Three Little Questions that Changed My Life

24 01 2012

Tuesday Re-mix - 

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1:22

There is a very simple explanation for why so many people outside the church accuse the church of being full of hypocrites…why people who profess to be Christians often appear to talk one way, but walk an entirely different way.  It is because it is absolutely true.

I learned some time ago that knowing the Bible does not make me a better follower of Christ, and in fact, does not really change me at all.  I can attend church every Sunday, attend small group every Monday night and discuss in great depth what I believe this scripture means or that scripture means…I can listen to Christian radio all day long and can subscribe to podcasts of my favorite preachers…I can read my Bible every day…I can graduate from Seminary with advanced knowledge in Greek and Hebrew…I can do all these things, but if I am only a knower of God’s Word but do not become a doer of God’s Word, I am the biggest hypocrite of all.  And I am not changing for the better.

In The Gathering, which happens to be the class I have the privilege of teaching on Sunday mornings, we talk about each of us having a “next step” to take toward God.  No matter where we are in our faith walk, from the strongest athiest to the most mature believer, we each have a next step to take.  Scripture teaches us what that next step looks like.  The same passage of scripture may show one next step for you and another entirely different next step for me.  That is the beauty and the power of God’s Word.  But in every case, taking that “next step” is what makes us a doer of the Word and not just a knower of the Word.

So, when I study scripture, I always have three simple questions I ask myself.  My friend Dr. Ann Farris taught me these questions (in an entirely different context, but they work perfectly in this context as well).  When I am honest about my responses to them and when I really press myself for right answers to them, it always changes me.  The questions are simple: What?  So what?  Now what?

WHAT? What is God saying to me through this passage?  Not just what does this passage say, but what do I believe it is saying to me?

SO WHAT? Why does God have this Word for me?  What is it about my life that this Word is addressing?  Why do I need to hear this?

NOW WHAT? In light of how I have answered the first two questions, then what is my next step?  What do I need to do right now in order to begin to bring my life into compliance with this Word?

These questions have revolutionalized my study of scripture.  I am no longer content to sit around a table and pontificate about what this scripture is saying to some unknown, third-person.  I want to know what it is saying to me about me.  And until I can answer that, I’m not finished with this scripture.

The really interesting thing about this process is this: I’ve been studying scripture long enough now to be going through the Bible for my 4th or 5th time as a teacher, and for the umpteenth time for a lot of these scriptures.  But every time I do, these questions get answered differently, because the scripture finds me at a different place in my walk.  But no matter where it finds me, it still has a next step for me.

And when I take that step, I once again become a doer of God’s Word, and not just a knower. Oh, I’m still definitely a hypocrite in so many ways!  But the more of God’s Word I DO, the more of my hypocrisy falls away.  And that’s a good thing.

© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.  Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com

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Categories : leadership, missional, Spiritual Formation

Log Removal Plans

19 01 2012

How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.  Matthew 7:4-5

How are you at removing splinters from children’s fingers?  Yeh, me neither.  It is quite an ordeal, even under the best of circumstances.  It takes a steady hand, a soothing voice, and really good eyes.  As I write this, I am just now realizing how cool it is that so many of us did not need reading glasses until after our kids were old enough to get their own splinters out.  Isn’t God smart?  I can still remember feeling all medically superior one day when one of my girls came to me with a splinter in her finger.  I brought her into the bathroom (where the light was the brightest), got some tweezers, picked up her hand and examined the finger closely.  ”Wow, this must be a tiny one” I told her, “I can’t even see it!  Where is it?”  And she answered, “It’s right here”, as she held up her free hand!

Being able to clearly see the splinter, it seems, is pretty critical to the entire process of removing it.  And so it is with helping a brother with the “Speck” in his eye.  Notice: Jesus’ aim in this lesson is for us to “see clearly”…that is the goal, so that we can help our brother.  When you cannot see clearly, you simply are not capable of being any help.

It appears to me that commentators are all over the board regarding what, exactly, the “log in your eye” symbolizes in Jesus’ metaphor.  It could be similar sin in your own life.  It could be a judgmental attitude.  It could even be a past unresolved pain that somehow prevents you from “seeing clearly” where this brother is concerned.  I am not sure it matters to me which of these things it is…the bottom line is, if it is preventing me from seeing my brother clearly, i.e., from seeing my brother the same way God sees my brother, then I must get about removing it!  After all, seeing my brother the way God sees my brother is the only way I can be of any assistance to him.

So how do we remove it?

I suppose that depends on what it is, right?  If it is sin, we remove it through confession and repentance.  If it is a judgmental attitude, we pray for God to replace that attitude with one which honors Him.  If it is unresolved pain, we must express that pain in a right direction…to God first, and then perhaps to the person who caused the pain.  But do you see the common ingredient to each of these “removal plans”?  It is prayer.  After all, how else do we gain God’s perspective on anything but through prayer.

In the end, I am so glad Jesus did not leave his counsel at, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?”  He goes further.  He insists that removing the log from our eye is a priority.  It should be done now.

Tall order?  Yep.  For me too.  Gotta go.  Got some logs to deal with!

© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.  Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com

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Categories : Christian Accountability, Forgiveness, Peacemakers, Reconciliation

When All Else Fails, Read the Instructions

17 01 2012

Tuesday Re-mix - 

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. James 1:23-24

When installing an appliance or putting together a piece of furniture, it seems to me there are levels of understanding. The lowest level is when you know you don’t know anything at all, so you sit down with the instructions first, before you do anything.  The next level is when you think you know something about it, so you start without the instructions and soon find that your are in fact an idiot and then sit down with the instructions. The third level of understanding is when you know enough about the task to know that each case is a little different, so you start by sitting down with the instructions.

If there are higher levels of understanding than this, I admit to being totally out of touch with them.  I myself typically float back and forth between the first two levels. When my wife sees me walking through the house carrying a tool, she immediately drops what she’s doing and follows me as she grabs the phone and calls for help. I have learned (mostly the hard way) how helpful it is to read and follow the instructions from the beginning.  In my case, it doesn’t guarantee success, but it at least prevents me from screwing my table top into the floor, or other such embarrassing results.

When asked how I can mediate congregational conflict in such a wide variety of denominations and churches, how it is possible to effectively navigate church conflict even with little understanding of the culture, the answer seems obvious to me: I just stay focused on the instructions, i.e., scripture.  I learned early in this ministry that there is no amount of worldly wisdom or experience which can guarantee a peaceful, successful mediation in a congregational dispute.  Emotions are high, the pain runs deep, and volatile relationships are unpredictable at best.  There simply is no putting things back together without starting with the instructions: the Word of God.

Interestingly, once you start there, the cultural differences suddenly do not matter much.  Scripture has this remarkable ability to cut through culture and the things of this world.  I certainly cannot always explain why it works…I just know that it does.  That, of course, is what child-like faith looks like.  Finding our way through broken relationships requires a child-like faith in the Word of God and what it tells us about relationships.  As my Dad always says: when all else fails, try reading the instructions.

Of course, I have from time to time encountered a group for whom the Bible is not the final word…a group who questions its authority.  I am always quick to clarify for them that I really have nothing to offer them.  I wouldn’t even know where to start.  If as a “church” they don’t recognize God’s Word as their supreme authority, then for me it is like trying to put something together with no instructions at all.  If the instructions which come with my new appliance are nothing more to me than guidelines, i.e., loose fences to lean against, then chances are pretty good that my new appliance will never work the way it was intended to work.  For a Christian, “The Word” should be at the very center of life.  For a church, it should be the very foundation upon which all things are built.

When it comes to mediating congregational conflict and all its inherent complexities, I am just not smart enough to come up with my own “wisdom” about how it should go.  I am at the lowest level of understanding.  So, I start with the instructions.  I let scripture order my steps and inform my process.  I allow God’s Word to set the agenda.  Then, just maybe, there is at least a chance for success at the end of the day.

© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.  Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com

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Categories : 5 Principles of Unity, Church Unity, conflict, leadership, Peacemakers

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