Is Every Believer an Evangelist?

According to scripture, not every believer is an Evangelist or given the gift of Evangelism!

Does that sound funny? Check it out in one of Paul’s great passages on how humanity’s Adoption into the Trinity works out in the Church:

The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. ~ Ephesians 4:11

Did you notice that little word “some” mentioned 4 times in verse 11?

This passage is highly educational to us in how the Trinity works in and among the Church in the Communion of His Spirit. He works in and through us as He really is; unified AND with distinction! It can also provide great insight to the Church on how leadership in the Church should be empowering people to function according to their gift/s (in obedience to the Holy Spirit) and not according to simply fads, traditions and programs (which may lead to disobeying the Holy Spirit, or at the very least resisting Him!)

In one of the greatest research projects conducted in the church of our day, Christian Schwartz of Natural Church Development disproved the commonly held myth in the Church that “every Christian is an evangelist.” No wonder so many of our programs on evangelism are not working!! Let me be quick to say that Christian’s research does admit that there is a “kernel of truth” in the thesis that “every Christian is an evangelist”, but only in the sense that it is the responsibility of every believer to use his or her specific gift/s in fulfilling the Great Commission. This does not, however, make him or her an evangelist. (Matt 28:19, 20.)

As he states more specifically in his book entitled, Natural Church Development , on p.34, under the heading “Need-oriented Evangelism”:

Evangelists are only those to whom God has given the corresponding spiritual gift. In one of our previous studies, we confirmed C. Peter Wagner’s thesis that the gift of evangelism applies to no more than 10 percent of all Christians. We must distinguish between Christians gifted for evangelism and those whom God has otherwise called. If indeed ‘all Christians are evangelists,’ then there is no need to discover the 10% who really do possess this gift. In this way, the 10 percent with the gift of evangelism would be significantly under-challenged, while the demands on the 90% without the gift would be too great… This is rather frustrating… Our research shows that in churches with a high quality index, the leadership knows who has the gift of evangelism and directs them to a corresponding area of ministry.

Wowsa! Could research exposing the myth that “All Believers are Evangelists” explain why so many of our churches are fatigued and worn out by programs and pressures for everyone in the church to be an evangelist?

I think so! My personal experience as a pastor, along with countless conversations with other pastors and members of the church, affirms the truth of this research to me! I can “feel it in my spirit” as they say! Ha-Ha!

I’ll conclude this post with another quote from the same chapter and book, and some final and interesting information from Christian Schwartz on the subject. See if you can spot the Trinitarian and RELATIONAL nature of his comments in the last paragraph (He is VERY Trinitarian in the foundations of his research, by the way!! Meaning, the Trinity is THE lens through which we observe, evaluate and experience all of life!):

It is the task of each Christian to use his or her gifts to serve non-Christians with whom one has a personal relationship, to see to it that they hear the gospel, and to encourage contact with the local church. The key to church growth is for the local congregation to focus its evangelistic efforts on the questions and needs of non-Christians. This “need-oriented” approach is different from “manipulative programs” where pressure on non-Christians must compensate for the lack of need orientation.

It is particularly interesting to note that Christians in both growing and declining churches have exactly the same number of contacts with non-Christians (an average of 8.5 contacts). Challenging Christians to build new friendships with non-Christians is certainly not a growth principle. The point is rather to use already existing relationships as contacts for evangelism. In each of the churches we surveyed – including those that lamented having little or no contact with “the world” – THE NUMBER OF CONTACTS OUTSIDE THE CHURCH WAS ALREADY LARGE ENOUGH SO THAT THERE WAS NO NEED TO EMPHASIZE DEVELOPING NEW RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE UNCHURCHED.” (Capital letters and underline mine! Ha-Ha!)

Christian Schwartz has gone to meddlin’ now! And hopefully he is meddlin’ with each of us so bad that we’ll get back to rethinking the more natural, relational, and distinct characteristics of evangelism that flow from being baptized in the Assurance of Humanity’s Adoption into the Life of the Trinity in Jesus, wholly by God’s grace!

P.S. By the way, science and research are included in the life of the Trinity, too! Ha-Ha!

~ by Timothy Brassell

Potential?

Is Jesus the Savior of the world or does he merely create the potential for salvation?

A lot of theologies say “if you believe in Jesus then you will belong to him and then you will become a child of the Father.” In these theologies it is not Jesus that makes us children of the Father – it is our own belief.

Belief then becomes the work by which we get ourselves adopted and save ourselves.

In such theologies Jesus is not our Adoption and he is not our Savior.  Jesus is the one who creates the potential for adoption and the potential for salvation, but it is human decision that causes adoption and salvation to take place. In such theologies salvation is not by grace. Rather, it is the potential of salvation that is by grace, while the actual accomplishment of salvation is by the human work of belief.

Yet neither the Bible or the Creeds of the Church ever call Jesus the “Potential Savior.”

He is simply called The Savior and The One through whom humanity is adopted as children of the Father. Any theology of Jesus that is going to be rooted in the Bible and the historic teaching of the Church has to first and foremost proclaim Jesus as “The Savior of all humanity” and then secondly say that he is “especially The Savior of all who believe.” (1 Tim. 4:10.)

First the Son of God adopted humanity into the life of the Trinity as children of the Father, and saved us from sin and death, and then we began to believe as the Spirit shared with us the faith of Jesus.

~ Jonathan Stepp

Encouraging Words You Could (and Should) Share With Others!

You may come from the school of thought that it is better to feed the hungry than to say “Be well fed!” and then leave the scene without feeding them.

Though I don’t completely disagree with this principle from scripture, I don’t believe it is really an either/or situation. I believe you should not only feed them but relate with them in the feeding by speaking words of encouragement, too! Maybe something really encouraging like “Be well fed!” Ha-Ha!

Do you see my point?! God the Father, Son and Spirit do not just do for each other and never speak to each other!

“Proof” of this is that Jesus is the WORD of God made flesh! Within the Triune Godhead there is a Word and communication going on! Is that communication different than the Being and Doing of the Trinity, or is it Congruent with it?

The main point I want to make in this post is that it is not enough simply to do good to others, we must speak good things too! Most wives do not simply want a home, money and a few flowers. They also want to HEAR that you love them! Your kids do not just want to be fed, sheltered and clothed. They want to hear you say that you love them, and even that you like them, while looking them in the eye!!!

I have lived long enough and had enough experiences to know that if you take this seriously and begin to try it with your family, friends and neighbors, you should be ready for a few tears along with the awkwardness, even if you are a man!

We are so meant to HEAR the love, and it is neglected in so many of our relationships, people literally cannot help but cry for the joy of a deep desire finally being met when hearing the love! It will also choke your throat and threaten to nail your eyes to the floor in shame and embarrassment, so hang in there, choke the words out and force your eyes to look into theirs when you say it! I promise, it will get easier and you’ll all start to appreciate it! We’re made for it!

Ever wonder what you could, or should, say to others? Here are some things I have said to others along with participating with Jesus in His doing for them:

“God the Father loves you so much, and has embraced you so tightly and in such a unique way in Jesus Christ, that he will NEVER let you go!”

“You are good with the Goodness of the Father, Son and Spirit, and I sure appreciate it!”

“Did you know you are the son (or daughter) God the Father always wanted? He has always wanted a son/daughter just like you!” (Thanks for that one Dr. Kruger!)

Every morning my youngest daughter and I are in a contest to be the first one to blurt out “God the Father, Son and Spirit Love and Like You Very, Very MUCH!” This is one of the positive family contests I recommend! Ha-Ha!

This evening after family prayer I grabbed the faces of each of my family members and told them distinctly, “God the Father, Son and Spirit does not know how not to love you, and neither do I in His grace!”

What creative things could you (should you) SAY to others in the magnificent truth of all of humanity’s inclusion into the life of the Trinity in Jesus, as you also participate in His doing?

Remember my post “Fake it till you make it”? You don’t have to feel it or even mean it at first, in order for you to practice being who you really are in Jesus, or to baptize others in the assurance they were meant to hear! Just saying it will facilitate your “doing it” and “being it” in the grace of Jesus! After all, speaking is doing something too!

Because you belong to God the Trinity, you are not going to be able to get away forever without also SAYING Gospel to others!!!

~ by Timothy Brassell

P.S. I almost forgot! Not only will the tears start flowing, but the pearly whites will start beaming so brightly and WIDELY that the entire bunch of you who are speaking and hearing such things will be able to start eating bananas sideways! Ha-Ha!

Dialogue with Atheism

What is the conversation between Atheism and Christianity really all about? I think many, on both sides, assume that it is primarily about “scoring points” in a debate and the winning side is the side that can score the most points.

The Internet Monk has a very interesting, and I think accurate, assesment of what is really going on right now in the dialogue between Atheism and Christianity.

The gist of his argument is that many young people (under, say, age 30) are not leaving Christianity because they have been won over by Atheism’s brilliant arguments. They are leaving because Atheism offers a simpler and happier life than the legalistic, workaholic, and often bizarre world of the American, evangelical, Christian sub-culture.

Here are a few quotes from his blog post to whet your appetite:

Atheism is just….easier. Occam’s Razor. Theism is too much trouble. It starts to sound like someone is trying to sell you something sight unseen. Isn’t your best move just to hang up the phone and ignore the call?

One of my letters this week stated that a 17 year old raised in an evangelical family was now an avid atheist, with many of the hijinks of evangelicalism as evidence of manipulation and control. He couldn’t mean take off your shoes and spin your socks over your head while singing “Jesus mess me up?” Why would that bother anyone?

Write this down: When the coming evangelical collapse happens, and especially when thousands of our young people bolt for non-believer status, a lot of it will be COMPLETELY DESERVED.

We never stopped to notice that if you are a 17 year old with serious questions about evil, miracles, prayer and the Bible you’ve got small chances of getting any help from most of evangelicalism. We’re having too much fun squalling at the President and feeling good about ourselves.

You see, evangelicals have made such outrageous assumptions and promises about happiness, healing, everything working out, knowing God, answered prayer, loving one another and so on that proving us to be liars isn’t even a real job. It’s just a matter of tuning in to an increasing number of voices who say “It’s OK to not believe. Give yourself a break. Stop tormenting yourself trying to believe. Stop propping up your belief with more and more complex arguments. Just let go of God.”

We are the ones who appear to not believe in the God we say is real. We are the ones who seem to be forcing ourselves to believe with bigger shows, bigger celebrities and bigger methods of manipulation.

If you are at all interested in outreach, evangelism, or dialogues with non-believers, I strongly urge you to read the whole post over at the Internet Monk.

~ Jonathan Stepp

Mark 16:16

If humanity is adopted into the Triune Life through Jesus then what are we to make of scriptures such as Mark 16:16? It reads:

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. ~ Mark 16:16, NIV

A good friend recently asked me about this verse. Here’s how I responded:

However we interpret scripture we can’t interpret it in a way that contradicts who Jesus is.

Jesus is the Word of God living in the flesh and sharing with us in our humanity (John 1:14). Therefore, he is the supreme revelation of who God is and who human beings are in relationship to God.

Romans 5:18 says that Adam brought sin to all people but Jesus has brought righteousness to all people. Colossians 1:20 says that Jesus has reconciled everyone to the Father.

Therefore, whatever Mark 16:16 means it cannot mean that we make ourselves righteous or reconcile ourselves to God by our own baptism or our own belief. Christ has made us righteous and Christ has reconciled us to the Father.

If Mark 16:16 means that we save ourselves by our own belief and our own baptism then why would we even need Jesus?

Either Jesus has saved us first and then we believe, or we save ourselves by our own belief and don’t need Jesus.

Obviously, Jesus has to be the savior. He is the one who has taken away the sins of the world (John 1:29) and made one new humanity in himself (Ephesians 2:15).

Because of Jesus the Father does not condemn anyone and does not hold anyone’s sins against them (Romans 5:9-10). Because of Jesus humanity has been adopted as the Father’s children (Ephesians 1:5).

So, if Jesus is the one who has saved and reconciled humanity then Mark 16:16 is a description to us of what happens when we believe this truth and what happens when we don’t believe it.

If we believe that humanity is reconciled and saved in Jesus then we will be baptized and we will begin to live as the children of the Father that we really are. On the other hand, if we don’t believe that Jesus is the savior of humanity then we will continue believing the lie that God is out to get us and we will continue feeling condemned.

Notice that Mark 16:16 does not say “believe and you will get saved” instead it says “believe and you will be saved.”

If someone said to a young man who was doing a bad job as a husband and father “you need to be a man” would that mean that he wasn’t male and needed to make himself into a male human being? Of course not. It would mean that he needs to act like what he already is – a man.

So, Mark 16:16 and other such verses aren’t telling us that we need to make ourselves into something that we’re not. They’re not saying “you aren’t saved but you can save yourself by your own belief and baptism.” Verses such as this are saying to us: “in Jesus, you are saved; so believe this truth about yourself, get baptized, and be the saved person that you really are. If you don’t believe that Jesus has saved you then you’re going to continue believing the lie that God condemns you.”

That’s the gospel, the good news for humanity. The good news is the message to all humanity that says:

Jesus has saved you, stop believing that God is out to get you and start believing the truth that your Father in heaven has adopted you as his child in Jesus and poured out his Holy Spirit on you.

~ Jonathan Stepp

The Real First Three Laws of Human Relationships, Part 2

This post is about the second of the first 3 commandments given to mankind by the Father, Son, and Spirit.

You can read about the first of the three commands in part 1 of this series. In these posts I am briefly discussing the commandments we have tended to overlook in our enthusiasm to try to fulfill the Ten Commandments as handed down from God through Moses! In knowing Who Jesus is we are actually being instructed to take these first few commands seriously, again, as we understand the Relationship of the Father, Son, and Spirit better, and as we understand Who Jesus is and who we are in Him!!

Let’s review the first three commandments that come from Genesis 1:

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” ~ Genesis 1:26-28, NRSV

The second command Triune God gives humankind in the same sentence is to REPRODUCE, or “Multiply, Fill the earth and Subdue it”

Did you notice that this second command is NOT, “Make sure you always use birth control!”, “You MUST be celibate to walk “right” before me” or “Be self-centered and keep all this property to yourselves!”?

Let’s be real! Our violation of this commandment has pushed far too many of us into the self-centered and cold icebox of empty high-rise condominiums, where we peer at life behind frozen gated communities through plastic and frigid personalities! Yikes! This doesn’t sound like the outward, self-giving nature of the Triune God with Whom we are united!

Aren’t we learning that self-centeredness, fear and hiding is NOT the experience of Jesus the Divine/Man in His relationship with the Father as a human being (Mark 10:45, Acts 20:35)? Self evidently, many have gotten so “burned” in relationships that were dead and fake that we all know that to be so phony and unreal HAS to be a participation in a lie about the Father, Son, and Spirit and who we are in Him (Eccl 2:1-11, Matt 4:1-10)!!!

We have experienced and written from our guts this saying:

Money is like manure; it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around encouraging young things to grow. ~ The Matchmaker

The joy we hear in the Father’s voice as He gazes at His children “in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6) is what we REALLY want to experience as parents and grandparents in the reproduction process! We want to leave a legacy and an experience with our children and grandchildren that says, “with you I am well pleased!”(Mark 1:11) Hey, I even want my potential great-grandchildren to experience that, too, don’t you?!

And here is the BIG DEAL about honoring these commandments and taking them seriously NOW:

Jesus says that in His Body of Resurrection shared with us in the future that we won’t be able to marry and reproduce as now (Matthew 22:30), but will be like the angels in heaven! You’ve got to get this first good stuff going NOW while the going is good NOW!!!

Well, tune in for the next post on this subject where I will discuss the third of the first three commandments given to mankind. I also see a fourth command that I will mention as a further way of helping you to think in a more Trinitarian way about this all!

Because the character of the Father, Son and Spirit changes not (Hebrews 13:8), He still Loves and Likes you Very, Very Much, TODAY, and indeed, He still Loves You, and Loves all of US, MORE than He Loves Himself!

~ Timothy Brassell

Camp Ministry – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I just got back from a week of Christian summer camp. Here are some thoughts in the light of who Jesus is as the union of humanity and the Trinity:

The Good: Camp Higher Ground, where I took eight kids from my church and served on staff, is definitely a camp that is focused on telling kids the good news of who they are in Jesus: children of the Father baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Camp is also a lot of fun – especially for those who love camp ministry. I often find when I talk to people who love camp ministry – the ones who come back to serve year after year – that they talk about the impact it has on kids’ lives. But when I watch them doing camp ministry I can see that they are having a blast. Camp ministry folks enjoy chapel, swimming, and crafts as much (or more!) than the campers do.

Sometimes I wish we could be more honest with ourselves about the fun of ministry. Yes, we serve others in the gospel because it helps them but we also do it because that it is what we want to do. Our Daddy in heaven is okay with that. He has given us the freedom in Jesus to choose the ministries we like and to do them because we enjoy them. Take this blog for instance. I hope what I write here helps others, but even if it doesn’t I would still do it because I enjoy it! I think camp ministry people would have camp even if no kids showed up – and that’s good.

The Bad: Camp is only a few days in the lives of the kids who participate.

As much as we focus on telling them the truth of who they are in Jesus, and as much fun as it is, it still takes incarnational ministry to really change lives and help people grow up in Jesus. By incarnational ministry I mean living in relationship with people day in and day out, week in and week out, for years – the way the Son of God lives forever with humanity through his incarnation as the human being Jesus Christ.

This is why the Church is infinitely more valuable and important than camp ministry – or any other event ministry. Camp ministry is the icing on the cake, but if there’s no cake then all you have is icing – which isn’t very substantive. If I really care about helping kids grow up to trust Jesus then I have to live in relationship with them, in the name and power of the Trinity, day in and day out for years.

The Church is also far more efficient than camp ministry. My congregation of 50 people spent $3,000 in tuition and transportation costs to get me and eight kids to camp. I personally drove 1100 miles and spent a week away from family, church, and my community. In contrast, the Monday night kids’ group that we do with these same eight kids costs us about $700 a year. I drive 1 mile from my house to the church building every Monday night.

And which of these two has the greater impact on the kids’ lives? It’s the time they spend together every Monday night, praying, reading the Bible, and playing with each other and the adults who are committed to them for the long term.

Sometimes I wish that more of the creativity, money, time, and energy of Christians was spent trying to strengthen Churches and not so much on trying to create intense spiritual experiences at once-a-year events like camp.

The Ugly: Anyway you slice it, camp ministry is never a neat, simple experience (but then again, no ministry is ever neat and simple.)

Maybe “ugly” is too strong a word, but I don’t think “messy” is too strong a word. People are complicated and life is not lived in black and white, it’s lived in color, with all the shades and colors of human experience overlapping, clashing, and (sometimes) harmonizing.

That’s another thing I like about Higher Ground. Most of the people who minister there aren’t trying to force people into boxes and categories and they’re not trying to wrap the week up in a package at the end with a nice little bow on top. Camp ministry helps us see that Jesus has included humanity in the life he shares with the Father and the Spirit and that is never going to change. As messy and difficult as life can get we know that we have all eternity – not just a week, a year, or a lifespan – to keep being baptized in the assurance of who we are in Jesus and to keep healing from the broken results of our fallenness.

~ Jonathan Stepp

The Patience of Evangelism

I believe that impatience is one of the deepest flaws in the evangelism that we have learned from contemporary Christianity.

When you believe that your ministry of evangelism is on a timetable to get people to believe in Jesus before a certain point (e.g. before they die) then you naturally become impatient and then desperate. You become willing to manipulate and play tricks. You become willing to put programs and activities above people. You decide that the end really does justify the means. This desperation becomes the stench of death to the non-believer and ends up derailing the very goal it seeks to achieve.

There is only one reason, in Christ, to be in relationship with a non-believer: because you like and love that person and want to be with him.

In fact, you like and love that person so much that you want to listen to him and be in relationship with him even if he never comes to believe the truth about his identity in Jesus. This is exactly who Jesus is and what Jesus has done.

In Jesus, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have decided to always be God with humanity, even if humanity forever keeps wanting to be humanity without God.

The Trinity likes and loves us that much, that they would rather have us in our disbelief – and really have us – than to be without us. That is why the Father is called the Father, because he loves us the way only a Father can. In fact, what we call the love of fatherhood is but a pale reflection of the source of all parental love: the Father who has always loved the Son and includes humanity in that same love through the Son’s union with humanity as the man Jesus Christ.

The Father has decided that all human beings will live forever in the resurrection of Jesus (1 Cor. 15:22). This means that the Father has given himself eternity to keep talking to his children about how much he loves them and to keep inviting them to join the eternal celebration of his Kingdom Feast (Luke 15:28).

So, if we are going to participate in Jesus’ ministry of evangelism we need to take a deep breath, relax, and settle in for the long haul.

~ Jonathan Stepp

Where is Jesus Working?

Everywhere.

Jesus is the union of the Trinity and Humanity. Therefore the Holy Spirit that comes from the Father, through the Son, is at work in our humanity because the Son shares in our humanity as the man Jesus. The Psalmist says:

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in hell, you are there. ~ Psalm 139:7-8

I believe that if we want to discern where Jesus is working, and join him in his work, then we have to see how every aspect of human existence has been embraced, enveloped, and permeated by the life of the Father, Son, and Spirit through the humanity of Jesus. We have to stop trying to divide the sacred and the secular and stop trying to divide the miraculous and the natural.

As most of you know, we at The Adopted Life are big fans of the work the Holy Spirit is doing with the theologian Baxter Kruger. One of the key insights the Spirit has given Baxter is the realization that the modern American church has not been taking Jesus seriously enough in the way we talk about the “ordinary” aspects of our lives, e.g. cooking breakfast for our kids, going to work, and spending time with friends.

If you have not read Baxter’s latest blog post entitled The Spirit’s Presence, I highly recommend that you go read it right now.

Here’s a quote to whet your appetite:

We either see ourselves and others as merely human, with an occasional dash of ‘supernatural’ inspiration, or we see ourselves and others as those included in Jesus Christ and in His anointing in the Holy Spirit. The former will produce pride and incessant striving, followed by more pride, then boredom and burnout, and the divisive minimization of our human existence as we chase the spirituality of the non-human god. The latter will produce dignity and hope, and a regard for one another beyond race, religion, and all prejudice. For we will see ourselves and others as brothers and sisters (blind as we may be) equally included in the Trinitarian life of God. We will look for the Trinitarian life emerging in and through the ‘humanity’ of others, and we will cherish, celebrate and do what we can to encourage its emergence.

We 21st century American Christians are yearning to know where Jesus is working and to join him in his work. But I believe we need to be educated first. We need to be educated to understand how Jesus is universally present, and we need to let his Spirit undo the false divide we have created between the sacred  and the secular, before we will really be able to participate intelligently in Jesus’ ministry.

Reading Baxter’s post on the Spirit’s presence will help you in that education.

~ Jonathan Stepp

Great Commission Resurgence

Some folks over at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) are challenging their fellow Southern Baptists to embrace a “great commission resurgence.” You can read their challenge letter here.

As usual, I have some rather critical comments to make.

But before I do, let me just say there’s nothing personal about this. I have many friends and relatives who are in SBC churches and I know they are doing their best to respond to the awesome grace of the Father, in Christ, as the Spirit leads them – just as we all are. I also don’t know anything about the people who created this document, but I’m sure they love Jesus and their families – as we all do since we are all sharing in the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

All I am critiquing here is the actual language of the letter itself.

For those of us who believe that the Spirit is calling the North American Church back to a fully Christ-centered, fully Trinitarian understanding of God, there are a couple of interesting aspects of this document:

1. The only place the document invokes the Trinity is when it quotes the Bible (Matthew 28:18-20) at the very start. The rest of the document is decidedly Unitarian in its language. I’m sure the people who wrote the letter believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, but their vision of human existence and the Church is not a Trinitarian vision.

Consider these stats: The word “God” is used 32 times, far more than any other word for the Divine Being. If, when you say “God” you immediately think of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then the word “God” is probably okay. But the fact that the document no where mentions the Father – not even once – and only mentions the Holy Spirit in passing references in 2 places, tells me that in this document “God” does not mean Trinity it means “Omnipotent Being.”

The name of Jesus (or the combo “Jesus Christ”) is used 10 times and the title “Christ” is used 9 times by itself. Again, I’m not trying to judge what’s in the hearts and minds of the authors of the letter, I’m simply evaluating the language of the document itself. Based on the language alone we have to conclude that this document is about “God,” and to a lesser extent about Jesus Christ. Nothing in the language of the letter makes it very clear what the relationship is between God and the person Jesus or what the relationship between the two of them has to do with the Great Commission, the Church, or humanity. This letter is not about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who are described in Matthew 28.

2. Since the letter is not Trinitarian it bubbles over with langauge about what people need to do to please this distant, Unitarian God in the sky and do his work. I won’t cite a bunch of stats on this point, I’ll just let you read it (if you want to take the time) and decide for yourself.

I can tell you this, though: if my pastor read this letter to me I would feel like I was being sent on a guilt trip to please the omnipotent deity. I would not feel that I was being baptized in the assurance of the Father who loves me in Jesus and had poured his Holy Spirit into my life. (By the way, that sentence I just wrote is an example of what I mean when I talk about writing in a Trinitarian way instead of just writing about “God.”)

So, what’s my point in all this? Nothing too serious – after all, the guys who wrote this document are just sincerely trying to help themselves and others live out a Christian life. I’m not down on that.

I just want to make the point that when the Bible talks about the Great Commission it talks about baptizing people into the name “of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” I think that if we in the Church want to talk about the Great Commission we ought to use the same Trinitarian language. There is no other gospel than humanity’s adoption into the life of the Father, through the incarnation of the Son, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit – and that’s the good news we’re commissioned to preach.

~ Jonathan Stepp