March Plumbline

IF YOU WANT A BETTER
WORLD
COMPOSED OF BETTER
NATIONS
INHABITED BY BETTER
STATES
FILLED WITH BETTER
COUNTIES
MADE UP OF BETTER
CITIES
COMPRISED OF BETTER
NEIGHBORHOODS
ILLUMINATED BY BETTER
CHURCHES
POPULATED WITH BETTER
FAMILIES,
THEN YOU HAVE TO START
BY BECOMING A BETTER

PERSON.

(Tony Evans)

God wants to use you to change the world!

February Plumbline

I will not panic! I will not panic! I will not panic! Obviously, it’s a temptation. With David and Toni Page both having left, there is a big void in the staff. They both brought wonderful talents, great personalities, and deep faith that will be sorely missed. We may even wonder how can Orangewood be Orangewood without them?

Of course, we’ve been there before. I’m sure the founding members wondered how Orangewood could be Orangewood without its founding pastor, Pat Patterson. In latter years, it was “how can we get along without Sam Lindamood?” “How can we go on without Bob and Joyce Page?” “What will we do without Brian Paulson?” In each of those occasions, Orangewood found that there were some challenges ahead, but God had wonderful blessings planned through those challenges.
One of the great gifts of the psalms is that they recall the history of God at work with his people. God has called them to be a covenant people. He has saved them from famine. He has delivered them from slavery in Egypt. He has given the law. He has fed them in the wilderness. He has raised up judges to cast out their oppressors, etc. But the psalms don’t usually stop there.

Many of the psalms use that history as a basis for faith and trust in God in the present. They cry out to God for the present crisis, and that cry is partially answered by remembering God’s faithfulness in the past. If God has always seen his people through in the past, God can be trusted to do it again in the near future.

In our personal lives, we have seen that God is at work through the hard times, giving us strength, courage, and faith and helping us to come through stronger and more faithful than we began. In our corporate life as a church we have seen how God has always raised up new leaders, blessing the gifts of ordinary people with the power of the Holy Spirit to guide the church in each new age. Now is the time to trust that God is at work in the present and will bless us through this difficult time in the near future.

I won’t panic. It’s all in God’s good hands!

Psalms 3:3 But you, O Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.

January Plumbline

The big news in the American church this December was that Willow Creek Community Church said “We made a mistake!” Willow Creek is a mega church that has attracted tens of thousands using marketing based approaches: Figure out what people are looking for and give it to them.

Worship has been made more presentational and less participational, because new-comers are not always ready to participate. Tickets are required for their 12 Christmas Services – you can view a seat map of the Auditorium (seekers don’t know what a sanctuary is), view available seats and obtain e-tickets online (they are free).

Willow Creek bashing has been a popular sport among main-line church leaders. Surely, there was something there that needed to be criticized, but just as surely, some of the disparagement was just jealousy. I’m jealous. Willow Creek has an average worship attendance of 17,500; ours is 260. And they have 4 spin-off sister churches! In some regards what Willow Creek has been doing, has been working! Not too many others have figured out how to get seekers, not only in the door, but to a statement of faith in Jesus Christ!

Now, they say, “we made a mistake!” That’s pretty extraordinary! From their position of mega-success, they have the courage to say “we made a mistake!” This statement comes from a multi-year study at Willow Creek that shows that heavy involvement in the church programs and activities of Willow Creek did not necessarily translate into spiritual growth and maturity. To some extent, that isn’t surprising – their focus has long been on getting new folk in the door. Fostering spiritual growth among those they already had took a back seat.

I’m wondering how we would do on the same test. Does involvement in the church programs and activities at Orangewood Presbyterian Church yield spiritual growth and maturity? As I get to know new members, I meet people at all levels of spiritual development. Some are long-time committed disciples of Jesus who engage in daily devotion and are working for God’s justice in some concrete area of the world. Others are here for the music, or because they want their kids to experience “religion.” None of these are bad reasons. We’re glad to have all of them. The question is, do we move them forward in their faith? Do our worship, our education, our mission experiences deepen our member’s walk with God?

I think the answer is a qualified “yes.” Not from a multi-year study, but from my own personal dealings with members I would say, some are progressing, some aren’t. From my own personal experience with my own faith journey, there are times in my life when I am progressing and times when I am not (Don’t tell anyone, but sometimes I even backslide!). Would there be a way to assess spiritual growth in a more research based fashion? Are we that courageous?

As fun as it is to bash Willow Creek, I think I must uneasily admit that now there are two things we must learn from them.
1. How to attract unchurched people to Christ.
2. How to examine what we do and admit where we are wrong.
After all, we are supposed to be the church reformed and always being reformed!

Ephesians 4:15
Speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.