Thankful for Eastside
Posted on November 30, 2011 by Dave Hastings
While sitting at my desk today I was flooded with reasons why I am glad I’m here at Eastside Christian Church. That’s a great feeling. All of us, even us preacher types, fall into seasons when we long for a different setting or opportunity. But that’s not where I’m at right now, and several around here have shared the same sentiment with me. So I imagine my words reflect many of theirs.
I’m thankful for a church that is friendly. That’s not a cliche! Walk in this place and within a few feet it is unistakebly clear that people are nice, kind, smiling. They want you here and you can feel it.
I’m thankful for a church that is forward moving. While we treasure memories and often enjoy the works of those who have went before us, we are not shackled by any of that. I am constantly amazed at the willingness of our congregation to try new things, allow “out-of-the-box” thinking, and take risks that many others would not.
I’m thankful for a leadership team I work with who love each other, serve with passion, rise above pettiness, and are called by God. I don’t have the time nor do you have the patience for me to thank every staff member and elder who serve alongside me. They know who they are and they know the value they bring to what is happening here. By the grace of God, we get to do all of this together! Awesome.
I’m thankful for a church who loves my family. This is personal, but it is more important to me than I can express. Never a Sunday goes by that someone doesn’t ask somethng about my wife or children. They understand that family is a priority and they love mine. I could never fully repay their acceptance and support for the people I love the most.
I’m thankful for a church that leans toward grace. It’s a constant battle to figure out if one should favor law or grace. Both are critical, and Jesus was perfectly balanced. That is our goal as well, but whenever we lean around here we tend to lean toward forgiveness and compassion, even when people are messed up. There is something about that which seems right to me. I’ve been in churches who leaned the other direction, and although definately obedient to the faith, the “grace-lean” gets my nod.
I better stop. More and more reasons keep coming to mind and you’re probably getting tired of reading what you already know. Eastside Christian Church is a great place. I’m so humbled that I get to be here!
Dependency
Posted on September 8, 2011 by Dave Hastings
I hope it’s a good thing that I feel so weak. So inept may be a better way to put it. This completely goes against my background, my training, and my personality. I’m 51 years old and have worked extremely hard at achieving profiency and confidence in whatever I do (preaching, balancing my checkbook, mowing my yard, organizing my shoes in my closet). Save your breath – you don’t have to tell me I’m a “sicko” because my family already does! But that’s who I am gang!
But God puts us in these seasons to grow us, and over the past year or so He has been reminding me that most things are completely over my head. I feel that when I ponder my responsibilities as a pastor of a church. I feel it when I look at my family and know I am supposed to be their provider and example. I feel it when I step on a stage to preach. I feel it when I pay my household bills and wish there was more income than outgo! I feel it when I want to help my aging parents.
As this sense of ineptness begins to swell so does something else. I begin to realize that none of it is bigger than God. The water is never over His head. Those two simultaneous feelings (ineptness and God’s biggness) mesh together and move me a state of total dependency. I can’t tell you the number of times I have knelt in my office early on a Sunday morning and prayed, “God if you don’t preach through me today this is going to be terrible and these people are probably never going to come back!” Or the times I’ve whispered at night before sleeep, “I can’t be with my boys all the time Jesus, so will you fill in for me?”
Dependency. The older I get the more dependent upon God I find myself. And I think that’s a good thing.
Mission
Posted on July 25, 2011 by Dave Hastings
Our team at Eastside has been working through a re-wording of our mission lately. This might sound quite boring for most of the normal population, but for us vision nerds it is actually somewhat exhilerating. Our mission defines what we do. And since the church has a never-ending list of activities that we may be about, it’s a good idea to be able to have some sort of system that helps us prioritize our activities. I know that still doesn’t excite many folks, but please humor me and read on.
It seems to me that a mission statement for a church has a vareity of angles to it. For example, there is a universal aspect of it. What I mean by this is the Bible clarifies the purpose of the church, and so every congregation that is Bible-based should have this universal aspect as a part of what they do. We don’t get to change God’s plans for His Church! Generally speaking, the two parts of this general aspect are evangelism and discipleship. Reach people for Jesus and then help them mature into fully-devoted followers of Jesus. This is a given and every true church will have it a part of their mission.
Then we move to another angle, and that is the specific aspect of the mission. This means what God seems to be calling an individual congregation to be about during that specific season of their history. I started preaching at 19-years-old in a tiny country congregation where the average age was at least three times older than me. I’m not dismissing the power of revival that God can bring to any place at any time. But the reality was that this congregation was not going to have a major evangelistic impact on that area. And most everyone in that congregation was already a mature disciple. So to say we were going to put all our eggs in the basket of evangelism and discipleship would be Biblically true, but it probably would not be as practical as we would hope. I’m just being honest! So do you know what the mission of that congregation was? Me! Don’t get offended, just catch my point. They existed to give young men attending Bible College a place to hone their preaching skills, until they graduated and God led them to another location. They celebrated my departure after two years, not because they were glad to get rid of me, but because they had fulfilled their calling. They let me “practice” on them, and to this point in my ministry it may be the best gift anyone ever gave me. Other men besides myself are being used by God today because of the grace of those people listening to poor preachers who would eventually become better preachers.
This is what we’re working through at our church right now. We understand the general aspect of misssion, and those facets certainly dictate much of our activity. But what is the specific call from God at this place in this time? That’s the big question. Prayer is critical to discover the answer, and listening to the Spirit’s leading will help. Most of us sense something to do with outreach, getting outside the walls of the church and being the people of God to a hurting and needful world. I imagine you could make that case for all churches, but it seems to be a strong leading for us right now, and so it will more than likely find its way into our mission.
And then finally, as a church mission is developed we should consider the apsect of need. Here’s what I mean. What is the crying need of the congregation right now? These kinds of needs tend to be seasonal for a period years. In other words, the need right now may not be the need ten years from now. We’ve thought long about that, and we’ve forced oruselves to be honest about it. Most of the time a congregation’s need will expose weakness, and it seems that way for us. God has done some wonderful evangelistic things for us in recent years, and although we celebrate that, we also recognize it means we have a lot of infants in Christ who must learn how to walk our faith as spiritual adults. So there seems to be a concept of holiness that we need to understand and practice right now.
Okay, so there it is; a general aspect of mission that involves evangelism and discipleship, a specific aspect of mission that involves outreach, and a need aspect of mission that involves holiness. So how do we put all of that into a very short, clear, focused statement? That’s almost funny to me! I’m a preacher, if you give me forty minutes I can talk about anything. But if you tell me I have only ten words to smmarize my point, that becomes a challenge! But we will press on and find that succinct calling of God for His Church in this place at this time!
Baptism
Posted on July 21, 2011 by Dave Hastings
So what is the deal with this baptism thing? I’m asked that question, or something very much like it, on numerous occassions. It’s no secret that those of us in the Independent Christian Church seem to have a bit of an affinity for this act, and those outside our faith movement very fairly question the reason. This particular blog is my attempt to give an answer.
However, first of all, it is important for me to confess my limitations on the subject. I’m not the most thorough Bible scholar in the land! Although I have studied this book for more than three decades, I am still amazed at the depth of other scholars, many of whom I call upon on a weekly basis as I write sermons. So if I were someone seeking answers to deep, theological subjects, I think there are some sources I would go to prior to myself. However, on the other side of this, I do believe that God has granted me with an ability to simplify difficult subjects. I’ve always said I’m a summary guy. And I guess that is what you’ll find in this blog about baptism. Let me give you a couple summary points on the subject. If they inspire you to dig deeper then I will have fulfilled my purpose.
Let’s discuss first the mode of baptism, or how it is actually performed. The two primary modes are sprinkling and immersion. Is one more appropriate than the other? Does the Bible favor one more than the other? The Greek word for baptism used in the Bible is “baptizo”, which means to dip, plunge, or immerse. Every single example of baptism I can find in the New Testament uses this word. The idea of baptism by sprinkling water on a head is never used in the New Testament, as far as I can find. There are specific examples of baptisms in the Bible that give indication of immersion more than sprinkling. For example, when Matthew writes about the baptism of Jesus he writes, “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.” (Matthew 3:16). Why would Jesus be down in water if he was only being sprinkled? Another proof of this argument is a descriptive sentence about John the Baptist. We are told in John 3:23 that John was baptizing people at Aenon ”because there was plenty of water…” It stands to reason that if baptism were performed by sprinkling then it could be done virtually anywhere, not just somewhere that had a lot of water. Much water was needed because immersion was the mode in the New Testament.
Perhaps the greatest argument for immersion baptism is its apparent symbol described in Romans 6:1-4. Paul spends this chapter describing why baptized people cannot continue to willfully sin. In this argument he paints baptism as a death, burial, and resurrection; just like the experience that our Lord endured. Let’s talk about each part of the symbol. When a person is baptized they first of all die. Obviously this is not referring to a physical death, but a spiritual death. The person has decided to put to death the control of sin in their life. That’s Paul’s whole point in the chapter. This death is accepted by God as His forgiveness wipes away the sin in our life. (See II Corinthains 5:17 as a parallel text where God has the old things pass away in our life). The second part of the symbol is burial, and this is clearly a definition of immersion. When you observe a person being baptized by sprinkling do you think of the act of burial? Of course not. However, when you watch a person lowered into waters of immersion baptism your eyes witness an actual act of burial. And then finally, baptism acts out the glorious victory of resurrection as the person is raised out of the waters to a new life (see again II Corinthians 5:17). They have a new lease on life. They are forgiven, heading in a new direction, living for a new purpose. Immersion is a perfect symbolical picture of death, burial, and resurrection. Sprinkling offers no parallels to that picture.
So the bottom line in this first discussion of the mode of baptism is that according to the Bible immersion is the only type mentioned. Does that mean God will not accept sprinkling as a form of baptism? To be quite frank about it, I don’t know the answer to that. God never addresses it in His Word and I’ve never had a one-on-one discussion about it with Him! The real question is why would anyone take a chance on this? What would compel a person to change a method that God had instituted? I was baptized at 16 years old, and the church I was attending highly encouraged me to be sprinkled. To find a place where I could be immersed seemed like a hassel to them. However, I couldn’t get past the clear teaching of scripture. With something so important as my eternal salvation I couldn’t make any sense of doing anything other than what the Bible taught. We found a church with a baptistery, and on a Saturday afternoon in May 1977 I was immersed into Christ.
Now let’s move to the next summary point about baptism. Is it essential to be baptized to go to heaven? I’m being honest here, so please forgive me. I hate that word “essential”. It has caused me more heartache in ministry than any other word. I have had wonderful followers of Jesus unable to worship in the church I serve because of those nine letters. But at the same time, the word is helpful in the sense that it forces us to deal with a significantly important facet of the baptism issue. Do you have to be baptized? Will you go to hell if you are not baptized? Anyway you ask it, it deserves an answer.
To the chagrine of many let me say I really don’t know the answer. I’m not God, and as I understand it, He is the gatekeeper of who gets in heaven. (Sorry Peter!). God also owns heaven. Unless I’m misssing something this means He makes all the decisions about who gets in. With that said, only He knows the complete answer to our question.
However, there are some things we do know, and you’re going to have to tighten the old brain process here. This is a little deep, even though I’m not always deep! Let me ask you to agree that all we can know for certain is what is in scripture. Key in on the world “certain.” When the Bible affirms something I can know it with certainty. Anything else is only an assumption. Let me put it this way. If God said it I can know with certainty it is true. If God did not say it then I can only assume it may be true. This is a huge argument on the baptism topic that most people never think about. We tend to consider a relative or friend who has passed from this life and want to believe with all of our heart that they are in heaven. They were a good person. They treated others with kindness. They went to church and took care of their family. But, they were not baptized. The emotions of the discussion increase when this person was our personal relative. So I’m asked all the time if they are in heaven. It sure makes sense that they are! In my human assumption I can see God allowing these kinds of people in heaven. But can I prove it with certainty in the Bible? That’s the question! You see, I can only say with certainty that what the Bible says, and you will see in a minute that the Bible teaches that baptism is a part of the salvation process. So when I am asked this question about non-immersed people in heaven I often respond with, “I hope so”, or “I can certainly see the grace of God welcoming a person like this”, or “I would not be surprised to see them in heaven someday.” But at the same time I cannot use terms of certainty, because I have no scriptures to base my certainty upon. All I have is assumption, even if it is good assumption!
A second aspect of this “essential” argument deals with a very important principle of Bible study. When one is studing any subject in the Bible, it is important to look at all texts relevant to the subject, not just one or two. It helps me to think of it like a jigsaw puzzle. If I have a puzzle that is a picture of an airplane flying in the sky, it is important for me to get all the pieces to good a full view of the picture. If I am missing one or two pieces of the puzzle then I don’t get a full view.
So with that in mind, when I am addressing this subject on the essential nature of baptism I ask myself if I have all the pieces. In other words, have I put together all the texts of the New Testament that discuss how a human being responds to the grace of God in order to be saved? If I just use one or two verses my view is incomplete. Let me mention a few verses to show you what I mean. John 3:16 is perhaps the most well-known verse in the Bible. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” As you look through that verse the obvious call for us is to believe in Jesus. I can accept that thoroughly. But is that all? Is there nothing more than that? James tends to throw a wrinkle in this when he writes, “Even the demons beleive…” (James 2:19). Do demons, then, go to heaven? Surely not. So my point is that John 3:16 lists a response of those who desire to go to heaven, which is to believe, but there must be more. And there is! Turn your attention to Acts 2:38. Peter has just finished the first ever Christian sermon and the people specifically asked him what they should do. His answer was clear, “Repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” So there it is, repent and be baptized. But hang on. Is this a contradiction of John 3:16? The John text says we must believe while the Acts text says we must repent and be baptized. So who is right? The answer is that both are right. It’s the jigsaw puzzle thing. Don’t assume you have a full picture until all the pieces are put together, and don’t base your full view on just one piece. Let’s move to another example of this. Paul unfolds a wonderful passage in Romans 10:9. “That if you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”. By now you should be able to see where I’m going with this. Paul mentions confession and belief. Both of those sure make sense to me. But did he not know about the Acts text that talks about repentance and baptism? Once again, think jig-saw puzzle. Put all the pieces together.
Without belaboring this point, here’s what we’re saying. How does a person respond to the grace of God in order be saved and go to heaven? There are multiple answers because the Bible presents it in multiple ways. We must believe in Jesus, who he was, what he did. That’s the starting point. We also must repent of our sins, a decision to make Jesus the Lord of our life. It seems that God is honored when we confess our love and belief of Him, so much that Paul added this to his description of saved individuals. And you would have to use an incredible amount of “sissor-power” to cut all the references to baptism as it is attached to people becoming Christians. None of these responses to grace are any more important than any of the others, but it is dangerous territory to assume we can neglect any of them.
So can we summarize the above two considerations in this “essential” discussion? Does a person have to be bapotized to go to heaven? Thank goodness that’s not my decision. God alone is given to right to answer that question and I suspect He will have people there that we would not accept, none more so than myself! All I can say with certainty is what the Bible teaches, and anything else can only be in the assumption category, even if the assumption is strong. And here is what is certain; people who go to heaven believe in Jesus, they repent of their sins, they gladly confess their allegiance to the Lord, and they are baptized by immersion. Any other process is an exception, and exceptions may very well spend eternity in hjeaven. But why would anyone count on being an exception for such an important topic?
There are other worthy parts of the baptism topic that can be discussed. Can children be baptized? Does the moment of salvation occur at repentance or baptism? Is baptism a human work? Those and other discussions are good studies. But for this blog we will stop at these two summaries; baptism is immersion and it is a part of the overall process of accepting Jesus.
Relevancy
Posted on July 18, 2011 by Dave Hastings
I love the fact that our church is relevant to the culture in which we live. That hit me today as I began to do a little work on our “God in Your Ipod” series which we will be doing for the fourth year coming up. The whole idea is to take well-known secular songs, have some local artists come to church that day and “knock them out of the park”, then teach a Biblical principle that is consistent with the song. It’s been a lot of fun the first three years as we have seen how God’s truths apply to our culture, no matter what musical genre or generation a song originates from. And oh yeah, we have quite a culturally relevant congregation – I’ve received over 200 song suggestions from our members. Maybe we’ll be doing this series for several years!