Ever wonder why you have an early morning meeting with “Traditional” music and an later meeting with “Modern” music? Well, the older people don’t like the modern music and the younger people don’t like the traditional music. Some people have tried to incorporate both types of music in their meetings. That way they please everyone… but does that just end up annoying everyone?

Think about it, you’ll hear older people complaining about how the newer music is not reverent enough, not respectful… or they just do not “get it”. And the younger generation wants something more hip and upbeat, traditional hymns just bore them. But for the past 200+ years, we’ve traditionally played music during the Sunday morning meetings. We have to play something, right?

I’m not sure that removing music would help, I’m sure that would divide as well. To be honest, I do not know what is the best answer, it seems like no matter what you do, it will cause disunity among the church. I think the ultimate problem is that the people who would be upset are not considering the their brothers and sacrificing their own taste. I think an attitude of sacrifice comes from maturity in Christ. What are your thoughts?

I wonder how many untrained newcomers to follow Jesus believe that Christ was his last name. Before I was a follower, I always treated it as his last name and did not think about it. For those of you who do not know, “Christ” or “Χριστος” translates to “the Anointed One or the Messiah.” Some translations switch between Messiah and Christ as translations, most of them stick with Christ.

The Facts

1. The NASB translates Χριστος as “the Messiah” 4 times. (Matthew 1:1,16,17; 2:4)
2. The NASB translates Χριστος as “Christ” 528 times in the New Testament.
3. Χριστιανος occurs 3 times in the New Testament and the NASB translates  as “Christian” each time.
4. Χριστος occurs 529 times in the New Testament (an additional 11 times in the Septuagint — Greek translation of the Old Testament).
5. There is a discrepancy 3 times where the word Christ appears in the NASB but Χριστος is not found in the Greek manuscripts for those verses (Acts 8:37, 20:21; Romans 16:24). NOTE: In Romans 16:24 Χριστος appears in the Byzantine manuscripts, which are not generally used by the NASB.
6. There is also a Greek word Μεσσιας which is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word for Messiah. It occurs twice in the New Testament. (John 1:41, 4:25)

Conclusion

As I already said, this transliteration really does not lead to any major conflicts. Although some people probably do not know what “Christ” means, it is fairly easy to find out. Generally when someone is talking about Jesus Christ we know who they are referring to and what people believe he is. However, I would still like to see the word translated properly, to something like “the Messiah” or “the anointed One”. But even those translations could be confusing. Also, in the spirit of Christmas, we should take Christ out and replace it with Messiah.

So, Happy Messiahmas everyone!

There were seven total entries in this contest. With a total of 93 out of 150 points, I won third place plus the “popular” vote. This entitles me to a 20$ gift card to Barnes & Noble and a free book from Energion Publishing. Since I already have The Jesus Paradigm (see review) I choose Dr. Black’s newest book, Christian Archy. I hope to get my loot sometime next week!

With a total of 99 out of 150 points, the second place winner was Arthur Sido. He beat me by a whopping 6 points. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying anything bad here… I just think it’s an odd coincidence that the number was “6″.

With a total of 108 out of 150 points, the first place winner was Lionel Woods. Lionel beat Arthur by 9 points and by addition beat me by 15 points. I am really surprised the scoring was so close.

Congrats Arthur and Lionel and thank you Energion for putting on this contest. It was really interesting and there were some really good essays.

If you want to read them, here is a link to all of the submissions:

A. Amos Love

Arthur Sido

Lew Ayotte

David Blanton

Lionel Woods

James Lee

Christopher Larson

What a congregation following Jesus Christ in ministry should look like can be a pretty complicated discussion. We have to realize that even the early church had difficulty with this. Many of the letters in the New Testament are corrective in nature. So we should not be surprised to discover that our modern day practices (which are 2000 years removed) may not be as Scriptural as we think. For the sake of simplicity, in this essay I will refer to the “congregation following Jesus Christ in ministry” as the Assembly of Christ. When I envision the Assembly of Christ, what comes to mind is much different than our current practices.

The passage that I think sums up the Assembling of the Church the most is 1 Corinthians 14:26 “What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.” (ESV) In this letter to the Corinthian Church, Paul is correcting a few misunderstandings that the Corinthians had about their gathering. According to Paul, when the Church assembled they were to have one goal, to build each other up. Paul expected everyone to bring something to the meeting. His non-exhaustive list includes things like, hymns, lessons, revelations, tongues, and interpretations. Today, the Assembly of Christ should also include these same things. Each person in the Assembly should be concerned about building the others up.

In 1 Corinthians 1:12-13, Paul writes, “What I mean is that each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Cephas,’ or ‘I follow Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” I believe this passage had multiple applications in our world today. As Christ followers, the Assembly of Christ should not be emphatic about their leaders or their specific teachings. I believe there is a multiple threads weaving through this letter. Paul is telling the Corinthian believers that they should be concerned about building one another up more than dividing over different leaders. Today, the Assembly of Christ should not be worried about worldly qualifications for their leaders, they should also not show concern for differing denominations. The Assembly of Christ will love their brother and sisters in Christ, regardless of who their pastor is, what their denomination is, or any other extra-Biblical qualifications. In fact, I would say that any specific pastor or denomination is merely happen-stance to the Assembly of Christ.

This leads me to 1 Timothy 3:1-7, which is normally referred to as the Pastor Qualifications. The Assembly of Christ will realize that this list does not have anything on it at every Christ follower should not be following. Instead of choosing their leaders based on seminary degrees, previous experience, or any other worldly qualifications. The Assembly of Christ will recognize their leaders internally. Those Christ followers who are already meeting these qualifications (or most of them) will be the ones who are recognized as leaders:

• Above reproach
• The husband of one wife
• Sober-minded
• Self-controlled
• Respectable
• Hospitable
• Able to teach
• Not a drunkard
• Not violent but gentle
• Not quarrelsome
• Not a lover of money

Basically the Assembly of Christ’s leaders are those people who are imitating Christ in their daily walk and lives. Those of us who meet these qualifications are people who can be recognized as leaders. But that does not mean that other Christians should not have characteristics on this list. More importantly, the Assembly of Christ will recognize that Jesus is their true pastor or their “senior pastor”. For he is the only one who can completely fulfill these qualifications and only through him are we able to fulfill any of these qualifications.

When it comes to the Assembly of Christ, it is not all about our meetings, our leaders, our denominations, or our qualifications. A big part of the ministry of Christ is reaching out to our neighbors with the Good News. Although I believe Matthew 28:18-20 is often times over-used or even misused. I believe it is appropriate at this juncture of the discussion. In Matthew 28, Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV)

When the Assembly of Christ is about building one another up, not dividing over leaders or denominations, focused on recognizing their own leaders, they will inherently be about fulfilling the Great Commission. In fact, I believe following Jesus’ command here may be like second nature to them. They will see the world through His eyes instead of their own. As the Assembly of Christ, reaching our neighbors will not be based on a program, chant, or weekly exercise… it will be according to Christ’s example. Each member in the assembly will recognize their responsibilities, although different, each one has an extremely important role.

The only thing I might add is that the Assembly of Christ should not be defined by a specific group of people (other than Christ followers) or a specific location. In Matthew 18:20, Jesus said “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (ESV) I believe that anytime Christians meet in His name, whether it is a weekly meeting or a casual meeting, they are the Assembly of Christ. The Assembly of Christ can morph and grow and shrink as people come and go, but the Assembly of Christ will always remain the same. When two or three are gathered, it is the Assembly of Christ, when 50-60 are gathered, it is still the Assembly of Christ.

Well, I’ve officially reached over 1000 words in this post. I know I could write much, much more and probably could have organized my thoughts a little better.

There were five requirements for this essay:

1. Biblically rooted
2. Historically aware
3. Complete
4. Clear and Concise
5. Overall impression, including appearance, discussion generated, and anything one of the judges wants to include

I believe I at least met the 1st requirement :).

I hope you enjoyed this essay. Let me know what you think.

All this led me to wonder, what would Jesus do for Halloween this year?

Now that I am a follower of Christ, I believe I can speak for Jesus on this issue. It is pretty obvious, but I am sure Jesus will not turn his lights on for Halloween. He will not want those evil pagan Satanists coming to his door asking for sacrificial virgins and goat’s blood. After spending a few hours hiding in a room in his house from all those evil non-Himself-Followers he will make his way to the local God-ordained building to celebrate.

Do not worry, he is not going to be celebrating the evil Satanic day of Halloween. He will be celebrating Fall Festival. You see, Fall Festival is the holiest of celebrations and it happens to fall on October 31. Unlike Halloween, during Fall Festival you get to dress up like your favorite fun thing. This is a completely different practice than that evil Satanist celebration. The children of Satan worshipers all dress up like Ghouls, Ghosts, Witches, Demons, and Lawyers – everything to do with Satan. During Fall Festival, the children dress up like Peter Pan, Robin Hood, Star Wars characters, Angels, and dead Church reformers – everything to do with God and the Bible.

While at Fall Festival, Jesus will participate in many activities. One of Jesus’ favorite activities is painting pumpkins. You can paint a funny face on a pumpkin, glue yarn on the top of it to make it look even sillier. Then you can accessorize your pumpkin with fake glasses, mustaches, or clothes. The wild-eyed Satanists also use pumpkins in their celebration. It is quite different though, Satanists take sharp evil knifes and stab open the pumpkin. They carve evil and ugly faces out of the pumpkin as a way to ward off Christians and all things holy. Often times they put a candle inside the demonic pumpkin to make it look even scarier. Sometimes it is acceptable for Christians to carve pumpkins, but only if they carve a cross into the pumpkin (with a knife blessed by a priest). Also, Christians are forbidden from putting candles in their pumpkins. This too closely reflects the evil Satanist children of the world. Instead, they need to use a small flash light with rechargeable batteries (to save the environment). We are called to be “in the world”… not “of the world”.

Jesus also loves handing out candy to the little children at Fall Festival. He makes sure to hand out only the healthy candy, like apples, oranges, unsalted peanuts, and bible tracts. To receive these wonderful prizes, the children will usually say “tr*ck or tr**t” like the evil Satanist children. This is acceptable behavior, they are too young to realize the evilness of this saying. Eventually with enough Sunday School and Children’s church they will learn the true evil power of these words. It is Jesus’ hope along with the rest of the church that 1 or 2 satanist Children who inadvertently wear Christian costumes might accidentally stumble into to their Fall Festival celebration and receive a Bible tract. This is truly the only acceptable way to tell children and parents about God’s hatred for them and how they can be saved from their wicked Satanic practices so that God might finally love them.

During all of the pumpkin painting and candy giveaways there are usually other activities for children to do. One of my favorites is the “Holy House”. A Holy House is a fun maze for the good little Heaven-bound children. While they go through the maze fun facts pop out at them telling them about how Luther nailed his 95 thesis on the Wittenberg door or how Spurgeon preached to thousands of people. When the children finish the maze they are quizzed on what they should have learned and earn saltines and sugar free punch for correct answers. Some of the Satanist children have a similar, but evil practice. They have an evil maze called a “Haunted House”. A Haunted house is filled with other scary people dressed up as evil things like demons and ghouls. As the Satanist children go through this scary maze, evil spirits jump out at them scaring them and brainwashing them into believing in evolution. When they finish the maze they get to drink boiled worm juice and eat Oreo cookies.

This entire post was a fabrication.

Happy Halloween.