Ministries:
Adult | Teens | Children

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Sermon Series:
Following Jesus
Earthly Cross
His Name Is
Apostles Creed
Dealing with Feelings
Jonah
Get Real
Promised Land Living

Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Email:
Pastor Scott Carson

Secretary Patti Hall

PASTOR'S PENS 2006

Grace Church of Burlington March 19, 2006 The yoke and the cross are twin symbols of Christian experience. The cross speaks of leaving the world for Christ; the yoke speaks of learning in the world from Christ. The one speaks of sacrifice; the other service. The disciple must bear both; he cannot choose to take one and leave the other.             Frequently, in the American church a false perception exists that Christianity is something like a Boeing 747, where you get on board and choose to travel either Tourist or 1st Class. Both classes arrive at their destination at more or less the same time (1st Class arrives fractionally ahead yet also crashes fractionally ahead in the event of an accident). If you want to make the trip as an ordinary Christian, you just go into the tourist cabin. But if you’re little more serious and committed, you travel 1st Class as a disciple. And discipleship has erroneously evolved into some kind of optional extra for those who are so inclined, while being an ordinary Christian without all the extra baggage of discipleship has become acceptable and palatable to many.             This convenient dichotomy is unacceptable because it is unbiblical, but I understand how the distinction came to be. While from a Biblical perspective it is impossible to draw any distinction between the terms Christian and disciple, we must recognize that the word Christian has become almost totally devalued in common usage.             In first-century Antioch, being called a Christian meant that you had been identified as one who had "believed and turned to the Lord" (Acts 11:21) and who had determined "to remain true to the Lord with all your heart" (v. 23). But between the first century and today, some strange things happened to the word Christian. Depending on who is using the term, it could mean anything from a religious preference ("Of course I'm a Christian. I’m not a Buddhist, am I?") to a designation held with scant regard by those who had a church affiliation, without it hindering them in any way as far as their lives were concerned.             As Vance Havner, the famed Southern preacher, used to say “I understand about homiletics. I just don't never let them interfere with my preaching." In much the same way, it is possible to be a "Christian" in today's terms but "never let it interfere with your living." This is barren nominalism of the worst kind.                         It seems to me that the Church today needs to return to the term disciples.  Coupled with it are other essential words for the believer: sacrifice, holiness, and even separation. In an era when "laissez-faire" not only applied to economics and sexual behavior but also  to a Christianity committed more to feeling good than doing good, and to enjoying rather than to enduring, disciple sounds a lot like discipline. But that’s what Biblical Christianity is. It’s a Spirit-lived and disciplined life. God has not called us to be tourists but pilgrims.             The Church today needs to breathe some fresh air into what the word really means so that we can produce more disciples of Jesus Christ, which is what Jesus has commanded us to do in the Great Commission. If we are going to see Bible-believing Christianity impact our modern society, we must get away from our preoccupation with the peripheral and even trivial, and instead concentrate on developing genuine disciples whose lives are marked by Biblical godliness and whose conduct becomes a living example of Christlikeness. It’s not enough to name the name or talk the talk. A disciple of Jesus Christ walks the walk.