Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

As believers, our surrounding culture will present us with holidays, gatherings, and events that don’t have a biblical origin. Halloween falls into this camp, and is perhaps one of the trickiest for believers. Like anything our culture may throw at us, we can either receive, reject, or redeem. Here is how the arguments go for Halloween:

1. Receive Halloween- Colossians 2:16 says, “Therefore, don't let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.” Therefore, no one should pass judgment on you for any celebration which a believer participates. Jesus went to parties to win people to himself. Would we criticize Jesus for doing this? Besides, what is the harm in putting on a costume and giving out a big candy bar to your lost neighbors? Why can’t we use this as an opportunity to love our neighbors?

2. Reject Halloween- Are you kidding me? 2 Corinthians 6:14 says, “14 Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?” Halloween is an unholy day that has pagan roots. The day was believed by the ancients to be a day when the veil between the spirit world and our world was thin. One had to carve gourds and put candles in them to ward off evil spirits. The idea that unless you gave a visitor a gift they would place a curse on your home that day, the origin of “trick or treat.” In Acts 19, when they became believers they burned their witchcraft books. They renounced their old way and so should we.

3. Redeem Halloween- Wait a minute, just because something has an ungodly beginning doesn’t mean it has to be outright rejected by a believer. Do you like VW beetles? Did you know that they were the brainchild of Adolf Hitler? So should we reject all VWs since they were created by someone who was bent on evil and world domination? What about the dates we celebrate Christmas and Easter? Even celebrating one’s birthday has pagan roots. The only two examples in the bible of anyone celebrating their birthday was pharaoh and King Herold. It was believed that the spirit world owed you one on your birthday. In order to claim said wish, one would need to light a candle, make a wish, and blow the candle out. Years ago, the church came up with All Saints Day on November 1st as a way to redeem the holiday. In this day, believers would dress up as saints and church heroes of the past.

Who is right? I know you want me to tell you, but you need to investigate and choose. I have always leaned towards redeeming the holiday for God’s glory. It is a little tougher than some other holidays, but it is the only day that unbelievers will knock on our door.

Should Christians Obey the Government?

“Give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”[1]

The election this year has been interesting, because of how it has affected evangelical Christianity. Different tribes in Christianity have responded to this election in different ways. I would like to take time in this article to remind believers that there are biblical principles for how we are to interact with the government. Here are some biblical principles for how to interact:

1. Be a good citizen living in subject to the governmental authority, even a pagan one (Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17). We must responsibly engage the political process. Do not be deceived by talk radio rhetoric, look at the issues and vote according to who will bring our Christian convictions into the public arena (Prov. 14:34).

2. Live internationally like Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, and Jesus on earth. Remember as a believer our ultimate allegiance is to Christ and His Kingdom.

3. Obey the state but worship only God. Thank God for all the good He does through the government, praying always for all who are in authority. (1 Tim. 2:1-5)

4. Acknowledge that governmental authority is established by and comes from God! (Mark 12:17; Rom 13:1,4,6)

5. Acknowledge that all government serves in some measure the purposes of promoting good and punishing evil (Rom. 13:3-4). Bad government is almost always better than no government.

6. Pay all taxes levied upon us by our government, recognizing its right to do so. (Mark 12:17; Rom 13:6-7)

7. Engage in “civil disobedience” only when our government prohibits me from doing what the Bible commands, or when it commands me to do what the Bible prohibits.

I know that in this election we have the freedom not to participate, and some of my mentors have made it clear they will be staying home on November 8. My hero Spurgeon has been unfairly used as a defense for staying home when he said, “Of Two Evils, Choose Neither.” We are not voting on a pastor, deacon or Sunday School teacher. We are voting on the Commander and Chief of our nation. I agree it would be ideal to have someone who could meet those qualifications, but we haven’t had that from any party in a long, long, long time.

So I cannot stay home, my conscience will not allow me to do so. I believe that I have a biblical and patriotic obligation to vote. Our freedom to participate in this process came at a high price. Both parties have placed candidates that would not be mine nor many American’s first pick, but God is in control. Believer, we must trust Him with the outcome either way.

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^[1] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Mk 12:17.

If Seeing is Believing, How Can You Believe in an Invisible God?

“be ready in season and out of season…” -2 Timothy 4:2

With the growing number of nones, no religious affiliation, the existence of God is being questioned heavily today. A believer must be able to demonstrate that believing in God is reasonable, consistent with reason, and is actually more rational than the alternative of believing in his nonexistence. Here are five reasons why it is reasonable to believe in God:

·      Anthropic Arguments: Things about ourselves—conscience, capacity for good and evil, yearning for eternity, religious experiences—are best explained by the existence of God. How does one explain the universal morals and laws found in every culture?

·      Immaterialism Argument: The existence of love, beauty demonstrate that we do not live in a materialistic universe. What value is love and beauty in an evolutionary materialistic universe?

·      Creation and Design Argument: Creation by an Intelligent Designer is more intellectually plausible than creation by random chance. Where did all matter and life come from and why is it here? (Romans 1:20)

·      Probability Argument: Every day we exercise faith, and I think it’s reasonable to have faith in the supernatural. What does it mean to have faith? It means to exercise the tools of faith: reason or science, intuition, and our experiences.

·      Transcendental Argument- Knowledge, logic, and science, etc., are only possible because God’s existence is a precondition for all thinking and knowledge.

Does Acts 16:31 mean that if I am saved my whole family will become saved too?

A Bible passage without its context is a pretext to say anything you want. The Bible is full of many different types of literature. There is poetry, prophecy, narrative, discourse, letters, proverbs, and parables to name a few. Acts 16 is a narrative passage recording an event in the life of Paul and Silas. When you come to a passage, it is either prescriptive or descriptive. Prescriptive texts are instructive, and they are commands either of what to do or not to do. Confusion often sets in when we bring in the idea of modeling or examples. The Bible is filled with people who modeled great things, and we want to emulate them. But the question is how far do we take it? Should we make rash vows like Jephthah in Judges 11:30-32 or sacrifice our children to prove our faith in God like Abraham (Gen. 22)?

I believe that what we have is a descriptive passage which records an amazing event of salvation for the jailer and his household. A descriptive passage is one that is describing what happened, which may not be emulated or encouraged. Acts 20:9-11 records a young man named Eutychus falling to the ground from the third story to his death. Acts 20 records Paul bringing him back to life. This is a fantastic event for bringing life from death, but it is a unique event to the life of Paul. The story of the jailer and his family is the same. It was unique to that setting and time. While we can certainly walk away with the truth that we must preach the gospel to all households, this is not a passage that guarantees salvation to everyone in our family or household. In fact, look at these passages as well:

· Jeremiah 31:29 & Ezekiel 18 both point to the separating of the destiny of parents and children. A godly parent may have an ungodly (unsaved) child; an ungodly parent may have a believing and faithful child. The destiny of fathers and sons is independently determined.

· 1 Corinthians 7:14 – We are told that an unbelieving mate is "sanctified" by the believing mate (7:14), but please note they are still called unbelievers. A believer in the household will bring blessings to the home that all will benefit from, but that does not always mean salvation for everyone.

· Luke 12:53 – Records that Jesus will divide some families.

· Luke 14:26-27 – Perhaps one of the most difficult passages for many believers. The call is to hate our fathers, mothers, wives, children, and siblings. I believe the call is to love Jesus more than our families.

Bottom line, all are individually responsible for our eternal destiny. And we must love Jesus, obey Him and serve Him, above all others, including those closest to us!

Why Don’t We Pass the Plate in the Common Ground Worship Service?

“Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
-2 Corinthians 9:7

Each Sunday morning during the Common Ground Worship service we sing praises to God, pray, read scripture, hear the Word of God preached, and have a response time. But one thing we don’t do is pass an offering plate. Offering boxes have been installed just outside the doors of the Oasis. For some this is hard to imagine a worship service without passing the plate, let me give you four reasons to consider on why we did this:

•    To emphasize giving, not the process. Giving in various cultures differs. In some cultures, church members dance down front and place their offering in a bucket or barrow. In our culture, offerings are most often passed around. I wouldn’t feel comfortable dancing my tithe or offering down the to the front! It is similar to the plate; some feel put on the spot. The desire to empathize giving and not the process by which we give.
•    To allow more options for giving.  The addition of the boxes allows church members to give anytime they are in our building.  The boxes give a much-needed degree of freedom for volunteers, those who have to leave before a service starts, or our guests. Jesus reminds us that the right hand shouldn’t know what the left hand is doing (Matt. 6:3). Some prefer this privacy in giving, and there is nothing wrong with demonstrating humility as we give.
•    To duplicate an Old Testament example. There is nothing new under the sun! 2 Kings 12:9, “Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid. He placed it beside the altar, on the right side as one enters the temple of the LORD.”  Notice the box was placed for worshippers to drop their gift in as they entered! We now have the same ability!
•    To simplify. I am a big fan of K.I.S., Keep It Simple! Not only does this take one more item of the lengthy Sunday Morning order of service, but it also frees up manpower!

That all sounds good pastor, but isn’t giving an act of worship? Yes, of course giving is an act of worship with visiting members, feeding the hungry, taking care of widows and orphans. But we don’t do every act of worship when the church gathers together. So these are the reasons why we don’t pass the plate. As a side note, I have heard it said by church critics that church cares too much about money. The boxes instead of passing the plate take away at least one bulletin from our critics. We want to communicate that we care more about them than their money!

Common Ground Launch a Success!

    I am glad to report that after months of preparation, the launch of Common Ground was a success. It was a success on three levels regarding attendance, decisions, and new faces. The chart below shows the attendance from the preview service until August 28, 2016. The green line indicates the attendance of Common Ground; the Blue line is our 10:30 am worship service, and the yellow line shows the total between the two. The largest attended service for Common Ground was the launch. I thought we would have between 35 and 45 attendees, but we were blessed with 61 in attendance. The total capacity for the Oasis in this services is currently 87 worshipers, meaning that we saw the Oasis over 60% full on launch day! In addition, we have seen three decisions made over the course of the last month one for baptism and two for being apart of our church family.

    Also, we have seen many new faces since the launch of Common Ground. I would estimate at least twelve guests were visiting with us on launch day! This is incredible because the overall visitor flow of our church has increased, meeting one of our goals in laughing the new service. More visitors means more visitor retention, which in turn means more members become part of our church family! To say that in short, Common Ground is working in reaching new people. Our goal in beginning this was to widen our nets to reach more for the Glory of God! I am very excited for what the future holds at Grace Baptist Church.












Here are a few things that you can do to ensure that efficiently reach more people:

1. Pray- Pray for Great Commission Fulfillment at our Church. Pray that we will have God’s heart for the people in our area!
2. Carpool- Our parking can get a little tight at times. In fact, we need to free up about 30 more parking spots on campus. Will you give up your parking spot for a Great Commission fulfillment?
3. Invite your friends and family- Now with two options to encourage them towards, what prevents you from asking your unchurched family and friends to Grace Baptist!

Excitement Builds as Common Ground Worship Service Launch Approaches!

 Excitement continues to build this week as we prepare for the Common Ground Worship Service Launch Day on August 21. Launch a new ministry in August just as school starts back is an excellent time to begin a new ministry. The Sunday Morning Worship time exists as a front door to the church. Often a Sunday Morning worship service may be an individual’s first contact with a church.

As families begin to fall back into rhythm, what an excellent time to become part of our church family. We are seeking To Glorify God and targeting to reach unchurched families in a 2-mile radius who do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. All are welcomed to join us!

In his book Surprising In sights from the Unchurched, Thom Rainer defines the unchurched as those who do not attend church at all. The unchurched may be dechurched, individuals who once attended church then stopped, or a person who is a second generation unchurched. In this book he looks as the formally unchurched, and amazingly the unchurched looked carefully at the doctrinal issues before they become Christians, and they were attracted to a church that held strong convictions about biblical matters. We are beginning this ministry with a faithful heritage to the gospel and doctrine. Our church has a rich heritage of Biblically faithful preachers and teachers.

The Common Ground Worship service will be praise band orientated and Gospel-centered. There are several ways that you can help in preparing for this service: Pray for us as we prepare, pray for those the service will reach, volunteer to help in the praise band, or in other needed areas of the service.  We are hoping to see a 10% increases in both services across the board in baptisms, attendance, ministries, and financial resources. Most importantly, we aim to see lives touched and transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray for those who are far from God that God will use this Worship Service to draw them to Himself.