On Labels: Evangelical

I haven't looked up the definition on Wikipedia - or anywhere else.

But for me, the word 'evangelical' boils down to four things:

True Evangelical churches
1. Teach the Bible
2. Care about unbelievers, and preach the gospel to them
3. Protect themselves against false teaching and compromise
4. State what they believe

The Problem
'Did God really say...?'.  That encounter between the first woman and the serpent is repeated countless times today.  We have stopped daring to take God at his word.  Our theological colleges and churches all too often undermine our faith in God's word instead of strengthening it.  We have countless translations of the Bible in English.  But all too often, it is not read, it is not believed and it is not lived.  And because of our limited knowledge of God through the scriptures, we often resort to a people-pleasing, man-centred Gospel which is not powerful enough to bring true godliness and repentance.

As evangelicals:
- We believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant word of God
- We teach the Bible – we 'exegete' – read out of the passages of the Bible [scripture] what is in there.  We avoid manipulating scripture to make it say what we want.
- We usually teach the Bible in a 'book by book' way, rather than picking out the passages and themes we like.  We do this to try and avoid bias and obsessing over pet themes, keep the content of our teaching balanced and read passages in their proper context.
- We weigh teachings, prophecies, guidance and philosophies against the clear teaching of scripture
- We seek to preach the gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ – to every creature
- The gospel is centred around God's righteousness and our sinfulness.  Our sins deserve God's wrath, and we are saved by the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, through repentance, faith, baptism and abiding in Christ on our part and the regenerating power of God's Holy Spirit on his part
- We preach the gospel in church meetings and outside of meetings.  We train our members in personal evangelism
- We defend the message of the gospel from false versions of it, warning people against compromise and false teaching.

Non-Evangelical Churches
1. Have no real credibility to most outsiders and some insiders, and in the long run they lose members and eventually die
2. Allow politics and social action to take precedence over the message of the gospel.  Solving temporal problems takes priority over where people spend eternity.
3. Try to make people like them and like God instead of seeing people as spiritually blind and lost sinners in need of a saviour.
4. Compromise the message of the gospel in the face of opponents of Christianity to try and win them over.  They often 'jump on bandwagons', following current belief systems, mixing them with scripture as they see fit.
5. Mix the Bible with tradition or false spirituality or intellectualism.
6. On occasion, add extra traditions and teachings to scripture.
7. Seek unity with other groups within other forms of Christianity and sometimes other religions on a 'lowest common denominator' basis.

How Church Ministries Destroy Families 4: Titus

I had some opportunities a few years ago to do quite a bit of teaching from the Bible.

Perhaps I learned more than the congregation.

Teaching through that wonderful little letter to Titus was, for me, breath-taking, jaw dropping, paradigm shifting. How can Paul say so much in so few words? I will not reproduce my notes from that time, but I will go through what Paul doesn't say to Titus. This is what taught me so much!

What the letter to Titus does not say:

- Pick the most charismatic (in any sense of the word) or the most skilled or the most talented and clever or most pushy men, or some yes-men to be elders
- Forget the old folks. Concentrate on the Youth. They're the future of the church!
- Emphasise bringing your unsaved friends to church
- Spend lots of time trying to debate, satisfy or win over difficult people who don't like the way you do things.
- At all costs avoid conflict. Go for the quiet life. Just let trouble-makers have their say. Maybe they'll calm down if you're nice.
- The world is watching your church closely to see if it is relevant, entertaining, trendy and comfortable. They're not that bothered about your morality or integrity.
- You need to set up lots of ministries to the community. Get your people into social action!
- Entertain that congregation, preacher! Keep clear of difficult issues and don't challenge or correct people too much. You might put them off!
- Escape those oppressive shackles of home life girls! Get out of that home and get a job!

Anyway, I'm sure you get my drift. Looking at Titus made me think we do too many complicated things, but overlook the important things, like choosing Elders of good character, making sure the older folks are setting a good example to the youngsters and keeping our homes in good order.

I would encourage any church to put a month aside and go through Titus, an overlooked jewel.  And put its lessons into practice.