Growing In Faith - Why it Matters

In church, we talk about faith.  We encourage one another to grow in our faith, and yet we very rarely talk about how to do that.  How does one mature in their faith?  How do we grow?  We make assumptions that we all just ‘know how,’ but we usually stop growing in our faith more often than not.

What we don’t know is that faith, like life, has stages.  Faith is dynamic and vibrant, but we fail to nurture it, and so it stagnates.  That’s certainly not what any church community should want. 

Before we can look at the stages of faith, though, we need to understand what faith is and how it grows.  To begin with we need to understand that faith and belief are not the same thing.  We often use those words interchangeably, but they have different meanings and different emphases. 

Belief is holding to a particular idea, ideology, political doctrine, theological point of view and so on.

Faith, in the context of religion, is the “quiet confidence and joy which enable one to feel at home in the universe and find meaning […] a meaning that is profound and ultimate, and is stable no matter what may happen.”[1]  Belief may be an expression of faith, but beliefs are not faith.

For example, let’s look at Daniel 3:17-18, which takes place in the larger context of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego:  “(17) If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.  (2)But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Verse 17 is a statement of belief.  Verse 18, though, is a statement of faith.  Even if God doesn’t save them, they will still not bow down to the gods of the king.  Even if they die, their faith remains in God.  Biblical faith is not placed in the outcome of an event, but rests in God.

This is an important distinction to learn.  So when we read what Paul writes in 1^st Corinthians 3:1-9 about milk and solid food and spiritual matters, we begin to understand that he doesn’t mean to increase your beliefs, your creeds, your laws, or your rules.  He wants you to grow in your faith!  The rules may change.  The laws come and go.  Will your faith falter?

It will if your faith is in your beliefs instead of in the source of those beliefs.  This is why our faith fails to grow as we mature. 

Often, though, our faith isn’t in God, it is in what we believe we should believe about God.  There is a huge difference in saying that you have faith in Christ and stating what you believe about Christ.  That’s why we get so caught up in calling people “unfaithful” because they don’t ‘believe’ x,y, and z.  What we have done is confuse the terms of faith and belief.

Faith, like life, has stages.  I am not the same person I was 20 years ago.  I don’t look the same, I don’t think the same.  20 years ago I was not the same person I was when I was 8.

Paul, in the 1st letter to the Corinthian church wrote:  “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”

I think it would be disappointing, even regrettable, if after all these years I had not grown or gained deeper understandings or perspectives on life.  And yet with our faith, that is exactly what happens.  In our faith we are still where we were 20 years ago or, perhaps worse, where we were when we were 8.

Our faith shouldn’t be so fragile that we fear stretching it.  Church is to uphold and encourage faith.  Sunday School is there to do the practical and particular work of helping you grow in your faith.  Neither Sunday School nor church is there to keep you where you were or, heaven forbid, move you backwards.

So why is this important?

Our faith establishes our character, and our character is seen in the relationships we make and maintain and the ways we respond to crisis.  Our faith has direct bearing on how we seek to live our life with integrity.  Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we may or may not see the crisis coming, but how we react is a testimony to our faith, not to our beliefs. 

That’s why it matters so much that we grow in our faith.

In the letter of James we read in 4:8a: “Draw near to God and God will draw near to you.”  Think of faith as a pursuit.  The close we seek to be with God, the closer God comes to us.  We do not know the outcome, we may not even get our way.  But those are issues of belief. 

We are to grow in our faith.

---

[1]  Wilfred Cantwell Smith as cited in James Fowler’s book Stages of Faith p.11

Growing in Faith

During the month of August, I am going to be offering a series of sermons that focus on the idea of spiritual growth and growing in our faith.  This is an idea that we often hear, but don't really pursue mostly because we don't know what it means. Or, in some cases, we don't know that our faith can grow any further than it already has.  Yet faith (and our faith journey) like life has stages.  We can learn what they are and we can learn how to move through them.

In 1981, Dr. James Fowler of Emory University wrote a book called Stages of Faith in which he suggested that there are six stages that religious people may experience in their spiritual and psychological development.  Granted no one system works for every individual, but his ideas were grounded in research and his conclusions were profound.  If nothing else, his general thesis is a helpful way to begin thinking about the changes that can take place in our faith over time.

The stages are as follows:

Stage 1: Intuitive Projective Faith – this faith is characteristic of children, and has little more substance than fairy tales.  It is hard for people at this stage to differentiate between God and the Easter bunny.

Stage 2: Mythical Literal Faith – characteristic of school age children, their beliefs are taken from external authorities and taken literally.

Stage 3: Synthetic Conventional Faith – characterized by conformity with expectations and beliefs of particular groups, faith communities or authority figures.  A person in this stage believes what they believe because all the people around them believe the same thing.

Stage 4: Individuative Reflective Faith – This faith is one that has come through trial.  Faith is claimed for themselves and not simply because it is the faith of a parent, group, or authority figure.

Stage 5: Conjucntive Faith – conjunctive means to “join things together” when an individual travels through the trials of stage 4 and begins to appreciate that the world is more gray than black and white.

Stage 6: Universalizing Faith – characterized by selflessness, unconditional love, and a willingness to suffer on behalf of others.  John Wesley called this Christian perfection or sanctification.

Some of the stages might sound a bit strange, others might sound familiar.  You might identify with parts of one and not with others.  That's alright.  These are designed more as outlines for a broader understanding.  

Likewise, George Barna, author of Maximum Faith lays out 10 ‘stops’ along the journey of faith.  While not as specific or technical as Fowler’s work, they do have many parallels.  I would certainly recommend both of those books to you.  But these books only seek to outline what we find over and over in the Bible.  Think of Jacob who underwent transformation, Gideon who had to face his fears, David who started out strong, Ezekiel who fled only to find God, Saul who became Paul, and Stephen who stood alone.  Each of these characters (to name only a few) had their beliefs challenged, but managed to find a deeper faith. 

So over the next few weeks beginning on July 26th, we will hear some of these stories and see how faith can grow because or in spite of our circumstances.  While we will be looking at particular stories and passages of scripture, the more important facet of this is that we all examine our own journey of faith.  Where are we?  Are we satisfied?  Do we think there is more, but just don’t know how to get there?  Or are we unaware that our faith can grow? 

I would invite you to reflect upon your own faith journey during the course of these next weeks. 

Mysteries of Faith

The end of the month of May provides a great time to talk theology.  These last two Sundays are dedicated to two particular “mysteries” of the church: Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. 

Pentecost is that day in which we celebrate the movement of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles.  It is a profound moment for the Christian faith in that it is considered the ‘beginning’ of the church.  Jesus has, at this point in the story, ascended into heaven and the Holy Spirit quite literally rushes in and transforms the disciples into empowered witnesses to the story of Jesus.  With the absence of Jesus on earth, the Holy Spirit becomes the guide for the church as well as that power of God which enables us to carry on.

Yet the action of the Holy Spirit is mysterious.  As Jesus says of the Spirit in the Gospel of John, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” (John 3:8).  We can experience the effects of the Holy Spirit, but we cannot truly pin the Spirit down.

Trinity Sunday, though, is a bit more of a mystery.  We are Trinitarian.  By that, I mean that we believe in what is known as a “triune God” that is found in three persons: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  These three ‘persons’ are separate yet inextricably linked to one another.  The difficulty in talking about the Trinity is that there are no direct scriptural quotes to which I can point to make it clear.  The concept of the Trinity is arguably echoed or prefigured in the Biblical texts, but the concept itself took a great many years before it became the default point of belief of the Christian faith. 

To talk about these two Sundays is to embark on a conversation of mysteries.  They are critical elements of the Church, yet they are also points on which we cannot ever be completely clear.  For an example, one might think about light itself.  We all recognize light – especially when we have been in a dark room.  Light is that which enables us to see.

But we never actually see light.  We see the effects of light, not the light itself.  We are surrounded by light, yet we cannot see that which enables us to see.  Amazing, right?

So when we gather as the month comes to a close, we will be speaking of that which we affirm, that which we as a Christian community profess to be true.  Yet while we speak of these things, we have 

to also recognize that we can only speak generally.  They are what the church has sometimes referred to as “Holy Mysteries” in that we are speaking of elements of our faith, but elements that we still do not fully comprehend.

I invite you to come and join with us as we speak to the best of our abilities about a great set of mysteries: the Holy Spirit and the Trinity.  And in speaking of those mysteries, may we find ourselves in joy and in awe of that which we profess, yet still manages to mystify us.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Charles

Easter Transformations

“Easter people, raise your voices, sounds of heaven in earth should ring.  Christ has brought us heaven’s choices; heavenly music, let it ring.  Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Easter people, let us sing.”

So proclaims one of the great songs of resurrection and faith.  Proclaim the good news of the resurrection and all that it means for us and for, as the Gospel of John writes, all the world. 

And yet, we can become so used to the idea of Easter that it fails to provoke any spiritual growth in our lives.  We become complacent and content, moving back into our lives without further reflection.  But we miss a great opportunity to grow merely by reflecting on the story of Easter.  How does this story change us as a people, as a congregation, and as followers of Christ? 

I would like to suggest that the answer to these questions might very well be found in the post-resurrections stories themselves.

After the resurrection, Jesus appears to a variety of people in a variety of settings.  However, the one theme that stands out in these encounters is that Jesus has changed.  In the story of the road to Emmaus in the Gospel of Luke we see this most clearly.  Jesus was not immediately recognized.

As Peter Bush said of this story, “Notice that they did not even comment to the stranger who was walking with them, ‘You look a lot like this Jesus we are talking about.’  They did not say to one another after they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, ‘I knew there was something about him that was familiar.’  The way Jesus looked post-resurrection was different from the way he had looked before he went to the cross – different enough that he could not be recognized.”[1]

What I would suggest is that our faith is transformative.  And while you and I may not experience the same radical transformation that Jesus underwent, our faith can fundamentally change our lives.  I know of many people who, after committing their lives to God have become different people.  In my own life I can look back and see transformations that came about by my willingness to hear the direction of the Spirit.  Our faith is to shape who we are becoming.

It is my hope that as a church and as individuals, we will allow our faith to become that which enables us to be transformed by God and thereby transform the world around us.  Instead of simply going to church, let us become the church.  May our lives be such that our faith is evident.  May we be transformed by Easter and may we continue to grow in our Christian walk.

“Every day to us is Easter, with its resurrection song.”  If we allow the message to take root, it very well might be the transformative message that we and the world are longing to hear.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Charles

---

[1]  Bush, Peter In Dying We Are Born p.102

Holy Week

Holy Week is upon us and with it the strange reality of the dark side of the Christian story.

For many Christians, Holy Week isn't a pleasant topic on which to dwell.  That has to do with the fact that the story revolves around perceived betrayal, abandonment, misrepresentation, and the brutal execution of Jesus.  Not much joy to be found this week.

So why celebrate it?

It goes back to the role of Holy Week.  Beginning with Palm Sunday, we follow the story of Jesus' last week as he heads to the cross.  But if one jumps from Palm Sunday to Easter, we have a happy celebration (revolving around the Triumphal Entry) that is followed by another one on Easter.  To go from celebration to celebration is to miss a key tenant of the Gospel stories: to get to Easter involves a mournful road.  Or, as I have heard it, to get to Easter, one has to go to the cross and into the grave.
I invite you to come and be a part of this Holy Week as we worship and come together to remember the difficulty of Jesus' journey to the cross.

Holy Thursday service: 6:30 Thursday evening.
Good Friday service:  6:30 Friday evening.

Then, please plan to join us for the celebration for the most Holy day in the Christian tradition: Easter Sunday.
Sunrise service: 7am at Harrison Cemetery
Sunday service: 10:55

Join us for the larger journey that is Holy Week as it leads us to the celebration of Easter.

Grace and peace.
- Pastor Charles

Lent is Upon Us

Ash Wednesday (February 18th) is the beginning of the Lenten Season which concludes on Easter Sunday (which begins the Easter Season).  Lent is a season for reflection, retrospection, and transformation.  It is the season where we take time to re-evaluate the level of commitment we truly have towards following Jesus.

For many, Lent is a difficult season due to the fact that it seems so gloomy, so earthen.  It is not a triumphant season in the same way Advent, Christmas, or Easter and Pentecost are.  J.C.J. Metford describes Lent this way: “A season of prayer, penance and self-discipline, beginning on the Wednesday of the seventh week before Easter, precedes the joyful celebration of Christ’s victory over death.”[1]  We Christians can so quickly fall into the trap of triumphalism, the idea we are somehow so far superior to everyone else that we forget to remember Jesus’ call to follow him and the prophetic instruction to walk with God in humility.  Lent is the time that pulls us back to earth and asks us to consider if we are truly walking with Jesus or merely taking the name of Jesus with us and little else.

One of the ways by which many Christians observe the Lenten season is to give something up - usually a vice of some sort: smoking, overeating, chocolate, etc.  But the idea behind that particular Lenten observation has become a bit watered down.  It wasn't that you gave something up (which people usually took back up once Easter arrived), but that when you gave something up you also took something else up in its place - specifically some kind of spiritual discipline that would draw you into a deeper relationship with God.  So if you give something up, you might take upon yourself the practice of a morning/daily devotion time.  You might work to develop a prayer life.  You might seek to be in the community of believers more frequently.

The point is that the time of Lent is one for growth.  It is my hope that you will take this time to do just that and, as the old hymn said, draw into a closer walk with Thee.  

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Charles

---

[1]  Metford, J.C.J The Christian Year p. 42

A February Stewardship Emphasis

Most of the time churches utilize September to focus on a stewardship emphasis, a pledge drive, or a financial campaign.  For some churches you can go ahead and mark your calendar by that fact.

Unfortunately, what that does is create an association between the words "stewardship" and "money."  Granted, there is a financial component to stewardship, but stewardship shouldn't be understood simply as asking for or setting aside money.

So what we wanted to do this month is focus on stewardship by demonstrating what our stewardship means as individuals and as a church.  To do that we will be having some special guests with us this month to demonstrate how much stewardship matters.

The 8th we will be having our Scout Sunday, which isn't unique to our church.  However, our Scouting program (Boys and Girls) is HUGE!  If you don't believe me, just come by the church on Monday and Tuesday nights.  The point is our stewardship makes a difference for them.  We provide financial assistance, sure.  But we also provide space for these groups to meet.  By being good stewards of our property, we can provide a gift of place to these groups.

On the 15th we will be hosting the choir from Tennessee Wesleyan College and hearing from the TWC chaplain, Dr. Chris Dover.  You may not realize it, but part of our offering goes to our conference colleges.  We help provide scholarships for students we may never meet, and that changes their lives.

And on the 22nd, Don Washburn from Camp Lookout will be with us to share the amazing ministries that take place at the camp.  It truly is a place that makes a difference in so many lives in so many ways - and our financial gifts, our time, and our dedication to support them goes to show just how much our stewardship matters!

Stewardship is more than that, though.  It is a dedication to utilize our resources to the best of our ability.  From keeping the lights on to sending mission teams out, stewardship takes all kinds of forms.  So come and be with us as we spend February seeing just how vast and varied stewardship really is - and how each of us can make a big difference in our church, our community, and in the lives of others.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Charles