Tag: Deconstruction

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What Does it Mean to Bear Fruit that Lasts?

John 15

16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit]—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other. (John 15:16-17, NIV)

The Daily DAVEotional

Lately I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what makes a ministry effective – what it means to bear fruit.

Within our own ministry with Cru and certainly within the church where we’re involved, there’s a lot of ministry activity. Meetings, events, campaigns and lots of talk of growth and numbers. Statistics. Charts.

It’s all good stuff. I’m not complaining. I know that for every number, there’s a person whose life has been impacted. It’s good and appropriate to celebrate success and all that the Lord has done.

However, I sometimes wonder if Jesus’ own ministry might be considered an abject failure when evaluated by modern church growth strategies and metrics.

After all, though Jesus preached to the masses, he had a relatively small following of just over 100 men (and some women too), with only 12 men in his inner circle.

One of those 12 men betrayed Jesus, leading to His arrest and crucifixion, while the rest of His disciples ALL deserted Him when He was in His darkest hour.

I’m not sure Jesus’ ministry looked “fruitful” to the modern evangelical church.

However, in John 15:16, Jesus said to his disciples,

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.”

It seems that “fruit” is evaluated not by its immediate result, but its lasting impact.

A few months back, I took a trip to Northern California to visit friends and ministry partners, many of whom are former students from our many years of campus ministry.

One of my first meet-ups was with Eric and Lane, two friends and former students from our early years at San Jose State.

Lane (left) and Eric (center) were a part of small groups I led way back in my early years with Cru at San Jose State University.

Eric was one of the first students I ever met when I arrived at San Jose State University as a new Campus Crusdae for Christ staff member. He wasn’t a believer but soon placed his faith in Christ and, like Lane, has been on a trajectory of growth for the last 37 years. Both of these men are exhibiting enduring faith, walking with Christ even in the midst of unbelievably challenging life circumstances.

Mike got involved with Cru at UC Davis when we were just starting out and maybe had 5 students.He was a gifted leader and an amazing guitar player who had a heart for worship.

Mike was one of the first few students to get involved with Cru when we started the ministry at UC Davis nearly 30 years ago

Mike had a crazy vision to put a worship band together when we had only 15 students. It didn’t make sense to me at the time, but we went with it and that act of faith was highly “instrumental” (do you see what I did there?) in our ability to attract students and expose them to our vision.

That launched us on a growth trajectory that helped us grow our ministry from those original 5 students to over 300 in a decade. The fruit from those years is still having an impact today.

Now, almost 30 years later, Mike is still walking with Christ and leading worship at his church while exhibiting enduring faith.

At the close of my trip, I met with Sean, another one of those early students at UC Davis when we were just starting out.

Sean was one of our first students involved with Cru at UC Davis when we started the ministry there. After graduating, he spent 20+ years as a missionary in the Middle East before returning recently to the states with his family.

Sean was one of the first students from our ministry to heed the call to missionary service, spending 20+ years as a missionary to the Middle East before recently being called to return home with his family.

Sean, like these other men, is an example of the lasting fruit that Jesus referenced in John 15:16.

In a culture where so many are deconstructing their faith, leaving the church, or inventing a “new and enlightened” path wrapped in a thin Christian veneer, enduring faith is a faith that keeps going year after year, trial after trial, faithfully serving, trusting, staying true to the gospel and impacting others in small and often unnoticed ways.

This is fruit that lasts!

 

Did you enjoy this post? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to like, leave a comment below, and share it with your friends or on social media if you found it helpful or interesting. Your support keeps the conversation going!

 

Reflection

The post takes the position that “fruit that lasts” is enduring faith. Do you agree with this assessment? Why or why not? If you disagree, how would you define or describe “fruit that lasts”?

What are some examples in your own life of “fruit that lasts”?

If Jesus has appointed us to bear fruit that lasts, which is likened to faith that endures trials, struggles and the demands of life over time, what practical implications does that have for the way we do ministry and the way we evaluate fruitfulness?

What do you think the church (people) should do or could do in order to ensure that we are bearing fruit that lasts? In other words, if we’re called to bear fruit that lasts, how do you think we (the church) do that? 

 

Photo by jose alfonso sierra on Unsplash

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Oh, How Quickly We Forget!

Judges 3

1The LORD left certain nations in the land to test those Israelites who had not participated in the wars of Canaan. 2He did this to teach warfare to generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle. 3These were the nations: the Philistines (those living under the five Philistine rulers), all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the hill country of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath. 4These people were left to test the Israelites—to see whether they would obey the commands the LORD had given to their ancestors through Moses.

5So Israel lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, 6and they intermarried with them. Israelite sons married their daughters, and Israelite daughters were given in marriage to their sons. And the Israelites worshiped their gods.

7The Israelites did what was evil in the LORD’s sight. They forgot about the LORD their God, and they worshiped the images of Baal and the Asherah poles. 8Then the LORD burned with anger against Israel, and he handed them over to King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim. And the Israelites were subject to Cushan-rishathaim for eight years.

9But when Israel cried out to the LORD for help, the LORD raised up a man to rescue them. His name was Othniel, the son of Caleb’s younger brother, Kenaz. 10The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he became Israel’s judge. He went to war against King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram, and the LORD gave Othniel victory over him. 11So there was peace in the land for forty years. Then Othniel son of Kenaz died. (Judges 3:1-11, NLT)

The Daily DAVEotional

The book of Judges is a history of the Israelites immediately after taking possession of the land of Canaan and after the death of Joshua.

The book chronicles the struggles the leaderless Israelites experienced politically, militarily and spiritually.

The Israelites had been commanded to drive out the people of the land, but we learn in Judges 1:19 that “they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots.” Though not explicitly stated, the implication is that the Israelites lacked the courage to finish the job because they feared the military superiority of the other people. They lacked the faith that God could help them defeat an enemy that appeared to out-match their military strength.

So instead of occupying this land with a clean slate, they find themselves co-existing with these other people groups who don’t share their values and who don’t worship the Lord. This is not a good start to this fledgling nation.

Here in chapter 3, we learn that the Lord allowed some of these people groups to remain in order to provide an avenue to teach warfare “to generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle.”

In other words, there was a strategic purpose that these other peoples weren’t displaced all at once. The Lord wanted the next generation to learn how to fight in battle and He also wanted to test them to see how obedient they would be to the commands that had been delivered by Moses.

Sadly, they utterly failed the test. They began to intermarry with the peoples with whom they were co-existing. Not surprisingly, they soon began to forsake the Lord by worshipping the gods of these foreign nations.

In His righteous anger, the Lord allowed the Israelites to experience divine punishment in the form of marauders and local foreign rulers becoming their overlords. In this case, they became subject to an Aramean king for 8 years.

The pattern in Judges is cyclical. The Israelites prostitute themselves by forsaking the Lord and worshipping foreign gods. God allows them to be raided and subject to others until the Israelites finally cry out to the Lord for mercy and for relief. The Lord then raises up a judge, a military leader who is empowered by God to rescue His people from their enemies. But soon after being delivered, the cycle repeats as the Israelites return again to their foreign gods, bringing retribution from a new source.

Here in chapter 3, we see the start of this pattern that repeats throughout the book. What I think is most interesting is who the first judge is that is raised up to rescue the people from the Aramean King Cushan-rishathaim.

The text says that Othniel was raised up as Israel’s first judge. Now if the name Othniel seems familiar, it’s because he was mentioned back in Joshua 15 and also again in Judges chapter 1.

Caleb offered his daughter Acsah in marriage to anyone who would attack and capture Kiriath-sepher, a village in the Judean hills that later became known as Debir. We learn that Othniel stepped up to the challenge, captured the city and won the hand of Caleb’s daughter.

Translators are not completely clear on the relationship between Othniel and Caleb. It’s not clear from the original text whether the phrase “brother of Caleb” refers to Othniel or Kenaz. Either translation is possible. Hence, Othniel was either Caleb’s younger half-brother (same mother but with a different father, Kenaz) or he was Caleb’s nephew (with Kenaz being Caleb’s younger brother). Whichever is the case, we know for certain that Othniel, though younger than Caleb, was a contemporary. In other words, they lived in generally the same era.

But here in the beginning chapters of Judges, Joshua has died and it’s likely that Caleb has died too. Othniel, however, is still around. The point is that this is less than one generation removed from the death of Joshua and the Israelites are already forsaking the Lord.

Joshua, before his passing, had urged the people in Joshua 24, to “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve….But as for me and my household we will serve the LORD.” And now, just a few short years after his passing, the Israelites have already forsaken the Lord to chase after foreign gods.

There are a number of relevant takeaways from this story. First, we see the consequences of disobedience and a lack of faith. The Israelites lack of faith in facing an enemy that is perceived to be stronger leads to a co-existence that has long-lasting and far-reaching implications. These people, who were supposed to be displaced, became a thorn in the side of the Israelites for centuries.

Secondly, despite all their good intentions in Joshua 24, where they swore up and down that they would serve the Lord and not chase after other gods, we see that the apostasy of the Israelites comes rather quickly, during the actual lifetime of those who had been involved in the initial conquest of the land.

We don’t need to look too far to confirm that this is the nature and the pattern of people with respect to loyalty and allegiance to the Lord. During my life-time, we have seen the exponential erosion of the influence of the church on our culture.

Just as the Israelites of the Judges era were influenced by the cultures around them, so we today see that many Christians are more influenced by the gods and ideas of the culture than they are the God of the Bible and its values.

The process of “deconstructing” one’s faith has become popular today as people wrestle with the differences and disparities that exist between the biblical narrative and the secular worldview that dominates our culture. (See my post “Dealing with Doubts about God” for a deeper dive on this idea of deconstructing one’s faith.)

For some, the process of deconstruction leads to a complete abandonment of God and the faith. It seems almost commonplace these days when we hear of a prominent Christian leader who has “left the faith”.

For others, deconstruction leads to a re-imagining of God – what I call “Salad Bar Religion”, which is simply a syncretic, or progressive version of Christianity in which God is completely redefined in such a way that suits my preferences and is less offensive to the culture around us. (See my post “The Recipe for Salad Bar Religion” for a deeper explanation of this approach).

There is no doubt that cultural forces make devotion to the one true God extremely difficult. The first step to avoiding our own spiritual apostasy is to recognize that we, just like the Israelites in the time of the Judges, are not immune to these same outcomes, if we are not proactive to take steps to safeguard ourselves from those ideologies and philosophies that would seek to draw us away from the one true God.

So how do we safeguard ourselves?

That’s probably another full blog post but maintaining a strong spiritual community is a must, as well as developing a strong foundational understanding of the nature of God, which will enable us to more easily identify the many false gods being promoted by the culture.

Did you enjoy this post? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to like, leave a comment below, and share it with your friends or on social media if you found it helpful or interesting. Your support keeps the conversation going!

Reflection

What are some examples in your own life of people you have known who, at one time, seemed like strong Christians, but who now don’t believe at all, or have opted for an alternative view of God that isn’t biblical?

What do you think are some factors that can more easily lead to people abandoning their faith or redefining it in a way that is no longer faithful to God as revealed in the Bible?

What are some of the cultural forces or ideas that challenge your beliefs? How have you addressed those challenges, doubts and questions?

There were a couple of steps mentioned at the end of the blog to help safeguard ourselves from being taken captive by the ideologies of the culture. What are some other ideas you have for protecting yourself spiritually from being a spiritual casualty in your devotion to God alone?

 

Photo by Eric Smart: https://www.pexels.com/photo/lest-we-forget-tombstone-2233388/

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Dealing With Doubts about God

While scrolling through my Twitter feed recently I saw a post from Sean McDowell with the title “Hawk Nelson’s Lead Singer Shares He Has Lost His Faith in God.”

My heart sank as I thought, “Not again.”

If you’re not familiar with Hawk Nelson, they are a Christian pop/rock band that has produced a number of top songs, including the enormously popular “Drops in the Ocean” and “Diamonds” from their 2015 mega-hit album “Diamonds”.

Jon Steingard, front-man for the Christian pop/rock band Hawk Nelson, recently announced via Instagram that he no longer believes in God.
Photo by Dave Lowe

I clicked on the link and read the article, as well as the 2200 word Instagram post from the lead singer, Jon Steingard, where he declared to his fans and to the world that he no longer believed in God.

What happened?

Steingard grew up as a pastor’s kid in a loving Christian home. Church was a way of life and since everyone he knew was a believer, he naturally became a believer. It was all he knew. He discovered his musical talents early on, participating in church worship and ultimately joining the Christian band, Hawk Nelson.

Steingard described his slow deconstruction of faith like wearing a sweater with a loose thread. As he pulled on the thread of doubt, the sweater of faith slowly began to unravel. Eventually, there was no sweater left.

What are the doubts that caused Jon Steingard’s sweater to unravel? The doubts mostly seem to stem from unanswered questions about the nature and character of God and the veracity of the Bible.

Steingard compared his faith deconstruction like a sweater with loose threads that began to unravel
Photo by rocknwool on Unsplash

For example, Steingard began to question the evil in the world. If God is loving, why wouldn’t he stop it? And what about natural disasters? Why is there so much suffering in the world? Steingard wondered why God seems so angry in the Old Testament and yet so loving in the New Testament.

Steingard also questioned various Biblical contradictions he saw and wondered how these inconsistencies could occur if God was really the author. He finally concluded that the texts were not authored by a perfect God but were the product of fallen, imperfect people like himself. It was at that point that Steingard realized there were no more threads to pull.

It’s a sad reality that more and more young adults like Jon Steingard are abandoning the church and the faith with which they grew up. There are a myriad of reasons for this but doubt and uncertainty about the truthfulness of the Bible and the Christian worldview is a common “thread” (pun intended) in the stories of many prodigals. The truth is, doubts are common. But they don’t have to be an onramp that leads to the deconstruction of your faith.

How should we handle doubts?

First, I think we need to acknowledge doubt and do our best to give space to those who have real questions without making them feel like 2nd-class Christians. Highlighting those who have struggled with doubts and allowing them to share their stories could go a long way to helping de-normalize the phantom-Christian caricature (who never doubts) that many hold.

Doubts and questions, while common among Christians, don’t have to be an onramp to deconstruction of our faith.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels

Secondly, while we acknowledge that doubt is real and common, we also can affirm that being a Christian does not mean being anti-intellectual. It’s popular in our culture for people to promote the idea that faith is anti-science (whatever that means). The reality is that faith and science aren’t in opposition to one another and Christianity is and always has been based on truth.

Third, we need to help those with doubts to reinforce the loose threads on their sweaters instead of pulling them and unraveling their faith altogether. We do this by helping them to see the truth in the foundations of the Christian faith. This is a primary role of apologetics.

The questions Jon Steingard wrestled with are not new. They are the same questions Christians have been wrestling with for two thousand years. The good news is that there is a lot of scholarship that affirms the Christian position and provides reasonable responses to many long-standing doubts and questions.

How is your sweater of faith? Are there loose threads of doubt? If so, reach out to someone who can help show you appropriate ways to reinforce your faith with a foundation of truth.

Nobody, whether Christian or non-Christian has all the answers. Life is complex and chaotic. But we believe God has revealed himself to us clearly through the Scriptures and through the person of Jesus Christ. This isn’t just some Sunday school fairy tale but is based on solid evidence.

If you’re struggling with doubts, let us know. We don’t have all the answers but we can point you to resources that you may find helpful.