AGC's SPECIAL GUEST

This months blog features one of AGC's finest senior Chaplains: Chap (CAPT) Steve Brown.  Chaplain Brown is the 2 MEF Chaplain and oversees most of the military religious ministries in Afghanistan.  As you read about his vision and ministerial experience, please pray for him and those who are serving in Harm's Way. 
  Our second feature is a book review by Chaplain (COL) Ken Lawson on "Theological Liberalism and the Church."  Enjoy Chaplain's Lawson's mature views on a controversial subject. 

God bless.

CHAP STEVE BROWN:

“That One be Found Faithful”

 
“Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.”

(1 Cor 4:1-2 / NKJV)

  Regional Command (Southwest) Afghanistan has 47 Chaplains (30 US, 14 British, 3 Danish) who provide ministry to over 30,000 Coalition Forces and those who serve with them.  These chaplains are responsible to their Commanding Officers, but more importantly to “the Commander” above in providing for the Spiritual needs of those who serve in this arduous combat zone.  Hundreds have been grievously wounded and over 60 have given their last full measure of devotion since our Transfer of Authority in March 2011.  Freedom is not free.  We battle an enemy who would seize the freedoms we take for granted and enslave us as the people of this land were once enslaved.  What is the cost to prevent this enslavement?  Our Commanding General said it this way, his Marines are our country’s “National Treasure.”       

I continue to marvel at God’s providence in placing me here as the senior Coalition Chaplain in RC(SW).  It is not a job I sought.  God put me here.  God has moved here.  The “distractions of life” are removed when one deploys for 12 months.  Marines begin to think about things they have long ignored, to include life, death, and God.  It is a great opportunity to share Christ with them, His word and His will.

 What is so special about this deployment?  Really, nothing!  All we have sought to do is faithfully serve our Lord in this very difficult and dangerous place.  There are no ministerial discounts.  Ministry in a combat zone is just plain hard work.  God does not require success on our part, but simply our faithfulness in the work.  Our success is measured by God “in” our “faithfulness.”  God has drawn men and women to himself here, not us.  We just wanted to be “in the way” and He chose to use us.  It is all of Him, (For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen). 

 The human heart hungers for that which only God can satisfy.  With the distractions removed, some of the toughest Marines have examined the claims of Christ and found in them and in Him a wholeness they have never known.  The work is not just done by chaplains.  Every Christian has the responsibility to be light and salt.  You discover what a person is really like after six months of arduous duty.  Those whose faith is genuine shine in this dark place.  Others are drawn to the source of that light, Christ.       

  set the expectations of our team of Chaplains before we deployed.  We set the conditions for thriving Chapel Programs at our main camps.  Our Chapels have become an Oasis in this Desert.  Men and women have given their hearts to Christ almost every week and 5 - 7 are baptized each month publically professing their faith in Christ.  How has this happened?  Solid consistent Biblical preaching and teaching!  We consistently exalt Christ, the Text, Grace and Faith.  God does the rest.  Something is offered every day at Camp Leatherneck Chapel sometimes several times a day.  We also comprehensively cover the battlefield utilizing the” Holy Helo” to reach difficult places.

So what is the “secret” to the successful ministry out here?  One thing, faithfulness to Christ!   Seizing the opportunities He has placed before us and faithfully using the gifts and talents with which He has graced us to serve as stewards of the mysteries of God. 

Book Review by Chap Ken Lawson

A Handful of Pebbles: Theological Liberalism and the Church, (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2008), by Peter Barnes. 88 pages.

This little book has caused quite a stir in Christian scholarly circles. Used as a supplementary textbook in many conservative evangelical and fundamental colleges and seminaries, Peter Barnes has found a niche for his timely book.

In eight short chapters, the author discusses the dangers of theological liberalism and its detrimental effects upon biblical Christianity. He begins by discussing the attributes of theological liberalism, essentially calling the movement scholarly unbelief with a presupposition against the supernatural. While claiming to be objective and open-minded, liberals reject most or all of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible. With serious presuppositional bias, the liberal scholar assumes the Bible is just an old, interesting but ordinary book. Some liberals openly attack the Bible and boldly proclaim their unbelief in the God of scripture. Other liberals are more subtle, using biblical language but changing the meaning of key theological words, neutering their distinct historical and theological meaning.

The author is quite clear in his short but accurate summary of biblical warnings against false prophets, and against those who would try to alter or diminish the eternal word of God. He then traces the rise of Christian liberalism, from its European origins to its full manifestation in the majority of colleges, universities, and seminaries in Europe and America today. This rise of liberalism originated in the academies of Europe, as non-Christian scholars dissected and micro-analyzed the Bible with an anti-supernatural bias. That meant their academic speculations centered on such things as what did Jesus actually say, or was Moses really a person, or was there ever really a historical leader named King David. All miracles were disavowed. The resurrection of Jesus was rejected. Christianity to the liberal became a benevolent organization, or a social club. The blood atonement of Christ was rejected as revolting.

Peter Barnes then weaves his narrative around the reactions to Christian liberalism. First, he details American fundamentalism and its restating of historic biblical doctrines, in defiance of liberalism.  Barnes then introduces us to Neo-Orthodoxy, a movement that grew as a middle position between liberalism and fundamentalism. He then discusses how Neo-Orthodoxy failed, and how that compromised movement was quickly absorbed by Christian liberalism.

The book then discusses key biblical doctrines from the view of the liberal and the fundamentalist. The doctrines discussed are scripture, the nature of God, the person of Christ, salvation, the resurrection of Christ, concluding with comments on heaven and hell. Barnes shows samples of liberalism’s view of these fundamental doctrines, and how these critical doctrinal issues are explained away, ignored, or attacked by liberals. He then sites biblical support for affirming and defending these vital biblical teachings.

Barnes concludes his small book by stating how he believes a biblical Christian should respond to liberalism. Essentially, Barnes states that liberalism should be exposed as a fraud and separated from by biblical Christians. On these points I agree. Although there are other books that cover this material in more detail, I recommend this book. 

WORSHIP OR SERVICE?

Welcome fellow co-laborers in the Lord's work.  This months' feature is a missive on "What is Worship" brought to us by Chaplain Emile Moured.  As Chaplain's we often take for granted that we know all about these things, but this article reminds all of us that not only head knowledge is important, but heart knowledge too.  May all be blessed as they read this for the glory of our Savior. 

Rediscovering Worship

 “I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
        I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.” Psalm 104:33

 Believers overwhelmed by God’s goodness and mercy love to worship Him.  We were created to worship Him.   Yet I would agree with A.W. Tozer who said, “Worship is the missing jewel” of the church.  If that’s true, how can we rediscover worship or rediscover an appreciation of our understanding of worship?

Worship Defined

 What is worship?   We often think of “worship” in the following terms:

- praising God

- coming together to sing and pray

- giving God His due

 How do we use the term or hear it used?

I have heard contemporary music called “praise and worship”, from which one might erroneously infer that hymns or other sacred music were something other than praise or worship.  The music leader is often referred to as the “worship leader”, as if the Sunday School teacher, the usher, the pray-ers or the preacher aren’t in a sense leader worship as well.  We have all used phrases like “worship service” to be synonymous with our Sunday gathering at church.  Is that what it is? 

 Biblical concepts of “worship”

The words we translate “worship” in the Hebrew and Greek communicate two concepts: “humility” and “service. ”

The first is found in John 4:23:  “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”  The words for worship here (from proskuneo) mean “to kiss towards.”  Not “to not kiss up” as used in our colloquial language of the day, but as a tender act of love and respect.   In the Old Testament, the equivalent was shachah, which alluded to the posture of the worshiper who often bowed in reverence or adoration.  So, first, worship is humble adoration.

The second concept – worship as “service” – is probably best illustrated for us in Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”  Some translations rightly translate the word for “service” (latreia) as “worship”.  Romans 12:1-2 tells us that based on what we learn of God’s mercies in chapters 1-11 of Romans, our response is to serve God – to worship Him –  in return.  So worship is service.  The act of worship is actually an internal condition generating and outward response. 

So, in a sense, calling our Sunday morning gathering a “worship service” is somewhat repetitively redundant.  In addition, have you ever asked yourself, “why do we call it a ‘service’?  And what kind of ‘serving’ is going on during the time we gather?”  While it is not false to call it a “worship service”, it has greatly delimited our definition of “worship” to “an hour on Sunday morning or Wednesday evening where we all gather, sing, and hear preaching.”   In delimiting worship, I agree with Tozer that we have lost much of its meaning.

 But “worship” is humble adoration and service that flows from something internal.  Can that happen on Sunday morning?  Sure.  But I’m not sure that’s the best way to gauge whether I am or we are truly worshiping or not.  Based on a Biblical definition of worship, how do I know I’ve worshiped God?   If it’s proskuneo, shachah, and latreia, then I know I have worshiped God when I am humbly serving Him

 We are all familiar with Samuel’s words to Saul that it “is better to obey than to sacrifice” (1 Sam 15:22; cp. Isaiah 1:18-20).  Obedience and heart response to God is more important than following a prescribed form of worship.  So, when I walk out of church on Sunday and say “wow! that was a great service” and then forget my Lord the rest of the week, then I did not worship.  How do I know I’ve worshiped God?  When I humbly serve Him –  when I am actually doing the service.

 So worship is service.  According to Rom. 12:1, worship is not just this meeting we have on Sunday morning , it’s what our lives are supposed to be.   What does that mean for us right now?

- True worship isn’t characterized by thoughtless prayers with meaningless clichés.  It’s a genuine conversation with God.  If you come from a tradition wherein you recite the Lord’s prayer, take time to meditate on what you’re saying.

- True worship for the preacher or teacher mean not preparing a fragmented, last-minute lesson. It should be one prepared with the care and thoughtfulness due to our King.

- Worship isn’t narrowly defined as a Sunday morning meeting at a church; but it is a daily, hour-by-hour choice we make wherein we thoughtfully serve God with our whole lives…our whole being.  Worship is not a performance that we periodically observe, it’s a service that we constantly do.

True worship …and worshipers

Unfortunately, we often view worship in terms of our experience.  For example, we focus on the fact that the music was too upbeat; or, conversely, it sounded too much like a funeral dirge.  Or the order of service was different than what I prefer.  Or how many times have you heard folks say, “It’s not like my home church”?   However,  God is less concerned with the cultural trappings;  God is seeking true worshipers.  While we usually focus on the form of our worship, God is seeking those whose heart generates worship.

Let’s look at a couple examples.  In Gen. 4:4-5, we read that YWHW “had respect for Abel and his offering.”  That word translated “had respect” or “had regard” (sha`ah) means “to gaze, look at, care for.”  From the very beginning, God was seeking true worshipers, whose hearts generated a sincere expression of worship, whatever that expression was.

 In the New Testament, perhaps no passage speaks to this issue better than John 4:4-42. Focusing on vv. 19-24, we read:

The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,  and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me,  the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

 The Samaritan woman asks a question about the “where” of worship – that is, the “form” of worship.  Jesus replied with what worship is.  She asked a question about the experience, Jesus responded with the issue of “heart.”    Especially in military chapels, you will find that even genuine, fundamental believers have different preferences as to the where and how of corporate worship.    It would be easy to see these things as problems and trials, largely because we tend to focus on externals.  But God doesn’t care about that; He is seeking true worshipers.  We’re not talking about differences of doctrine, which are incredibly important; we’re talking about externals and form.

So, how do we become true worshipers, or true-ER worshipers?  I would suggest that if worship is a heart issue, then true worship must begin with me individually before God.   Dr. Gordon Borror, a professor of music at Western Seminary, once said “Who is that person who comes to the community to worship God?  It is that man or woman who practices the presence of God in private moments.”

 Look at the model given to us in Is. 6:1-11:

I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said:

                      “ Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;

                       The whole earth is full of His glory!”

 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.  So I said:

                       “ Woe is me, for I am undone!

                      Because I am a man of unclean lips,

                       And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;

                      For my eyes have seen the King,

                      The LORD of hosts.”

 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said:

                       “ Behold, this has touched your lips;

                      Your iniquity is taken away,

                      And your sin purged.”

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:

                      “ Whom shall I send,

                       And who will go for Us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

 First, Isaiah has an encounter with God.  He then has an epiphany – a glaring realization of who he is in relation to who God is (“Woe is me, for I am undone…”).  Then, and only then, God comes in and works on him.  And it is then that Isaiah is motivated to respond in worship . . .  to respond with a willingness to serve.  

 The true worshiper is the person who meditates on God’s majesty so that corporate worship has real and personal meaning.  I need to practice His presence daily in private and public (Prov. 3:5-6).– whether in prayer, meditation, rest, or in service.

So it’s just my personal, individual life that’s important when it comes to worship, right?  No.   We, as pastors, are very aware of the exhortation found in Hebrews 10:24, 25.  We need each other as we worship God.  God intended it to be this way.  Now, there are lots of practical applications here to our times of corporate worship.  I just want to talk about one aspect of corporate worship.  It’s an issue that has existed since the days of the very first churches – the uncomfortability of corporate worship. 

The early believers had been either Jews or Gentiles.  They lived under very different rules, possessed very different tastes, and came to know the Lord through different experiences.   But Paul effectively says, “what a marvelous and beautiful mystery that God has brought His message of salvation to people we never thought would be part of the family!” [Eph. 3:1-6]  We know that the differences in their forms of fellowship and worship sparked divisions and arguments (see Romans 14:1-9).  I sometimes wonder what the “love feast” might have looked like when you had Jews with strict dietary laws negotiating a meal with Gentiles who normally ate all sorts of “garbage” (pork and lobster?). 

Music is one of those traditionally hot topics in fundamental churches.  Some of us have come to know God through traditional hymns, perhaps associating “the Old Rugged Cross” with a time we made a meaningful recommitment.  Or “Amazing Grace” has stirred our souls so many times that we cannot sing it without a well of emotion.  Others of us may have come to have those very same experiences through more contemporary music.  

           As with many of our predecessors and contemporaries, perhaps we wrongly place too much focus on the externals.  I know you’ve heard the arguments from both sides as well as I have: “That music comes from the drum beats of Africa” or “it sounds like the world” ; or, conversely, “The organ was banned from church for being too worldly at one time” or  “Some of that music came from worldly singers and nationalistic composers of their day.”  While there is certainly some value to having those discussions, I find most of us who get wrapped up in that have drifted well from the heart of worship.   It has become largely about the form and the “how.”  And that is a second reason why I agree with Tozer: that worship has largely become a missing jewel.

The point being that although my preference might be toward one particular form of worship, I need to understand that my brother or sister sitting next to me might have come to know God through a very different form of worship.  Again, we’re not talking about doctrine; we’re talking about form. I have planted/pastored a couple churches which had a diverse Body.   Guys in suits worshiping next to guys in jeans and tee shirts.  Folks who love singing  “Your Love O Lord” and “You Reign” learning how to appreciate those who love hymns like “Take My Life” and “How Marvelous” – and vice-versa.  Uncomfortable?  Yea!  If you’re worshiping with a Body as diverse as ours, you are going to be uncomfortable.      

But a heart of worship will not need an environment that makes it feel comfortable.  Personally, I don’t buy into much of the contemporary church-planting philosophy that says you have to focus on a particular demographic or style.  When you’re with God’s people, the form of worship will quickly give place to a heart whose only desire is to praise Him for bringing us into the family of God. Some day we’ll all be worshiping together whether we like it or not and whether it sounds good or not.   I’m sure it will look nothing like the trappings of this world – whether that be 17^th century trappings or 21^st century trappings. I figure we might as well start doing it now.