Nashville: Hello Music City!

There has been a lack of content on the blog lately due to being gone and in Nashville for a mission trip with our youth group from MBC. I will highlight this trip and have a full write up to come in the days ahead. A couple nuggets from the upcoming write up.

• Nashville is stinkin hot and humid! (It was 97 today with a max humidity of 84%)
  
• The rescue mission we are working at has a lady that works with us that said ya'all around 200 times in 3 hours today
• My breakout session that I led today enjoyed my quote of the day as I explained that I am from North Dakot (a great agricultural hub): "Christians are like manure: Spread them out and they help everything grow better, but keep them in one big pile and they stink horribly." (Francis Chan).

More to come!

Former Viking Joe Senser

Here is an interesting story about the Vikings former commentator Joe Senser. He has become a licensed minister - as well as bar owner. The main highlight for me was seeing that he challenges men to be great fathers.

Kris Draper and the Stanley Cup

As a relatively new father I don't know all the tricks of the trade. My skills and knowledge of childcare apparently have company as Kris Draper of the Detroit Red Wings recently got to take the Stanley Cup to his hometown of Toronto and show it off, take pictures with it, and display it to his hometown friends.

Draper apparently forgets tendencies of toddlers as he put his daughter Cameron on top of the cup without a diaper on and she proceeded to quoting Draper to "take a poop in the Stanley Cup." Draper concluded with acknowledging that the Cup was cleaned up and he drank out of it later that night.

Church Membership I

How important is church membership? I have been thinking about this question a lot lately as in working in a baptist church we require membership to be accompanied with a couple of things.

1. The taking of our Discover Class (a 4 hour class designed to communicate the church's theology, doctrine, and mission/vision to the attendee)
2. A testimony of born-again faith to the church's leadership board accompanied with a time for questions from the board to the candidate and vise versa.
   
3. A testimony of being baptized by immersion or the desire to do so soon (only after they have been baptized is their membership final). This point is usually the hot topic and has historically been in the church a point of division and debate.
   

John Piper recently dissected this issue at Bethlehem Baptist Church and this sermon pretty much blew me away. I highly encourage you to watch this sermon if you are struggling with church membership and baptism. The issue in his sermon wasn't baptism by immersion, but church membership and how it relates to membership. Here is an excerpt from the sermon.

"The issue was: How should our church relate to those who are born again, and deeply committed to the Bible and to Christ, but are not yet persuaded that their infant baptism is unbiblical and invalid? Should such believers be admitted in some cases to membership at Bethlehem? Or to put the question in the larger general way: Should the front door of the local church be roughly the same size as the door to the universal body of Christ? In other words, should we say to any person: We know you have truly entered into membership in the universal body of Christ, but you may not enter into membership in this local expression of the body of Christ?

Or another way to put the issue is: How does the seriousness of exclusion from local church membership compare with the seriousness of not being baptized even though, after studying the Scriptures and trying to be obedient, the unbaptized person believes that he is baptized? In the real world where genuine, Bible-believing, gospel-loving, Christ-exalting, missions-minded Christians do not agree on the meaning of baptism in the New Testament, how should we relate to each other?

On the one hand, if we say, “You may be a member of this church even though you are not biblically baptized,” that seems to undermine the importance that the New Testament puts on baptism. All Christians we know about in the early church were baptized (except the thief on the cross). That is how you expressed your faith publicly and became part of the visible church.

On the other hand, if we say, “Even though you are born again and a member of Christ, you may not be a member of this church,” that seems to undermine the person’s faith and the meaning of the local church. It seems to undermine faith because from one angle, exclusion from membership is like front-end excommunication before membership has happened. When you excommunicate a member from the church, according to Matthew 18:17, you “let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” In other words, you love him and try to win him as an unbeliever. That sounds really serious. Are we saying to those we exclude from membership that they are in the category of an unbeliever?

And saying no to a genuine believer who is part of the universal body of Christ seems to undermine the meaning of the local church as an expression of that universal church."

Piper provide 5 strands of evidence in the NT for church membership

• The Church Is to Discipline Its Members - Church membership is implied by the way the church is supposed to discipline its members. Consider the implication of Matthew 18:15–17. If there is no church membership, how can you define the group that will take up this sensitive and weighty matter of exhorting the unrepentant person and finally rendering a judgment about his standing in the community? It’s hard to believe that just anyone who showed up claiming to be a Christian could be a part of that gathering. Surely, “the church” must be a definable group to handle such a weighty matter. You know who you mean when you “take it to the church.”
• Excommunication Exists - Church membership is implied by the simple fact that excommunication even exists. Paul implies this in 1 Corinthians 5:12–13. Being in the church is definable. The other implication is that a person can be removed from being “in the church.” Such a formal removal would not be possible if there were no such thing as a clear membership—who is an accountable part of this body, and who is not?
• Christians Required to Submit to Their Leaders - Church membership is implied in the biblical requirement of Christians to be submitted to a group of church leaders, elders, or pastors. The point here is that without membership, who is it that the New Testament is referring to who must submit to a specific group of leaders? (Hebrews 13:17)

• Shepherds Required to Care for Their Flock - Church membership is implied in the way the New Testament requires elders to care for the flock in their charge (Acts 20:28).
• The Metaphor of the Body - Church membership is implied in the metaphor of the body(1 Corinthians 12:12–31). The original meaning of the word member is member of a body, like hand and foot and eye and ear. So the question this imagery raises for the local church that Paul is describing in 1 Corinthians 12 is: Who intends to be treated as a hand or foot or eye or ear of this body? There is a unity and organic relationship implied in the imagery of the body. There is something unnatural about a Christian attaching himself to a body of believers and not being a member of the body.

How important is church membership to you?

God's Glory Through 2008 Home Run Derby

The 2008 MLB Home Run Derby occurred tonight and my Minnesota Twins were represented well as Justin Morneau came away the winner of the competition. Morneau's victory was overshadowed by the testimony of Rangers CF Josh Hamilton. I don't know if you've heard the story of Hamilton, who by the way at the break is batting .310 with 21 HR's and 95 RBI, but I will try and give you some background.

Hamilton finished as the runner-up to Morneau in the competition. I believe he was tired as he had belted a Major League record 28 home runs in Rd. 1. That is a breakout and career year for anyone playing for my favorite team, the Twins. These HR's weren't 314 foot shots to the short porch in Yankee stadium either as three of them traveled over 500 feet. He didn't even complete round 2 as he bombed another 4 out of Yankee Stadium and stopped to conserve energy for the finals. After Hamilton was defeated by Morneau in the finals he concluded his interview and being defeated with saying, "I just want my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to be honored and glorified tonight." (I watched Baseball Tonight later and they replayed this interview and cut it off just before Hamilton started talking about Jesus - that's the media for ya). Now I have seen this comment from musicians, actors, and athletes for years and I have always wondered if they really meant what they said - that they really wanted to give all the glory to Jesus? In Hamilton's case I truly believed this athlete - because of His testimony.

In 1999 the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now the Rays) drafted Josh Hamilton out of a North Carolina high school with the number one pick in the MLB draft. It was the first time a high schooler had been selected number one since Alex Rodriguez was selected number one by the Mariners in 1993. Hamilton went to the Minors and was a blue-chip prospect that was on the fast track to the Majors. To make a long story short, Hamilton ran into trouble in his life as he became an addict to drugs and alcohol and was suspended by MLB for all of 2002 through 2005 (4 seasons). He burned up all of a $3.94 million dollar signing bonus that he received in 1999 on drugs and alcohol. Josh entered rehab (multiple times as he got out and failed 6 months later and was back on his addiction). Josh eventually found the ultimate healer, Jesus Christ in his life. Josh was reinstated by MLB when he was working for his brother's tree service in NC sending limbs through a chipper. Read some of his story here and here.

Here are some of the excerpts from stories on Josh Hamilton's faith:

• "I had taken Klonopin, a prescription antianxiety drug, along with whatever else I was using at the time, and the combination had put me over the edge. It's the perfect example of what I was: a dead man walking......And now, as I stand on the green grass of a major league outfield or walk to the batter's box with people cheering for me, I repeatedly ask myself one simple question: How did I get here from there?"
  
• "Baseball is third in my life right now, behind my relationship with God and my family. Without the first two, baseball isn't even in the picture."
• "I was driving out of the players' parking lot at Great American Ball Park after a game in May, with Katie and our two girls. There's always a group of fans standing at the curb, hoping to get autographs, and I stop to sign as many as I can. And on this particular night, a little boy of about 9 or 10, wearing a Reds cap, handed me a pen and something to sign. Nothing unusual there, but as I was writing the boy said, "Josh, you're my savior." This stopped me. I looked at him and said, "Well, thank you. Do you know who my savior is?" He thought for a minute. I could see the gears turning. Finally, he smiled and blurted out, "Jesus Christ." He said it like he'd just come up with the answer to a test. "That's exactly right," I said.
  
• "God told me he was going to give Josh baseball back, but it wasn't going to be for baseball," Katie says. "It was going to be for something much bigger. He was going to give Josh a platform to help others. He is the most beautiful choreographer. It's not by accident that all the things that have happened in our lives have happened."

By the way, Josh Hamilton hadn't played higher than Single-A ball (15 games) in his career before being on the Red's roster for 2007 (where he hit 19 HR's and 47 RBI in 90 games). I praise the Lord for stories like this that point to Christ. It would be very easy for Hamilton to say that he got himself out of his terrible situation, but he points all glory and fame to Jesus!

Saved From Wrath III

Wrath: An attribute of God, the doctrine that God intensely hates all sin.

As I have been saved from sin, I have also been saved from God's fury and righteous attribute to hate sin - as my sin has been taken by Jesus on the cross. Although I am still sinful in the flesh, Jesus continues to take my sin as I repent.

Wayne Grudem gives us this thought provoking statement in Systematic Theology (Zondervan, 1994). "As with the other attributes of God, this is an attribute for which we should thank and praise God. It may not immediately appear to us how this can be done, since wrath seems to be such a negative concept. Viewed alone, it would arouse only fear and dread. Yet it is helpful for us to ask what God would be like if he were a God that did not hate sin. He would then be a God who either delighted in sin or at least was not troubled by it. Such a God would not be worthy of our worship, for sin is hateful and it is worthy of being hated."

Fear the stache

The American Mustache Institute, which I never even knew existed, is pushing for Jason Giambi to be the last voted in All-Star for the American League this year.

"It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out that Jason Giambi's hitting prowess, plus a fashionable mustache, equals a bona fide All-Star," Aaron Perlut, executive director of The American Mustache Institute, says in the release. "Giambi's significant first-half production as well as his powerful lip fur -- indicating great intellect and good looks -- make two very compelling reasons for his place on the American League All-Star roster."

Wow, I can't really believe that

1. The Yankees even allow mustaches, since they have a rule against beards, sideburns, long hair, and facial hair - but I guess Don Mattingly got away with it so why not Giambi. I guess George S. rule was no facial hair below the lip.
   
2. That a Yankee (w/decent numbers) needs help from the AMI to make the All-Star team for an All-Star game that is played where - Yankee Stadium! How embarrassing!

For more information on the mustache, check out Alex Decker's post on the topic.