What is the local church?

For one of my classes last semester, I had to define what the local church is. Fo the fun of it, I thought I would share with you what my definition came out to be.
This definition is heavily based on Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2009), 38. I took a considerable amount of time studying the different elements of their definition and added where I personally thought it might be lacking. Since I am a member of Mars Hill Church, I wanted to stay as close to Mars Hill Church’s definition of a church and only tweak it a little bit.
The local church is a community of confessing and covenantal believers of Jesus Christ who are organized under Biblically qualified leadership. They regularly gather physically for preaching and worship, and scatter in the unity and power of the Holy Spirit to carry out the mission of God by evangelizing and caring for people everywhere. They observe the Biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, and are disciplined to maintain the purity of the church in order to live out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission to the glory of God.
What do you think? Would you change anything? Do you have a working definition of the church?
Christ in Colossians – Part 3 – Jesus is a Member of the Trinitarian Godhead (Trinity)

While Jesus is fully God, he lives in relationship with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit as a member of the Trinitarian Godhead. Paul consistently presents Jesus as fully God, but he also presents Jesus as the Son of God. This doesn’t make Jesus any less of God, because Paul clearly articulates Jesus’ deity. But Paul distinguishes Jesus’ role and relationship within the Trinitarian Godhead. According to Bruce Ware,
The Son, then, is fully God. He is not one-third God, but fully God. Yet, it is not the Son alone who is fully God, but he eternally exists along with the Father and the Spirit, each of whom also possesses fully the identically same divine nature. Because of this, what distinguishes the Son from the Father and the Spirit is not the divine nature of the Son. This–the one and undivided divine nature–is also possessed equally and fully by the Father and the Spirit. Therefore, what distinguishes the Son is his particular role as Son in relation to the Father and to the Spirit and the relationships that he has with each of them.[1]
Throughout the epistle to the Colossians, Paul shows the relationship between Jesus and God the Father. Paul’s first reference between Jesus and God the Father is in Col. 1:3 when Paul gives thanks to “God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul establishes that there is God the Father and God the Son. Continuing in Colossians, God the Father delivers “us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col. 1:13). Paul declares that it is “the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in [Jesus]” (Col. 1:19, NASB).
Paul also makes known that the Son’s role is in submission to the Father’s authority. Jesus was used by the Father “to reconcile to himself all things” (Col. 1:20, ESV). “God [the Father] made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses” (Col. 2:13). Jesus’ role as the Son is to be used as the Father’s agent of salvation. Jesus is the Father’s agent of creation as “all things were created through him” (Col. 1:16). The Father also “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in [Jesus]” (Col. 2:15). Lastly, Jesus is our mediator to the Father. Paul says that the Colossians are to give “thanks to God the Father through [Jesus]” (Col. 3:17). Through Jesus, the Colossians had a relationship with the Father.
While Paul makes several references to God the Father, there is only one reference to the Holy Spirit in the epistle to the Colossians. In Col. 1:7, Paul speaks about Epaphras being a “faithful minister of Christ” to the Colossians. In the same sentence, Paul says that Epaphras has “made known to us your love in the Spirit” (Col. 1:8). While this doesn’t give us much of an understanding of the role and relationship between Jesus and the Holy Spirit, it does let us know that the Colossians would have known there is a third person of the Godhead. The Colossians would have to rely on other epistles from Paul that would eventually circulate to them, the gospels, and the teachings of Epaphras to get a better understanding of the rich interaction between Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
[SIDE NOTE: To have a better understanding of the Trinity, go buy Bruce Ware's book "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance" right now and read it immediately. It is the best book I've read on the Trinity to date (not like I've read a lot...but it's really good). Don't wait...go do it.]
[1] Bruce A. Ware, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance
Spiritual Discipline: Generosity – Five tips for becoming more generous.

After understanding that everything we do is worship, you will begin to see that one of the biggest idols in your life is stuff. More than likely, you are a worshipper of stuff. Your car, house, computer, iPod, phone, television, paycheck, books, yard, clothes, furniture, bike, music instrument, and movie collection all hold a higher place in your life than God. You spend more time focusing on them than Him.
At heart, we are very selfish and greedy. This is in direct contrast to God the Father who gave us His Son and the Son who gave up His life for us. If we want to grow closer in our understanding of God, we need to become generous people. We need to have the mindset that God is more important than stuff.
Here is the amazing thing. You can use your stuff to worship God. Your stuff is really God’s stuff and He can do with it whatever He wants. When you invest your stuff in the kingdom of God, you start to put God before your stuff. By being generous with your stuff, you are aligning your heart with the heart of God. Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a discipline of being generous with God’s stuff.
Tip #1: Make it a priority. You’re not going to be generous until you make it a priority. For example, when I was in college, I had a moment of enlightenment. I was a poor college student, and I went out to eat with a group guys. At the end of the meal, an older gentleman in the group paid for the meal. I remember telling him how I wish I could do the same thing. He responded with the kindest of words: “If you aren’t generous when you have nothing, then you won’t be generous when you have everything.” You have to make being generous a priority in your life. There are too many other shiny things that will take center stage if you don’t. Make it a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly task to look for ways to be more generous in your life.
Tip #2: Have a budget. You won’t know what to give until you know what you have. This works for both your money and your time. For your money, you should have a budget for every month. This takes away the excuse of saying, “I just don’t have any money to give.” You don’t have money to be generous with because you don’t plan. Most people will tell you that when you first started budgeting, it was like you get a raise. When you start budgeting, you are finally able to plan. You are able to make your money work for you instead of the opposite. You also need to budget your time. Some of us don’t serve others because we never have any extra time. Here is a tip…there is no such thing as “extra” time. There are 24 hours in a day and that is all you have. Just like your paycheck only has a set amount of money, your life only has a set amount of time. You have to budget your time wisely so you’re able to serve those around you.
Tip #3: Give first. This has two implications. You can take the idea of biblical “first fruits.” This was the commandment given by God that you should give the first of everything that you receive (animals, harvest, children, etc.) to God. The top line of your budget should have a line for a certain percentage of your money that you want to give away. When you get paid you should automatically take that percentage of money out of your check to give away. If you’re a member of a church, it should go to your church. No questions. No ifs, ands, or buts. Just do it. Then budget the rest to live off of. If you don’t do this, you’ll just make excuses and never be generous with the money you have. This will teach you to be generous. The other implication is if you have the option to serve someone or to do something else with the “free” time in your life, serve. Give of yourself first. Generosity now has the priority. So skip watching TV and go do a generous act.
Tip #4: Have a separate checking account. This is a little trick that my wife and I learned when we weren’t part of a local church for a while. We didn’t have a place that we could write a check to for a weekly tithe. So we opened up another checking account and we transferred a percentage of our paychecks into the account every time we got paid. Then we knew we could use this account to be generous whenever the opportunity presented itself without having to worry about whether we were using money that was needed to pay the bills. When we became members of a church, we started giving our tithe to them. We still transfer the money into the account so we don’t get it mixed up with the rest of the money we have, but we enjoyed having the freedom of the extra checking account so much that we transfer an additional amount of money into it every month so we can be generous when the Holy Spirit presents us with opportunities.
Tip #5: Give first and ask questions later. Now this might sound like you’re to give money to anyone on the street who asks you for it, but this is different. What this means is that we have the tendency to ask the question “Why?” Why should I be generous with my time and money? The reality of it is that you can’t understand the answer to that question until you start being generous. You could read scripture. You could hear stories from other people’s lives. You could see a vision of heaven coming to earth. But you won’t get it. You won’t get it until you take a homeless guy across the street to Arby’s for lunch. You won’t get it until you mow your elderly neighbor’s yard without them asking or paying you. You won’t get it until you help your wife’s single-mother-coworker pay her rent. You won’t get it until you pay for lunch for you and your friends, knowing that you might not be able to eat dinner. If you decide that you aren’t going to be generous until you understand why, you’ll never be generous. The reality is you need to give first and then ask questions, because by giving you’ll find a lot of the answers.
What is a Disciple of Jesus? – Part V – Worshiping Jesus

Jesus continuously worshiped God the Father. Depending on your background, the word worship could have a lot of baggage with it. Some view worship as a meeting time once a week. Some view worship as a music genre. Some view worship as doing a set of prayers/chants/mantras. Some view worship as singing some songs.
While all of these are forms of worship, they all fall short of a full understanding of what worship is. Worship at its core is giving value to something or someone. In his book Unceasing Worship, Harold M. Best defines worship better by saying that, “worship is the continuous outpouring of all that I am, all that I do and all that I can ever become in light of a chosen or choosing god.”[i]
Human beings are worshipers. Everything we do, says, think, or feel is an act of worship. At the heart of everything we do is giving value to someone or something. We are born worshiping and we never stop. The only thing that changes is what we worship. God is the only one worthy of worship. God’s original design was for us to continuously worship Him, but sin entered the world and we started worshiping lesser things. We started to worship created things (ourselves generally being at the top of the list). We started to worship idols.[ii]
The reality is that at the heart of all sin is an issue with worship. Romans 1:24-25 puts it this way, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”[iii] Because of sin, instead of continuously worshiping God, we continuously worship created things. Because of sin, we have had no desire to ever give glory to God.
Now that we are being made into the image of Christ, we are able to glorify God with our lives once again. Jesus used everything in his life to worship God. He is the only person to perfectly worship God, and through the power of the Holy Spirit we can do the same. Instead of worshiping money, we can use money to worship God. Instead of worshiping our jobs, we can use our jobs to worship God. Instead worshiping our families, we can use our families to worship God. Instead of worshiping all of our stuff, we can use our stuff to worship God. In Jesus, we have been freed to worship God. Spend this week focusing on how you are called to worship God with all your life.
[i] Harold M. Best, Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Arts (InterVarsity Press, 2003), 18.
[ii] An idol is anything that we worship that isn’t God.
[iii] (ESV)
What is a Disciple of Jesus? – Part IV – Imaging Jesus

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. – Ephesians 5:1-2
In the beginning, God created us in His image. Like a mirror, we were created to reflect God’s glory to the world around us. Unfortunately, sin entered the world and our reflection became distorted. Our mirrors became bent and broken.
The story doesn’t stop there though. Jesus entered our world and imaged the Father perfectly. He reflected God’s glory to the world perfectly. Everything he did showed us a perfect image of who the Father is. Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”[i] Jesus imaged the Father.
We are called to image Jesus in the same way that Jesus imaged God the Father. As disciples we are being conformed into the image of Jesus.[ii] Bruce Ware describes our imaging this way:
Created and finite representations (images of God) of God’s own nature, that in relationship with Him and each other, they might be His representatives (imaging God) in carrying out responsibilities He was given to them. In this sense, we are images of God in order to image God and His purposes in the ordering of our lives and carrying out of our God-given responsibilities.[iii]
In the next three weeks we will focus on three distinct areas in our lives in which we are called to image God. We are called to worship Jesus with all of our lives, live in gospel-centered community, and be on mission in the world around us. For now we will simply focus on the thought of imaging God.
Now that our identity is in Jesus, our lives are called to be a reflection of Jesus. Our mirrors are being repaired so we can image Jesus in everything we do, think, feel, and say. This is only possible because of the relationship that we now have with Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit as we are continually purified into the image of Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus, it is our goal that every aspect of our life would reflect God’s glory. Our families should reflect God’s glory. Our finances should reflect God’s glory. Our relationships should reflect God’s glory. Our jobs should reflect God’s glory. Spend this week focusing on how you are called to be an image-bearer of God.
[i] John 14:9 (ESV)
[ii] Romans 8:29
[iii] Wayne Grudem, Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood (Crossway Books, 2002), 79.
What is a Disciple of Jesus? – Part III – Finding Your Identity in Jesus

So where does our journey begin? Jesus. It all starts with Jesus. He is the creator of all things. He is ruler over everything. He holds everything together by His power. He came to earth; humbly born of a teenage virgin girl in a dirty barn in the Middle East over 2,000 years ago. He lived a perfect life by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was betrayed by one of His closest pupils. He was beaten to a bloody pulp and died a brutal death on a wooden cross for our sins.
It is in the work of Jesus on the cross that our relationship with God the Father is reconciled. Because of the sin of our father Adam, we were separated from God. In our sin, we ran as far away from God as possible. Before Jesus, we were viewed as sick-wicked-evil-despicable-depraved-sinful people. God the Father was ready to pour His wrath out on us.
But God, in His grace, came after us. He pulled us out of our sin and placed us in Christ Jesus. For those whom God has called to Himself we are now viewed “in Christ.” We are now “holy and blameless and above reproach before him.”[i] God the Father no longer sees us. Instead he sees his Son Jesus Christ.
This happens in what Martin Luther called the great exchange. On the cross, Jesus took our sin upon himself, and in exchange he gave us his righteousness. The Apostle Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”[ii] In Jesus, our sin has been exchanged for His righteousness.
But it’s not just about the removal of our sins; everything we do as Christians is “in Christ.” We are sanctified in Christ.[iii] We serve in Christ.[iv] We are redeemed in Christ.[v] We are made alive in Christ.[vi] We are no longer condemned in Christ.[vii] We are one body of believers in Christ.[viii] We are a new creation in Christ.[ix] We are reconciled to God in Christ.[x] We have freedom in Christ.[xi] We are spiritually blessed in Christ.[xii] We are created for good works in Christ.[xiii] We are encouraged in Christ.[xiv] We become mature in Christ.[xv] We are strengthened by grace in Christ.[xvi] Even our physical death is in Christ[xvii] (and this is just the short list).
If you have put your faith in Him, you are now in Christ. We no longer have our old sinful identity. We have His! We have received His righteousness as our own. We now have a loving relationship with God the Father by the blood of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Spend this week focusing on your new identity in Christ Jesus.
[i] Colossians 1:22
[ii] (ESV)
[iii] 1 Corinthians 1:2
[iv] Romans 16:3, 9
[v] Romans 3:24
[vi] Romans 6:11, 1 Corinthians 15:22
[vii] Romans 8:11
[viii] Romans 12:5
[ix] 2 Corinthians 5:17
[x] 2 Corinthians 5:19
[xi] Galatians 2:4
[xii] Ephesians 1:3
[xiii] Ephesians 2:10
[xiv] Philippians 2:1
[xv] Colossians 1:28
[xvi] 2 Timothy 2:1
[xvii] 1 Corinthians 15:18, 1 Thessalonians 4:16
What is a Disciple of Jesus? – Part II

We ended yesterday with the following definition to answer the questions, “What is a Disciple of Jesus?”
A disciple is someone who is on the path to becoming like Jesus by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. As the disciple becomes more like Jesus, they find their identity in Jesus and image Him by worshiping God with all their lives, living in gospel community with other disciples, and going on mission to make more disciples of Jesus.
Let me break down this definition a little bit more. As the lead singer of Aerosmith, Steven Tyler, sings in his song Amazing, “Life’s a journey, not a destination.”[i] Being a disciple of Jesus has no ultimate connotation that you have arrived in any way. You see in the Apostle John’s gospel that those who were called disciples were simply on the path to being made into the image of Jesus. Some only took a few steps, whereas some followed Jesus to their death. The reality is that being a disciple of Jesus means that you are on the path, following Jesus.
Now like most journeys, there are going to be points of interest along the way (salvation, joining a church, special callings in your life, etc.), but these aren’t the ultimate focus. The ultimate focus of a disciple is Jesus himself. A disciple isn’t marked by their experience, knowledge, actions, or expertise. A disciple is marked by whom they are following. For a Christian, that is Jesus himself. Our ultimate goal is to be transformed into the image of Christ.
This isn’t by any merit of our own. The fact that we are disciples of Jesus is strictly by the grace of God. It is through the blood of Christ that we are called to be His disciples. You see this over and over again in the gospels when Jesus called his disciples: they were not called base on merit. There was simply Jesus’ call into their lives to “follow me.”[ii]
Our growth and progress as we follow Jesus is also nothing for us to boast in either. Sanctification doesn’t happen because of our own will, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Peter encourages some exiles of gospel in 1 Peter 1:1-2 by telling them:
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.[iii]
We are called by the grace of God and sanctified by the Holy Spirit to become more and more like the Son of God…Jesus. This is what it means to be a disciple.
My definition of a disciple ends with the sentence, “As the disciple becomes more like Jesus, they find their identity in Jesus and image Him by worshiping God with all their lives, living in gospel community with other disciples, and going on mission to make more disciples of Jesus.”
As a disciple is being transformed into the image of Christ, there are some clear areas in the life that will be transformed. Disciples will begin to find their identity in Jesus, worship Jesus with all their life, live in community, and be on mission to make more disciples of Jesus. That is the out powering from who the disciple is. These are the actions of a disciple. Over the next few weeks we’ll focus on each one of these more. Until then, I pray that you grow in your walk with Jesus.
[i] Aerosmith, Amazing (Geffen, 2001).
[ii] Matthew 4:19, Matthew 8:22, Mark 1:17, Mark 2:14, Luke 1:3, Luke 5:27, John 1:43
[iii] (ESV)
What is a Disciple of Jesus? – Part I

My week at Re:Train for the Spiritual Formations class truly helped me to solidify what my concept of a disciple is. Before then, I had only given minimal thought and study towards the question, “What is a disciple of Jesus?” Let me clarify my definition of a disciple before I move forward with the implications this has on my ministry.
Before we can understand what a disciple is, we first have to take a look at what a disciple isn’t. While each of the following is an aspect of a disciple, none of them by themselves give us a full picture of what a disciple is.
First, a disciple isn’t a mystic. A mystic’s whole life’s goal is to seek to be in the presence of Jesus. While this is a noble task and one that we should all seek to some degree, it is not a disciple.
Some would say that a disciple is a student. A student’s goal is to gain knowledge from a teacher. While we need to grow in our understanding of Jesus and the gospel everyday, a student and a disciple are two different things.
Third, some think of a disciple as a practitioner, focused on actions. They want to do what Jesus did. They love seeking out the methods of Jesus and seek to do the same thing as He did. While we need to learn to do what Jesus did, this isn’t a disciple.
Lastly, some people think of a disciple as a professional. In his or her mind, a disciple is someone who has finally arrived. They have read several books, taken classes, and probably hold some kind of title in the church.
So if a disciple isn’t a mystic, student, practitioner, or professional, what is a disciple? To begin, we need to take a look at what it would have culturally meant to be a disciple during the time Jesus was on earth. Ray Vander Laan talks about the education system and the relationship between a rabbi and disciples.
A few (very few) of the most outstanding Beth Midrash students sought permission to study with a famous rabbi often leaving home to travel with him for a lengthy period of time. These students were called talmidim (talmid, s.) in Hebrew, which is translated disciple. There is much more to a talmid than what we call student. A student wants to know what the teacher knows for the grade, to complete the class or the degree or even out of respect for the teacher. A talmid wants to be like the teacher, that is to become what the teacher is. That meant that students were passionately devoted to their rabbi and noted everything he did or said. This meant the rabbi/talmid relationship was a very intense and personal system of education. As the rabbi lived and taught his understanding of the Scripture his students (talmidim) listened and watched and imitated so as to become like him.[i]
A disciple doesn’t want to know what the rabbi knows or do what the rabbi does or simply be in the presence of the rabbi; he wants to do all these things to become who the rabbi is. The disciple’s sole focus is to become who the rabbi is. So this shapes my definition of a disciple:
A disciple is someone who is on the path to becoming like Jesus by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. As the disciple becomes more like Jesus, they find their identity in Jesus and image Him by worshiping God with all their lives, living in gospel community with other disciples, and going on mission to make more disciples of Jesus.
Tomorrow we’ll break down this definition a little more…
[i] Ray Vander Laan, “Rabbi and Talmidim,” Follow the Rabbi, http://www.followtherabbi.com/Brix?pageID=2753.






