I was just challenged by an old friend to trust God. This is not an issue of desperation, but determination. The Gospel MUST NOT be hindered by economic hardships and I am determined to be about my calling, even though times are tough. Therefore, I will speak at any event for FREE in the month of January. If it is out of state, then I might need some help getting there, but other than that, if there is a need, I will be there.
See Casey’s Calendar
Free Ministry – January 2010
Writing and ADD
I’ve been working on my first book and I am reminded how annoying ADD can be. I’ll be writing along, nailing a point, and then boom, a paragraph is injected in the midst of a very focused chapter that was a spin-off of a sentence above. Quite frustrating, oh and did I tell you about what happened at the mall today? <-- See!
Overall, today was a productive day. I am working on a book dealing with apathy in the church: the reality, some causes, and biblical solutions. It’s in the early stages, but the last few days on this writing retreat have been very fruitful. I have a lot more organized outline(s) and thoughts to move forward with. Lord willing, the book will be ready to publish Spring 2010, but we’ll see how it goes. Thanks for your prayers and I will be keeping you updated.
Who Cares?
I can’t tell you how often I hear students and adults alike use the phrase,”Who Cares?” or “I don’t care.” There are other, more colorful ways that this is said at times, but this expression is far more revealing than one might understand. The fact is, the church is dying a slow death from misplaced passions about things that don’t matter and apathy towards things that do really matter.
Now, it is NOT my intent to suggest that ALL arguments about the style of church music, the manner in which we facilitate communion, pre-mid-post-a, whether one is a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 27 point whatever, etc. are irrelevant. There are issues like this that must be considered and explored biblically. However, I do propose that these vigorous fights, debates, and splits are robbing us from caring about things that really matter. The two primary things that come to mind in this assessment are the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
To be honest, an increasing amount of American Churches (or American Christians for that matter) don’t seem to care so much about these two things. Sure, these ‘Greats’ are in the majority of our mission/vision statements, but how much is this really being lived out? Are we as vigorous about caring about the ‘widows and orphans’ as we are about making sure that people are using the appropriate translation of the Bible or are refraining from whatever we perceive to be sinful? I wonder what would happen if we were more about the Great Commission of seeing the whole person transformed, and not just managing sin and changing behaviors?
Behaviorism as a measure of success for ‘biblical discipleship’ shows that the charge of the prophet Isaiah, and also Jesus’ charge against the Pharisee’s continues to be true today, “And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me…” (Isaiah 29:13, Matthew 15:8 ESV) This indictment directly confronts the prevalent belief that as long as we look like we are godly and give an appearance of being ‘nice and well-behaved’ then we are making an impact on culture. While external transformation should truly be a part of sanctification, it is not the end nor should it be our final goal.
If God does not revive the church in our land, it will continue to decline. The apparent attitude today is, “Who cares?” Well, I do and hope that you do too.
More to come on this issue in the weeks and months to come…
