I’ve talked about the need for theological diversity in our churches. While we need to embrace those who hold different understandings of Jesus, we perhaps need to adopt a separate view of the behaviors of people who live contrary to God’s word.
Or maybe not. Instead, we need to warn one another in love.
Paul touches on this in his second letter to the church in Thessalonica. He tells them to stay away from those who do not follow his instructions. He specifically refers to what he says in that particular letter.
However, by extension, we could assume he means all the commands in the Bible.
But this might be dangerous, for we read the Bible through the lens of our experiences and not with the comprehension of the original audience or their situation.
It’s too easy to see what we want to see when we read the Bible and miss what God actually wants to communicate.
Even more worrisome is to imply that these verses offer a principal that we are to avoid those who don’t follow the words of their church leaders or spiritual guides. But this becomes even more problematic.
People are fallible, and many religious leaders have led their flocks astray by demanding compliance to some misguided belief. Don’t drink their Kool-Aid.
Who Is in Error?
We need to proceed with the utmost care before we criticize the actions of fellow believers. After all, we could be the ones in error.
If we do feel we must move in this direction, we should advance with great caution and follow Paul’s teaching in this matter: We are to not view these folks as an enemy but as a brother who needs a gentle warning.
We need to warn one another in love
I say it again, if other Christians don’t behave like we think they should, they are not the enemy. If we say anything, we need to warn them in love and not with self-righteous indignation.
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.
Earlier this month I took part in the Victorious Christian Conference, hosted by Emily Louis. My session was a “Fresh Perspective of the Bible and God.” We covered that and a lot more.
Though I don’t like seeing myself on video or listening to a recording of my voice, I did enjoy my interaction with Emily and our faith discussion.
I pray you’ll get something useful from our words. Here’s the video of the session.
Here are some of the other speakers at the conference:
R. Christian Bohlen: “Letting the Life of Jesus Shape Our Lives”
Mimika Cooney: “Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things for God”
Entrice Rowe: “Relational Prayer”
Wendy Snyder: “Relating to God as our Father”
Rick Torrison: “Created for More/Our Identity in Christ”
Daniel Lancaster: “Shame Is a Liar”
Kim Vollendorf: “Who God Says We Are”
If you want to hear their sessions at the Conference, it’s not too late. A backstage pass is available.
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.
Ever since our daughter was born, I knew I should pray for her, as well as for her brother, when he came along. I did pray for them—when I thought of it—which wasn’t very often.
I felt guilty for not doing what I knew I should do. And when I did pray, my prayers were always the same. My words repeated. They felt stale. When it came to praying for our children, I was stuck in a rut.
Praying for Our Children
When the oldest was in middle school, her youth group leader gave us a handout. Titled “Things I Pray for My Children,” it listed twenty-three items to guide our prayers. I began praying one item each day.
At the end of twenty-three days (or a little bit longer if I missed a day) I started the list over and prayed through it again, making one request each day.
The prayer list empowered me to pray for our children. I no longer felt guilty about neglecting this aspect of their spiritual development.
After a few years, however, the list had grown stale. Though I continued to pray, I began to struggle. About that time, I came across another list, a prayer card: “31 Biblical Virtues to Pray for Your Kids.”
This one had thirty-one suggestions, one for each day of a thirty-one-day month. Though both lists had similarities, no items were an exact duplicate. I now had thirty-one new ideas to guide my prayers.
On the months with thirty-one days, I used the thirty-one-day list. On the other months, I used the twenty-three-item list. And when I had run out of items for those months, I went off the list and came up with my own things to pray for our kids.
Praying for Their Friends
As they got older, I added their best friends to the list too. I did this because their friends were emerging as a bigger influence in their lives than their mom and me. I wanted their friends to be godly influences, so I prayed for them.
When they started dating, I prayed for those they were dating. One dated a lot and the other not so much. In college, I added their roommates.
Though the makeup of the list changed over time, the two people I consistently prayed for were our kids. Because I prayed for the people they were dating, their future spouses received years of prayer before they were engaged, even before they met.
These simple prayers, offered daily, one prayer at a time, were huge.
Praying for Grandchildren
After they were married and the prospect of grandchildren became more realistic, I took a step of faith and began praying for their future children, my future grandchildren. Using the same two prayer lists to guide me, I prayed for God’s blessing on what would be.
As each grandchild was born, my prayers for them became more real. Having invested years of prayers before their arrival served to deepen my love for them.
Praying for Great Grandchildren and Great, Great Grandchildren
Along this journey of praying for my children and grandchildren, God prompted me to an even grander calling. He told me to pray for my future great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. This was hard to do at first because that reality resides so far in the future. And though it’s realistic that I may someday see and hold great-grandchildren, it will only be by God’s grace that I live long enough to welcome great-great-grandchildren.
Praying for Future Generations
The story doesn’t end there, however. Praying for the next four generations of my descendants wasn’t enough. God prompted me to pray for the next ten. It was hard to get my mind around this, but I’ve faithfully prayed for them, as a group, ever since.
Then one day as I prayed, I misspoke. Instead of praying for the next ten generations, I said “twelve” in error. But before I could correct myself, God assured me that twelve is the number I should use going forward.
Interestingly, twelve is a recurring number in the Bible: twelve tribes in the Old Testament and twelve disciples in the New Testament, symbolically connecting the two parts of God’s Word.
In addition, twelve pops up often in the books of Moses (twelve pillars, twelve stones, twelve loaves of bread, twelve oxen, twelve silver plates, twelve silver bowls, twelve gold dishes, twelve bulls, twelve rams, twelve lambs, twelve goats, and twelve staffs), as well as in the future-focused prophecy of Revelation (twelve stars, twelve gates, twelve angels, twelve foundations, twelve apostles, twelve pearls, and twelve crops of fruit).
And for me, twelve generations.
Beyond twelve, I know that at some point God will up the number to one hundred. That’s heady stuff, but when the time comes, I’ll embrace the challenge, full of faith that he will answer these prayers for our descendants for hundreds of years to come.
Yet one thing remains. As I pray for our grandchildren and future great-grandchildren and the generations that follow, I continue to pray for our children every day.
And I’ll never stop.
[Update: This is an excerpt from my book Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide. I have now taken the bold step of praying for all future generations of my offspring, through to the end of time.]
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.
Reimagining Our Sunday Traditions from a New Testament Perspective
Do you have a nagging feeling that something’s missing from your church experience?
You’re not alone. And it’s time to discover a better way.
Church-reform advocate and Bible scholar Peter DeHaan, PhD is a strong proponent of meaningful Christian community. In Jesus’s Broken Church, he uses Scripture to guide us into right practices and away from the off-track customs that most every church adheres to.
The problem is that today’s church follows an Old Testament model. We go to a building where we have professional clergy serve as our liaison between us and God. Then we pay for the whole thing with our tithes and offerings—just like Moses instructed.
But Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament. Through him we are the church, we are living stones. We don’t need to go to a building. As the church, we take it with us wherever we go. And we don’t need paid clergy either. Each of us serves as priests to one another. Or at least we should.
In Jesus’s Broken Church, you’ll discover:
How Jesus moves us from an Old Testament understanding to New Testament enlightenment
The early church’s approach to their meetings, which we neglect to follow today
Essential New Testament practices that are more important than song and sermon
Biblical ideas to inform the activities of our spiritual communities
Seven religious concepts that require reformation
If you happen to like how your church functions, then don’t buy this book. It will only make you mad. But if you sometimes leave your Sunday service feeling let down, that something is lacking and there must be more, then this book can guide you into a new direction.
Get your copy of Jesus’s Broken Church today to discover what’s missing and how to fix it.
Read more about this in Peter’s thought-provoking book, Jesus’s Broken Church, available in e-book, audiobook, 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.
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 #36.
We arrived at church only to learn they cancelled the service because their pastor had an emergency.
Despite this, we hung around and talked for a long time, having brief conversations with most of the people who had gathered for Sunday School, which wasn’t cancelled.
During this time we had a deep spiritual discussion with a long ago friend. In doing so, we were able to minister to one another in a most satisfying way.
Though we didn’t experience a church service, we did experience deep spiritual community. From my perspective, I had a meaningful church encounter even though there was no official service.
It was one of my more noteworthy memories at the churches we visited.
The time was memorable for my wife, too, although it hit her a bit differently. “If they’re so full of the Holy Spirit,” she said, “you’d think he would have prompted someone to lead their service.”
Yes, indeed.
Though they held a successful Sunday School on their own without pastoral support, they didn’t even attempt to do so for church. I’m not sure if this was the minister’s decision or theirs, but they should have tried.
Even if no one felt capable of teaching a lesson, they could have still done the worship portion of the service and handled all the other elements too.
The idea that a church needs to have a pastor present to hold a service is ridiculous. As followers of Jesus, he expects every one of us to minister to one another. This is what we should always do, whether a minister is there or not.
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.
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.
Under the wise leadership of Nehemiah, the walls of the city of Jerusalem were rebuild in only 52 days. That’s less than two months.
That seems quick and it sounds like it would have been easy, but it wasn’t. Nehemiah faced severe opposition, in multiple ways, that threatened progress and could have easily derailed the project.
Yet he stood firm, with his vision firmly fixed on his objective. At each step he deftly dismissed each interruption that could have distracted him from his mission.
This opposition took various forms, from ridicule to political, bad advice to prophetic subterfuge, and well-sounding distractions to a strategy of physical attack.
In response to the plan to attack and kill the workers, Nehemiah prayed first and then took tangible action to protect themselves.
Too often, when faced with adversity, we take action first and then pray as an afterthought, if at all. It’s not until we’ve exhausted all our own ideas that we seek God for him to rescue us.
This is not what wise leadership does—and its not what we should do. We need to seek God first—and then take reasonable precautions.
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.
Today’s Church Isn’t Working. It’s Just That Most People Don’t Know It.
Do you have a nagging feeling that something’s missing from your church experience? You’re not alone. It’s time to discover a better way.
It’s typical that people who read the Bible do so through the lens of their experiences. Christians use the perspective of their practices and look to find support in the Bible. Everyone does this. You do it, and I do it. It’s human nature.
Despite my tenancy to want to justify my religious preferences through the Bible, I strive to take the opposite approach. I look at what the Bible says and use it to inform what I do and reform what I’ve done.
I’ve applied this tactic in my new book, Jesus’s Broken Church. And I find little alignment between what we do in our churches today with what Jesus and the New Testament writers set in motion 2,000 years ago. It’s been a jarring yet invigorating discovery.
Now, at last, I get to share my findings with you. It will change how you view church and what your role should be. It will revitalize your spiritual practices from a solid biblical perspective.
Over the past several months I’ve blogged preliminary sections of my book, Jesus’s Broken Church. The response has been most encouraging.
To read the final versions of this information, along with more content and additional insights, read the book Jesus’s Broken Church.
It seems my entire life has prepared me to write this book. This wasn’t a couple months of research. Instead, it was a lifetime of experiences, decades of questions, and years of writing. Through it all, I have strived to seek God in a holistic, God-honoring, kingdom-of-God way.
Now, I’m excited to share with you the insights of my lifelong journey with God through its many twists and unexpected revelations as it relates to the church of Jesus. Discover more in my book Jesus’s Broken Church.
Seek God in a holistic, God-honoring, kingdom-of-God way.
Read more about this in Peter’s thought-provoking book, Jesus’s Broken Church, available in e-book, audiobook, 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.
Form a Habit of Daily Bible Reading to Guide You through the Year
Each year I have the goal to read through the Bible. And each year I invite you to read along with me. To help with this, my annual Chronological Bible Reading Guide is now available.
Chronological Bible Reading Guide
Each year I get requests for a chronological plan. And each year I try to make one, but I give up. It’s a complicated task.
The problem is a comprehensive chronological reading of the Bible requires a lot of details that won’t fit on a two-page sheet. Because of overlapping passages from different books, some days you would find yourself reading from multiple sections of different passages.
Along with being a lot of information to present, that’s too much page flipping and the potential for confusion. For a truly chronological reading of the Bible, get one of the many one-year chronological Bibles. These provide the best and easiest approach.
It is possible, however, to make an approximate chronological reading guide by putting the books of the Bible in order. This plan is my inaugural attempt to do so. I’ll use it for my annual Bible reading guide.
I encourage you to do so as well. It only takes 12 to 15 minutes a day. And each Tuesday throughout the year, I’ll blog about a passage from that day’s reading.
If reading the entire Bible in a year seems too daunting, scale back to a more manageable goal. I have a series of other Bible reading plans to guide you. Pick the one that works for you:
Form a habit to read the Bible. Download your preferred Bible reading plan today and be ready to start reading on January 1.
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 #35.
We thought we arrived early to this church, but it seemed the service had already started. Everyone was sitting down. People were singing.
There were no greeters or ushers. No one said a single word. It felt as though the service was in progress, and we were late.
It was one of the strangest church practices we encountered.
Apparently, we arrived while the choir was warming up. They finished and nothing happened. Total silence.
Why didn’t someone explain what was happening? Why was everyone else sitting down in stone silence? Why were we ignored?
Squirming in complete quiet for ten minutes was one of our more awkward church experiences. Although things ended well, we certainly had a poor start.
When I walked into this perplexing church situation, my first impulse was flight. This wasn’t the first time I felt like running from an awkward church situation; nor was it the last.
Churches—at least those that want to grow—should examine all of their practices through the eyes of a first-time visitor.
Then ask these questions:
What do we do that would confuse or frighten a visitor?
How and when do we welcome visitors?
Which of our practices would make a visitor uncomfortable?
Are we truly doing all we can to grow our church?
Then consider how many visitors come back a second time. The answer is telling. If few or no people return, you made a bad first impression.
That’s why it’s critical to examine your church practices through the eyes of a visitor.
Instead of internally examining these questions, an even better idea is to ask a trusted individual who’s never been to your church to visit it and provide honest feedback.
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.
