@ Iron Sharpens Iron, Day 3

Plenary Session 4: Caring for the Family of God
Bill McRae

McRae points out 4 dimensions of the care-giving ministry:

• Complementing the Faithful: Encouraging
• Comforting the Hurting:
• Challenging the Complacent: Exhortation
• Confronting the Unruly: Reproof

McRae focused primarily on the Encouraging portion of this ministry. Some of the techniques he mentioned included Spoken & Written words to those that need encouraging. It's surprising how much we're negative to those that just want to be picked up. On the flip side of that was a listening ear. Another fault we are often guilty of is just talking, when hearing what the other person needs would be enough. Another important, and often maligned technique is physical touch. Because of our fear of touch being misconstrued, we forget how powerful a simple hug or hand on the shoulder can be.
Other things McRae mentioned were hospitality, gifts and acts of service. The final thing is often spoken about, but not used as often, yet it is the single most powerful thing any believer has in support of another believer: Prayer.
Overall a spirit of self-sacrifice seems to go a long way in helping another person keep up their ministry.


Elective Seminar Session 3: Is this the Last Christian Generation?
John Glock

While it seems that this was a needed session, I probably could have gone somewhere else and received more helpful discussion. Essentially, Glock said that today, people are postmodern, and for those who have a modern mindset, there has to be significant adjustment in order to communicate the Word effectively. I agree wholeheartedly, but I just finished my thesis which deals extensively on using postmodern principles to move the Plymouth Brethren back int relevance, so the terrain was already familiar to me. That being said, Glock did an excellent job pointing to the fact that thinking patterns need to change. The point he mostly missed, however, is that the postmodern cry for "Authenticity" can be answered by true Christian love, pushing us to use the most powerful communicator God has given: Love.

@ Iron Sharpens Iron: Day 2

Plenary Session 3: Barriers to a Caring Church
Bill McRae

In his first Plenary Session on Friday night, Bill McRae pointed to seven barriers to caring in a church. The catch is, we've all got some of them. The question is which ones are negativly impacting our church the most, and which ones we as individuals must deal with.

1. A Spirit of Partiality. Despite early changes in the church to prevent favoritism, James was still dealing with it when he wrote decades later. We are sometimes divided on cultural, racial or class lines, but sometimes we just don't like people. The new, "Christian" way of dealing with this is ignoring the people you don't like. It's wrong, and we need to confess it as sin.
2. A Distorted Vision. While there are a number of factors that need to be considered when we move forward in our churches, it we don't include community, we will most likely forget it, which results in an uncaring church.
3. Misplaced Values. This one occurs a lot in the workplace, so it easily translates into the church if we don't pay attention. Christ valued people above everything else, but we often place programs as more important. We step on toes to get things done. Our responsibility before God is to demonstrate our love to one another, not make sure that the special music is perfect every Sunday. We need to stop being masters, and become loving parents.
4. The Curse of Complacency. We see this in the Church of Laodicea. We often get to a point where we are happy and satisfied. As Jim Collins put it in his excellent book Good to Great "Good is the enemy of Great." If we are happy with the way things are going, we will not put in the effort necessary to really reach people. Why should we? We like the Kingdom the way it is. It's important to separate satisfaction from contentment. Contentment is not worrying about things you cannot control. Satisfaction is not worrying about things you should be doing. This is something that I struggle with on a regular basis.
5. The Blight of Busyness. This is the opposite of complacency, but just as damaging to people. We sometimes worry so much about getting things done that we forget that the most important thing is to love. We put off people to accomplish what we feel has to be done.
6. An Unforgiving Spirit. McRae claims that this is the easiest and most common access rout for sin into the church. I believe him. We so often hold out on our love, poison relationships, and cut apart the body of Christ because we have not forgiven. True forgiveness must occur in order for love to take its proper place, and the bitterness that unforgiveness produces can rot away all the love a church has ever had.
7. A lack of Prayer. This one hit me between the eyes. I've never had a fantastic prayer life, but it's dwindled down to almost nothing in the past three months. It's disgusting. And I can see it reflected in how much I care, because that has dwindled as well. Fortunately, McRae also provided the antidote: Start Praying, and don't stop. He pointed out that if we truly care, we will pray for one another, but if we don't care, but start praying anyway, we will begin to care. I'm testing this theory out by setting aside time to pray more specifically and intensely than I ever have in the past. I'll let you know how it goes.

@ Iron Sharpens Iron: Day 2

Elective Seminar Session 2: The "One Another's" in John's Writings
George Farber

While I was excited to take a class that was essentially a word study, I had a little trepidation because such sessions can easily turn into dry theological discussions, and miss the practical completely. They word study itself was almost painfully brief: The commands that contain "One another" in John are either "Love one another" or emerge directly from "Love one another." And the "Newness" that John says is a quality of the command is one of quality, not time (which I think I knew, but had forgotten.)
Thankfully, the part was much fuller, and more enlightening, which is the way it should be. The first thing that was pointed out was that walking in the light (another of John's favorite phrases) is a prerequisite to loving.
Farber offered a number of tests for understanding how much we love, all of which were at least a little convicting:

• How much do I love an individual after they have failed?
• Do I regret it when schisms occur?
• Do I seek reconciliation?
• Am I willing to take a loss rather than "win" the argument?

Farber concluded by pointing out that in John 3:16, the word "so" forces the 2nd phrase.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Without "so" we could end the verse at world. God loved the world. Period. And in his righteous anger sent them all to hell. But the "so" forces an explanation - He gave his only Son. Use that same phrase as a test for your love:

I so love my fellow believers that I _____________________. What do you do out of love for your fellow believers? John indicates that our love for one another is the primary evidence the world has of the truth in us. How good of a witness are you?