Two Commands (Part 2.A)

Loving Self

A church ought to foster a right sense of self in the disciples it trains. The fact that this is so is enshrined in the second half of the second law: “As you love yourself.” When the scripture talks about this sort of self-love, it is not referring to something narcissistic. Rather, scripture presumes that we, as human beings, are going to look after our general good health, and not seek self-destruction. This is evident from statements like Paul’s in Ephesians 5:28-29. He appeals to the principle of healthy self-love and its practice as he compares how we treat our own bodies to how we treat our wives: “In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it…”  Loving self means we rightly understand and care for our physicial needs, and God appeals to this common sense approach to living by commanding us, in the same way, “To love your neighbor…”

A right sense of self care, then, understands the state from which we were saved. We are born sinners, incapable of reaching heaven on our own. Jesus Christ alone is our hope of salvation. After we have been converted by Christ, we still err and stumble, and so must find grace for ourselves by going to God for forgiveness (1 John 1:9) and giving grace and mercy to others. We remain mindful of our own potential for waywardness, and so we pursue a repentant lifestyle. 

A right sense of self appropriates that forgiveness and is mindful of the fact that “…God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Again, not believing we are better than others resulting in God sending his son for us, but that God chose to show us love by sending Christ for you and for me. He did not save us because we had any merits, but because he just wanted to!

Since he first chose us before we ever chose him, and since he also invests in us purpose and giftedness (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, et al) God gives us a value that is measured by Christ himself. Before we were saved from Hell, we were measured by Christ’s merit and found wanting. Now we belong to God by adoption through Christ, and we are measured by the Father’s esteem for Jesus, and found wanted.

On that basis, we ought to care and nurture ourselves. Love and value and take care of yourself! A church fosters a healthy esteem founded on these truths. The church that does this will make disciples with a healthy self worth.

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Are your eyes on the Mammon?

If you want to become a deeper disciple of Christ, one thing you have to think about is what you are setting your eyes on. Not in a concrete way, but what is your life target? What's important to you? What are your priorities. In a sense, the last half of Matthew 6 is about priorities. Watch this sermon, and hopefully you will find it helps you sort through your priorities.

Two Commands (Part Two)

Loving Our Neighbor

The second rule actually has two parts. “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” A good growing church will balance the truth that we are helpless sinners, depraved in the sight of God, with the fact that we are deeply and sacrificially loved. And that love pushes us to become more like the beloved one himself, Jesus Christ. We are image bearers who ought to be beloved and invested in. 

The first part flows from how we are beloved. God commands us to love others as we have been loved. The parable of the Good Samaritan tells us what that looks like: irrespective of race, religion or origin, we are to love others and help them in their need.

A growing church finds ways to serve in three spheres: The community of faith; the community it is planted in; then outward to its region and its world.  We get this from two sources: Paul tells us to be good to all, especially the community of faith, and Jesus tells us to go to Jerusalem, Samaria and the ends of the earth. Jerusalem was the city of the birth of the church, where it was planted. Samaria was the home of the “dirty” neighbors in the next province over; and then of course the whole world is pretty self-explanatory. Along the way, we are to make real solutions to real needs, presenting and representing the gospel as we go.

These two core principles of love are the simple root of all Christian practice. It’s not complicated. We only make it so because humans enjoy complicated things and want to make things hard...it gives us the feeling that we are good spiritual Boy and Girl Scouts. Its not necessary. Jesus said my “yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

So go and meet needs. As you go, reflect the love Christ showed on you toward others.

Two Commands (Part 1)

Two Commands: Loving God

In the days before Jesus was teaching, a man went to all the philosophers and religious teachers of the world (or those he knew of, anyway...) and asked them to explain their religion or philosophy while he stood on one foot. If they could do that, he would convert. None he found were able to do so. Until he found a Rabbi. He asked him the same question. The Rabbi raised and grasped his foot, said “Love the Lord your God with your heart and soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. The rest is commentary.” Impressed, the man converted to Judaism on the spot. Biblical faith is not hard. It’s stunningly simple. What’s hard is how it confronts us with our failure to abide by those two simple rules.

This was brought home to me one time when a family member was in tears one time. She was struggling with what it meant to be a Christian, because the Pastor of her church gave her some advice she was having difficulty following.  He told her that for her to be a full Christian, she needed add some extra bible studies to her already full schedule and take on service in his church. After adding these items she was feeling more burdened than before and a failure as a Christian. Life seemed more chaotic than ever. She was wondering if there even is a God who is interested in her. After all, she was doing “everything right,” but life seemed out of control.

I believe that this Pastor missed the mark in his advice. I explained to my family member that the Christian life is not found in how many Bible studies you attend, or in helping to facilitate a VBS. While those things are important, I walked this person back to something even more fundamental: love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself.

This is the true basics. Rather than create vast lists about finding success as a Christian, or reading books about generating spiritual fruit, or being stuck as a square peg in some aspect of Church service, core Christianity is found in how we are living those two simple rules (again, I understand a faith in Jesus Christ as savior is the necessary first step—we are assuming that this has been taken).

We must begin by asking ourselves: what is the direction and propellent of our life? Any rocket needs a target to hit (direction) and propllent to drive it forward. Like a rocket, we need to know our what our destination is, and what our propellent is. For Lebron James it's basketball greatness. For Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, maybe it's making amazing devices. For a Pastor of a church maybe it's having a large membership roll and big budget. While these things can be good of themselves, are they really about loving God with everything you have?  The answer to the this question, about the direction and propellent of our life, the Christian must include a consideration of that Great Command of Love.  

For direction, do we seek, in however God has made us, to honor and glorify God with our life purpose and choices? Do we seek to please him? Is it a concern to us how we may have to report to him on our choices when we die? Do we want to “put a smile on his face”?

For propellent, or thrust, do our passions line up to push us toward pleasing God? Do we engage our emotions in healthy ways, based on how God has made us, to seek to honor God. If you are passionate about art, maybe God has wired you to use that passion to decorate a sanctuary; Or perhaps to use your art skills to glorify God in your creations; maybe even to give you credibility to be able to represent Christ in the art community. 

Loving God doesn’t mean you sit up on a mountain top in continual contemplation of scripture. Scripture is important, yes. We also can love God with the skills and talents, yes even passions, that he has given to us. He can use you. He may need to train you and hone you. But yes, he can use you. The question is, can you use those things to express your devotion and willingness to him. Of course you can! As you consider what you do for life and for pleasure, we have to include a consideration of "How can I honor my God and express devotion to Him through these things he has given me."

Church Leadership and Disciplemaking

Church Leadership and Disciplemaking

Greetings, friend! Welcome to the Blog of Michael McDonald. I am currently a Pastor and have been in ministry for 18 years. In God’s providence I helped to build a small struggling church into the largest church of five in our small rural town. Over the course of my time of service, I have developed some core ideas of how to go about making disciples.

My idea centers around 4 sets of basic concepts. None of the concepts are more important than the others, nor do they represent a particular theological emphasis that excludes other important theological concepts. The three basic concepts presume a present faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, and an acceptance of the Bible as foundational for a successful Christian life. The Christian life and the Bible are huge realities, and the concepts I am going to show should not be taken as the whole of the Christian life. Rather they should be seen as foundation and scaffold for a fully developed Christian life.

The four basic concepts are these:

The Transformational Paradigm

Three Critical Doctrines

Faith, Hope and Love

Two Commandments

Some of these are plain enough. Faith, Hope and Love are critical parts of the Christian life as noted most famously by Paul. Two Commands seems easy enough: love the your God and your neighbor as yourself. The others don’t lend themselves to an easy explanation simply by looking at the titles. Still, they form a practical core which forms a primary basis for my approach to disciple making. I hope you will find them so, too.

Keep coming back, and I will show you what I have found to be useful tools in growing disciples and churches.