 19:4; 20:2 (HCSB)

These are the words of the God of Israel to Moses as he stood on Mount Sinai and looked back at what God had done for His people, how He had delivered them from slavery in Egypt. It is important to remember that when God gave the Israelites the law, their status as God’s people had already been established.

Since Israel was given a new life after God delivered them out of Egypt, the law functioned to show Israel what this new life was to look like. And the laws given at Sinai were not arbitrary but stemmed from the character of God and His original purpose for humankind in creation. The purpose of Israel’s obedience was to reflect God’s nature to the world around them as a concrete expression of their devotion to God. The same is true for Christians today; God’s law establishes a separate and unique identity for God’s people.

However, the history of Israel (and our own hearts) confirm that the ideals of God’s law cannot be achieved without God’s divine intervention. The Ten Commandments expose our sinful motives and behavior for what they are, namely, transgression of specific commands. And we know from experience that the Ten Commandments do not have the power to transform us or liberate us from the power of sin. So, the law is like a teacher who shows us God’s holiness, our sinfulness, and our need for salvation. And the needed divine intervention ultimately comes through Jesus Christ. This is the good news of the gospel.

By faith we receive the gift of Jesus’ law-keeping, which was perfectly achieved on our behalf, and in Him we become righteous. Therefore, we uphold the law by turning our backs on our own warped efforts to keep the law and by putting all our confidence and trust in the One who satisfied all the laws demands on our behalf (Romans 3:31). Thus, when one is saved through repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ, they are released from the power of sin and the condemnation of the law. In salvation we are given new hearts to know and understand God’s order for creation. The spirit of rebellion against the authority and rule of God is replaced by a spirit of obedience. Gospel-driven internal motivation replaces external moral constraint (Jeremiah 31:31-33; Ezekiel 11:19-20, 36:26-27).

Therefore, God’s law is still authoritative and necessary for Christians today. Jesus did not so much replace the Old Testament law as make explicit its proper application to the heart and not just external behavior (Romans 6:14, 8:1-4). Jesus’ idea of obedience moves beyond religious observance, focusing not only on the things we do but on who we are (Matthew 5–7). Only the gospel changes the heart and can lead to lasting change in our lives.

You will remember that when asked by one of the religious leaders to identify the greatest commandment in all of the law, Jesus replied by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands. –Matthew 22:37-40 (HCSB)

In many ways, Jesus’ response summarized the heart of the Ten Commandments. The first four of the Ten Commandments have to do with our relationship to God, while Commandments six through ten addresses our relationship to one another. Jesus came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17). Jesus is the true Israelite who perfectly loved God with all of His heart and perfectly loved His neighbors (Luke 22:42; John 15:13). The Old Testament law pointed to Jesus Christ and is only properly revealed in Him (Romans 8:3; 10:4; Galatians 3:24).

In fulfilling the law through His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus enables us to attain righteousness greater than that of religious obedience. Jesus has delivered us from a slave master greater than Egypt—that of sin and death. Jesus was crushed under the weight of our sin so that we could be free to obey God’s commands. Our gospel-empowered desire to obey God’s commands creates a separate and unique identity for us as God’s holy people sent out in His name into the world. Those who love God will express their love for Him in obedience and missionally in their love for others.

In response to what Christ has done, knowing that our status as God’s people is secure, we submit to the words of Paul, who declared in Romans 12:1, “by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship.”

Matt Capps Biblical Theology, Christian Theology, Christianity, Faith, Gospel, LifeWay, LifeWay Church Resources, Pastoral Ministry, Personal, Religion, The Great Commission Resurgence, The Southern Baptist Convention, Theology

4 Suggestions on “Sharing the Gospel” from Matt Chandler

In a recent interview with Bob Smietana for Facts and Trends Magazine, Matt Chandler offered four practical suggestions for teaching Christians how to share their faith.

1. Get the gospel right.

Strategy doesn’t matter if churches don’t get their message right. And people can’t share the gospel if they don’t know it. “Get the gospel message right,” he says. “And then be confident in that message. Not in your delivery but in the message. Here’s what we do—we love well and we share the gospel.”

2. Admit your faults.

Self-righteousness is one of the biggest turnoffs for nonbelievers, says Chandler. Don’t pretend being a Christian makes you superior to other people. “If you really understand grace, it’s not us and them,” he says. “It’s us. The ground at the cross is flat. The gospel of Jesus Christ has set me free to not pretend that I am perfect in front of you.”

3. Don’t try to scare people into following Jesus.

Chandler’s not afraid to talk about hell. He says it’s an “awful reality” that can’t be avoided. But avoiding hell isn’t the main message of the gospel. “If hell is how you are trying to motivate people toward heaven, then you have missed a key component of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ,” he says. “Namely He has justified us, sanctified us, and is adopting us as sons and daughters. You have missed the entire delight piece—where God delights in those He has rescued.”

4. Focus on the gospel instead of arguments about non-essentials.

Chandler tries to steer clear of arguments over issues like creation, evolution or the age of earth, where he’s not an expert. “If you think you don’t have all the answers,” says Chandler, “Just say ‘I don’t know. But here’s what I do know—Jesus changed my life.’ A passionate belief in Jesus Christ that has changed your life is still the best apologetic.” Remind people their job isn’t to save nonbelievers. Instead, they need to share the gospel and let God do the work. “I have tried repeatedly to lay out the reality that it is God who saves,” he says. “God saves. That takes the pressure off of people.”

To read the whole article, click here.