With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #48.
This church did many things right, especially the warm way they welcomed my wife and me into their community. Several of their practices were personally inviting and spiritually significant. I enjoyed our fellowship there.
Their meeting felt more relevant than what most churches do at their services. They were a great church to visit.
However, there’s one thing I can’t get past: everything seemed old. I feel guilty for saying this. Their service had a formal vibe.
Although their style had a novel pull, I realized that with repeated visits it would quickly grate on me for its ceremonial constructs and reserved rigidity.
The congregation was mostly older, with very few young people. Even though many in this church have a youthful spirit—just as I claim to have—I can’t get past their age.
Older congregations have a bleak future. There is no next generation to rise up and continue the journey.
Despite its many positive elements, my concerns overshadow them and keep me from wanting to return. Though it was a great church to visit, once was enough.
My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Paul Affirms Tychicus as a Dear Friend, Faithful Minister, and Servant of God
Tychicus is a character in the Bible who most people don’t know. His name occurs only five times, once in Acts and four times in Paul’s letters. The letter to the Colossian church is one example.
Each time Tychicus’s name is mentioned, it’s in passing, and we know little about him, except that Paul often uses him to carry messages to the various churches.
We learn the most about Tychicus’s character in Paul’s letter to the church in Colossi. Once again Paul plans to send him to this church, carrying news about Paul.
After he tells them this, he also gives us three characteristics of Tychicus:
1. A Dear Brother
First Paul affirms Tychicus as a dear brother. Think of him as a much loved, valued friend. We all want to have friends like that. But the place for us to start is to be a friend like that.
May we be a dear, loved, and valued friend to others.
2. A Faithful Minister
In addition to Tychicus’s loyalty, Paul confirms he’s also a faithful minister. First, focus on the word faithful. Tychicus is trustworthy, dependable, and consistent in his work. Paul knows he can count on him.
Next, look at the word minister. Today we think of a minister as someone who preaches sermons and leads a church.
But given what we know of Tychicus’s activities, his work as a minister carries the connotation of a helper, representative, and liaison.
That means he works behind the scenes, not upfront where people would see him or offer praise. Tychicus seems both competent and content in this role that other people today may deem as unworthy.
May we be a faithful minister like Tychicus.
3. A Fellow Servant of God
The final trait Paul mentions is Tychicus is a servant of God, just like Paul. Though we may equate the word servant to slave, that could be an overreach.
A true servant has a desire to serve others. This means serving God, with the practical application of serving Paul and the church.
Being a servant requires humility. Not many people possess this characteristic, but Paul values Tychicus as God’s servant. May we likewise aspire to serve God as we help others in his name.
These three traits reveal so much about Tychicus. Though he’s not a celebrated leader or a prolific writer, he’s a godly person, a worthy example for us to follow.
May we be more like Tychicus, someone who’s a dear friend, faithful minister, and servant of God.
Read about more biblical characters in The Friends and Foes of Jesus, now available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
The book of Deuteronomy has a curious passage about prophecy. It teaches if a prophet says something God didn’t instruct him or her to say, the prophet must be executed.
That should certainly cause prophets to be careful with their words, saying only what God commands and nothing else.
A few verses later, it says if a prophet declares something that doesn’t come true, to just disregard that person. There seems little distinction between these two situations, but with drastically different outcomes: killing versus ignoring.
I wonder if the distinction might be intent, where the first instance is willful and the second, accidental.
A third situation, which this passage doesn’t address, is the opposite of the first. Instead of saying what God doesn’t tell them, they don’t say what God tells them.
They are disobedient, but in this case their error isn’t public. Only they and God know about it, so there cannot be a response from the people.
Yet I suspect that not saying what we should say is almost as bad as saying what we shouldn’t.
While not everyone is a prophet, most of us do talk about God—and we must take care in what we say as well as in what we don’t say. Much is at stake.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
Reclaim Our Practice of Communion from a Biblical Context
In their practice of Communion some churches allow children to take Communion (the Eucharist) and others don’t. I’ve seen both occur at various worship services, but I don’t know which practice is more common.
A similar consideration is the issue of closed Communion versus open. For churches that practice closed Communion, only members of their church (or denomination) may partake. All others must watch.
For churches that practice open Communion, both members and nonmembers can celebrate the Lord’s Supper, although they often place restrictions on just how open they are.
I understand the rationale for restricting children and nonmembers:
Some churches that exclude children do so over concerns that they’re too young to understand what’s happening, that they’ll go through Communion as a ritual void of spiritual significance.
A similar explanation occurs over nonmember involvement.
In both cases, well-meaning church leaders limit participation in Communion out of respect for its significance and a desire for only those who fully understand it to take part.
Though I understand this, I don’t agree. Let’s look at Scripture for the context.
When Jesus introduced the sacrament that we now call Holy Communion or the Holy Eucharist, he did so on Passover. In doing so he expanded the meaning of Passover to be a remembrance of his death to save his people.
In the Old Testament, Passover occurred once a year. It was a meal celebrated in people’s homes with their family and neighbors. Jesus didn’t change any of these practices when he taught us about the Lord’s Supper in the New Testament.
Yet our practice of Communion today has moved far from its original context.
A Shared Meal
In Scripture we see Passover and Communion as part of a meal, not a symbolic cracker and sip of juice. Imagine someone showing up at your house in the middle of dinner.
You invite them in but don’t offer them any food. They watch while you eat.
Wouldn’t that be rude? Of course.
The same applies to visitors at our church who we make watch our Communion remembrance of Jesus. We celebrate, and they sit idle. That’s just as rude as not feeding a guest in our home.
A Family Event
In Scripture we see both Passover and Communion occurring in a home setting with family and friends (not at a church service).
When Moses instituted Passover, he didn’t say that only the adults could eat. The whole family participated. The kids didn’t need to be a certain age before they could eat the Passover.
Since it’s a meal, we have our entire family gathered around the table. No loving parent would ever sit their children.to eat and then not put food on their plate. But isn’t this what we do when we don’t let children take Communion?
An Annual Remembrance
Passover occurred once a year. Not once a quarter, not monthly, and not each week, but annually. I worry that many people have taken Communion so frequently that it ceases to be a time of remembrance to relish and becomes a ritual to perform.
The Practice of Communion
Unless we lead a church, we can’t change its practice of Communion. Attempting to do so won’t bring about reforms and could get us kicked out.
Instead, we should follow our church’s conventions for Communion with God-honoring respect, while reframing the practice in our minds to embrace its biblical, spiritual significance.
As individuals, however, we can reclaim the history behind Communion. We can celebrate the Lord’s Supper around the table, at our home, with family and friends, once a year.
My family does this each Easter Sunday. (Another ideal time might be Good Friday.) We do this to remember what Jesus did for us when he died as punishment for our sins to make us right with Papa.
Look for what you can do to reclaim the practice of Communion from a biblical perspective that has spiritual impact. Then go do it.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #47.
The people at this church are considerate of visitors. Their embrace of us, in a casual, open way, encourages me. This, however, belies their worship style. It is a structured, reserved service.
They are informal with people and formal with God. They are open to others before and after the service but stoic towards the Almighty during their church meeting.
Their personal style and worship style stand in contrast. It’s as if they flick off their friendly switch for the service when it’s time to connect with God.
To me, it’s inconsistent to act one way with people before and after a church service and treat God differently during it. This troubles me. It feels hypocritical, but I wonder if this is my issue.
Having an open embrace of people and of God feels right to me. I want to treat God as I do my friends. It seems honest and is how I best show respect towards God.
However, other people may demonstrate respect for God by embracing him with reverence and in awe. If this is honest for them, then they should do it; my method would be the wrong one.
We can approach God casually, as a friend, and we can approach him reverently, as an all-powerful deity. He deserves both.
My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Another of Paul’s friends, mentioned in his letter to Philemon, is Aristarchus. We first hear of him in Acts. We learn that he is a Macedonian from Thessalonica who is traveling with Paul on one of his missionary journeys.
Later, when Paul is sent to Rome as a prisoner, faithful Aristarchus (along with Luke) travel with him. By his actions we see that Aristarchus is both loyal and supportive.
He is also esteemed by Paul as a fellow worker, as well as being mentioned as a fellow prisoner. Just like Epaphras, his assistance to Paul and service to God does not preclude him from suffering.
While righteous suffering for our faith is not a given, it should not be viewed as an anomaly either. Like many others, Aristarchus is afflicted for following Jesus and living a life of service to him.
If we do suffer, however, it is important to suffer for the right thing. If we suffer because of something foolish we said or did, that is not suffering for God. It is suffering for our own shortcomings.
Read about more biblical characters in The Friends and Foes of Jesus, now available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
As the Israelites prepare to enter the territory God promises to give them. Moses, relaying God’s words to the people, gives them a stern warning.
Though God plans to give the land to his people, they must do their part to fully receive it. They must obey God.
He expects them to drive out the inhabitants, destroy their detestable religious practices, and take the land. Then they can settle down. Of course God will help his people do this, directing their actions and offering supernatural assistance.
Yet they must do their part.
If the Israelites fail to do so, it will come back on them. The people they were supposed to chase away will eventually become the source of their downfall.
These foreigners will cause problems and distract God’s people so that they don’t obey him and don’t put him first as they should. They will be a snare.
But They Didn’t Obey God
If this happens, the punishment intended for these foreign nations will boomerang on the Israelites.
We know the rest of the story. They do not fully chase away the other nations; they do not fully take the land. They coexist with their enemies, intermarry, and adopt their foreign religious practices, something that is an anathema to God.
God gives them chance after chance. And though there are times of revival, they are short-lived. After several centuries of mostly disobedience, God does exactly what he warns them he will do.
Because of their failure to drive out the other nations, they are themselves driven out—first the nation of Israel and later the nation of Judah.
The people hear God’s instructions, but they only partially obey, which is the same as disobedience. There are consequences.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
God Already Knows the Outcome of the Choices We Will Make
People debate the issue of free will versus predestination. That is, do we make our own decisions or has God predetermined the outcome? The answer is yes. Both have an element of truth to them. And they can comfortably coexist without being in conflict.
Consider Reading a Book
Though this analogy breaks down if we carry it too far, consider reading a book.
We read through the book chronologically, page by page. The people in the story move forward in their journey through time, minute by minute, day by day. At each step they face decisions.
Do they fight or do they flee? Do they answer with wisdom or foolishly? Do they react to external forces in a way that makes their situation better or worse?
As we read along, we see the decisions they make. We may agree or disagree with their choices. We may implore them to do the opposite of what they’re about to do: to not walk through that door, to answer their phone, or to apologize while they have the chance.
Yet at each juncture, they decide the next step on their journey. Their destiny resides with them. Their reaction to what confronts them sends them down one path or another.
In this way, we live their lives with them, decision by decision. They have free will to choose their fate. Sometimes they react well and other times they flounder.
Yet in the big picture, the book has already been written. The author knows each decision that each character will make at each juncture.
The author knows the ending, and it will not change. In this sense the story proceeds as though each step, as well as the ending, was predestined.
Free Will Versus Predestination
The tension we feel between free will and predestination is one of perspective. God, who lives outside the space-time he created, gives us free will to make our own decisions. In this way, we control our destiny.
Yet viewing our lives in totality, from beginning to end, our omniscient God knows the decisions we have made and will make. In this way, just as a book already written, he knows the end that our decisions will bring us to.
Though this might cause us to claim that God has predestined our outcome, in truth, he simply knows the end of our story.
We can receive this understanding with resigned futility and do nothing to determine our future.
Or we can embrace this as an opportunity to pray that we will make the right decisions to produce the best possible, God-honoring outcomes with our lives.
Each choice is ours, and God knows each decision we will make.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
Some people love the Psalms and other struggle through them. Regardless of which camp you’re in, this book will provide added clarity.
In The Psalms in the Light of the Lord’s Prayer, Patricia M Robertson, D.Min, applies the suggestion of Father Thomas Murphy that each Psalm aligns with one of the seven phrases in the Lord’s Prayer.
This provides a pleasing structure and rhythm to the Psalms that isn’t available by reading them straight through from chapter 1 to 150.
Starting with the opening phrase, “Our Father in heaven,” Robertson teaches about this line and connects it to 12 specific Psalms that address the confidence and trust we have in God.
She repeats this process for each of the remaining six phrases in the Lord’s Prayer to produce a delightful, instructive grouping of each Psalm into an organized structure that provides clarity.
These subsequent chapters are:
Hallowed be thy Name: Psalms of Praise (19 Psalms) and Thanksgiving (15 Psalms)
Thy Kingdom Come: Royal Psalms (23 Psalms)
Thy Will Be Done: Wisdom Psalms (22 Psalms)
Give Us this Day our Daily Bread: Psalms of Supplication (10 Psalms)
Forgive Us our Trespasses: Penitential Psalms (10 Psalms)
Lead Us not into Temptation and Deliver Us from Evil: Psalms of Deliverance (39 Psalms)
Robertson ends each grouping with some thought-provoking questions for further reflection.
She concludes with some additional thoughts on the doxology to the Lord’s Prayer: “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Though she doesn’t connect this phrase to any of the 150 Psalms, be sure not to skip this part of her teaching.
The overall result is an accessible Bible study that readers can use during the seven weeks of Lent, for seven days, or even for seven months to explore the Psalms in new ways and gain fresh insights through them.
[The Psalms in Light of the Lord’s Prayer: Bible Study, by Patricia M Robertson, D.Min. February 10, 2021, 63 pages; ISBN: 9781393252573]
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #46.
Although the minister won me over with his teaching, his good preaching, the first half of the service remains my primary memory of my time there. Everything they did was tired, mired in decades old practices.
It might have been contemporary, even progressive in 1980, but now it smacks of days gone by.
The world has changed, but they forgot to keep pace. Worship trends come and go, but they latched onto one and persist in it even though it’s no longer trending and is now just a tired relic of the past.
Perhaps this is why I saw very few young people or children there, which is a sign of a declining church. If they fail to raise up the next generation, this one will be it’s last.
It wasn’t that they started poorly or lacked focus. It was simply a matter of me not connecting with them, and more importantly, they didn’t help me connect with God. They failed to provide community.
My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
