Gaining perspective: Ezra 3

May 19, 2011May 6, 2011 / Nate Edmondson / 2 Comments

Recently I was reading the book of Ezra, and I came across an important reminder: Pure hearts take precedent over pure projects.

While the Jews were in exile, a man named Cyrus became king of Persia. The Holy Spirit stirred Cyrus to issue a decree that the people should return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple that had been destroyed. God birthed this vision in the hearts of many people, and around 50,000 or so Jews made the journey back to Jerusalem.

Their purpose in returning was to rebuild the temple. This was extremely important to them, because the temple was the literal house of God. As long as it laid in shambles, the rest of the world would look at Judah’s God in disgrace. On a personal level, it probably made the Jews question God’s power, faithfulness, and presence.

Now, with that in mind, here’s what’s interesting: Their first order of business when they arrived in Jerusalem wasn’t the temple… it was their heart. Instead of getting right to work, chapter 3 describes how they set up the altar, celebrated the Feast of Booths, and each offered sacrifices are required in the Law of Moses. “⁶From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.” Ezra 3:6 ESV

Before they even started the project God called them to, they got on right terms with Him. They were sent to Jerusalem by the most powerful man in the world to rebuild the temple of God. Talk about a pure objective! But, they recognized that pure hearts take precedent over pure projects.

The same is true for us today. It’s easy for me to become so obsessed with dreaming, planning, and critiquing the projects I want to do for God someday, that I neglect my relationship with Him. It’s easy for good things to get in the way of developing a good heart. Don’t let that happen to you today.

Pure hearts take precedent over pure projects. What are you working on today that might cause you to neglect your heart?

Cultural relevance

May 16, 2011May 16, 2011 / Nate Edmondson / 9 Comments

Recently I was listening to a Christian radio station that had a commercial about them being “culturally relevant”. The plea was for listeners to consider donating because they were “engaging culture” with Christian music. A day or so later, I drove by a church whose marquee sign said, “Our pastor wears jeans… so can you.”

I’m sure both of them have entirely pure intentions. They want to reach people with an unchanging, eternally relevant message- what a great ambition. Here’s my problem, though: People, churches, and organizations that are relevant… don’t have to talk about “relevance” at all.

If you want to be relevant, then just be relevant and stop talking about it. The minute somebody says, “We’re a relevant bla bla bla reaching people bla bla bla”, they’re probably not as relevant as they think. Talking about cultural relevance is not culturally relevant.

The gospel is already culturally relevant. Guilt, pride, jealousy, loneliness, greed, depression, insecurity, anger, etc, etc, etc are never going away. In fact, that’s why God made the gospel. Let’s just be committed to bringing people grace and truth in the midst of their problems and stop talking about how culturally relevant we are.

This is not meant to be a slam against the radio station or church marquee. I just think it could be helpful for those claiming to “engage” the “younger generation” to hear from a member of that generation.

What’s your reaction when you hear buzz words like these?

Church fathers

May 11, 2011May 4, 2011 / Nate Edmondson / Leave a comment

My first time ever truly studying Church history was this past fall. I had heard about St. Augustine a little bit, but that was really it. My perception of Church history was about like this: The Church was thriving until the book of Acts ended, persecuted until Constantine, and then corrupt until Martin Luther.

As we studied the early Church fathers, I was blown away at their commitment to Christ and their knowledge of Scripture. Learning about them made Christianity so much more authentic to me. Our professor tried so hard to help our class realize that we are connected to a massive family of believers who have come before us. The more I read, the more I realized that since the start of the Church, there has been a faithful group of believers clinging to Orthodoxy (or defining it) and pursuing Christ. That was new to me, and it still gives me goose bumps.

I wonder if that’s something we could help teenagers grasp. If high school students understood they were connected to this giant movement that has been rolling since the beginning of the A.D. era, how could that change the seriousness of their faith? If we told teenagers more about what God has done in the past, and what he continues to do all across the world, how much more real would it seem to them?

Last Summer I was talking to a high school student who considers himself an atheist. He made a comment to me that seems relevant to this discussion. He said, “Here’s my problem with religion: it’s invalid because it’s geographical. Everybody’s religion goes along with where they were born. You’re a Christian because you were born in America. If you had been born in India… you’d probly be a Hindu… and need a shower.”

We laughed, and the conversation was over. But what I wish I could’ve explained was how wrong his assertion about Christianity was. Christianity is geographical, because Jesus said to take it to every nation, but it is not limited by geography. The reason I know about Jesus is because there was a long line of believers a long time ago who decided they were going to give their life for the sake of making Him famous, even if it meant they would die. And we are here today, in this generation, to continue that story.

The Church fathers are relevant today, and I think it would serve our churches well to talk about them. My professor wrote a book that would be a great resource for someone wanting to start learning about the Church fathers. For a link click HERE.

Big-picture series planning

May 9, 2011May 6, 2011 / Nate Edmondson / 11 Comments

I hear a lot of sermons. I’m constantly going to church websites and checking out their current series. Most churches I follow do a great job of presenting their series in a compelling way. Most of the time, the messages have really good insight.

What’s always interesting to me about pastors, though, is how excited they get about a principle in a message or series, only to never mention that principle again. For example, if they were talking about priorities, they might end a big message by saying, “The way you spend your time is a direct reflection of what you value.” Everybody felt so moved. The preacher might get a hundred compliments between the stage and his car.

Inevitably, the next week rolls around and a new series has to start. Now he’s talking about something else. He’ll probably never preach the priorities message to this church again. So, what happens to that incredibly moving principle?

In my experience, it seems like a lot of churches just kind of float their way through series after series without any real sense of purpose. They get everybody energized about one series, and make comments about “how important this is”, only to introduce another important thing the next week. I always want to ask, “what happened to that important principle you shared 4 months ago?”

Churches are doing an incredible job of creating environments and mediums to share messages, but churches aren’t necessarily doing a great job of thinking through where their messages will lead people. Week to week, services are great. Week to week, messages are being communicated excellently. But what about year to year?

We have to ask questions like… Where are people going to end up in the long run as a result of our preaching? What will we have covered when we end this year? How can we make sure to recycle important principles regularly? In what area do we want people to grow this year?

In my opinion (which, let’s be honest… really probably doesn’t mean much) a church that fails to ask these questions will have a lot of great Sundays, but they minimize their ability to implement change in people’s lives long term.

What’s your system for reiterating what’s important? How do you map out where you’re leading people?

3 questions about seminary

April 28, 2011April 28, 2011 / Nate Edmondson / 7 Comments

For those who don’t like watching videos, here’s what I want to know:

Is seminary beneficial? Is the education helpful? Will it be something I’m glad I did when I look back?
Is seminary a necessary requirement for you to hire someone? If you’re looking to hire a student pastor, worship leader, or small groups guy, does the fact that they’ve been to seminary help in their interviewing process?
What seminaries would you recommend? Which ones are people talking about? Do any seminaries raise a red flag?

Your comments, insights, and suggestions are all very appreciated!