Abandoning Christ’s Gospel

By John MacArthur

“The call to Calvary must be recognized for what it is: a call to discipleship under the lordship of Jesus Christ.”

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Listen to today’s typical gospel presentation. You will hear sinners entreated with such phrases as “accept Jesus Christ as personal Savior”; “ask Jesus into your heart”; “invite Christ into your life”; or “make a decision for Christ.” You may be so accustomed to hearing those phrases that it will surprise you to learn that none of them is based on biblical terminology. They are the products of a diluted gospel. It is not the gospel according to Jesus.
The gospel Jesus proclaimed was a call to discipleship, a call to follow Him in submissive obedience, not just a plea to make a decision or pray a prayer. Jesus’ message liberated people from the bondage of their sin while it confronted and condemned hypocrisy. It was an offer of eternal life and forgiveness for repentant sinners, but at the same time it was a rebuke to outwardly religious people whose lives were devoid of true righteousness. It put sinners on notice that they must turn from sin and embrace God’s righteousness. It was in every sense good news, yet it was anything but easy-believism.
Our Lord’s words about eternal life were invariably accompanied by warnings to those who might be tempted to take salvation lightly. He taught that the cost of following Him is high, that the way is narrow and few find it. He said many who call Him Lord will be forbidden from entering the kingdom of heaven (cf. Matthew 7:13–23).
Present-day evangelicalism, by and large, ignores those warnings. The prevailing view of what constitutes saving faith continues to grow broader and more shallow, while the portrayal of Christ in preaching and witnessing becomes fuzzy. Anyone who claims to be a Christian can find evangelicals willing to accept a profession of faith, whether or not the person’s behavior shows any evidence of commitment to Christ.
Proof of Spiritual Life
One segment of evangelicalism even propounds the doctrine that conversion to Christ involves “no spiritual commitment whatsoever.” ^[1] Those who hold this view of the gospel teach that Scripture promises salvation to anyone who simply believes the facts about Christ and claims eternal life. There need be no turning from sin, no resulting change in lifestyle, no commitment—not even a willingness to yield to Christ’s lordship. Those things, they say, amount to human works, which corrupt grace and have nothing to do with faith.
The fallout of such thinking is a deficient doctrine of salvation. It is justification without sanctification, and its impact on the church has been catastrophic. The community of professing believers is populated with people who have bought into a system that encourages shallow and ineffectual faith. Many sincerely believe they are saved, but their lives are utterly barren of any verifying fruit.
Jesus gave this sobering warning:
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:21–23, emphasis added).
Clearly no past experience—not even prophesying, casting out demons, or doing signs and wonders—can be viewed as evidence of salvation apart from a life of obedience.
Our Lord was not speaking about an isolated group of fringe followers. There will be “many” on that day who will stand before Him, stunned to learn they are not included in the kingdom. I fear that multitudes who now fill church pews in the mainstream of the evangelical movement will be among those turned away because they did not do the will of the Father.
Contemporary Christians have been conditioned to believe that because they recited a prayer, signed on a dotted line, walked an aisle or had some other experience, they are saved and should never question their salvation. I have attended evangelism training seminars where counselors were taught to tell “converts” that any doubt about their salvation is satanic and should be dismissed. It is a widely held misconception that anyone who questions whether he or she is saved is challenging the integrity of God’s Word.
What misguided thinking that is! Scripture encourages us to examine ourselves to determine if we are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). Peter wrote, “Be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you” (2 Peter 1:10). It is right to examine our lives and evaluate the fruit we bear, for “each tree is known by its own fruit” (Luke 6:44).
The Bible teaches clearly that the evidence of God’s work in a life is the inevitable fruit of transformed behavior (1 John 3:10). Faith that does not result in righteous living is dead and cannot save (James 2:14–17). Professing Christians utterly lacking the fruit of true righteousness will find no biblical basis for assurance of salvation (1 John 2:4).
Real salvation is not only justification. It cannot be isolated from regeneration, sanctification and ultimately glorification. Salvation is the work of God through which we are “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29; cf. 13:11). Genuine assurance comes from seeing the Holy Spirit’s transforming work in one’s life, not from clinging to the memory of some experience.
Wrongly Dividing the Word
Yet there are those who would have us believe that the norm for salvation is to accept Jesus as Savior without submitting to Him as Lord. They make the incredible claim that any other teaching amounts to a false gospel “because it subtly adds works to the clear and simple condition set forth in the Word of God.” ^[2] They have tagged the view they oppose “lordship salvation.”
Lordship salvation, defined by one who labels it heresy, is “the view that for salvation a person must trust Jesus Christ as his Savior from sin and must also commit himself to Christ as Lord of his life, submitting to His sovereign authority.” ^[3]
It is astonishing that anyone would characterize that truth as unbiblical or heretical, but a growing chorus of voices is echoing the charge. The implication is that acknowledging Christ’s lordship is a human work. That mistaken notion is backed by volumes of literature that speaks of people “making Jesus Christ Lord of their lives.” ^[4]
We do not “make” Christ Lord; He is Lord! Those who will not receive Him as Lord are guilty of rejecting Him. “Faith” that rejects His sovereign authority is really unbelief. Conversely, acknowledging His lordship is no more a human work than repentance (cf. 2 Timothy 2:25) or faith itself (cf. Ephesians 2:8–9). In fact, surrender to Christ is an important aspect of divinely produced saving faith, not something added to faith.
The two clearest statements on the way of salvation in all of Scripture both emphasize Jesus’ lordship: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31); and “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Peter’s sermon at Pentecost concluded with this declaration: “Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36, emphasis added). No promise of salvation is ever extended to those who refuse to accede to Christ’s lordship. Thus there is no salvation except “lordship” salvation.
Opponents of lordship salvation have gone to great lengths to make the claim that “Lord” in those verses does not mean “Master” but is a reference to His deity. ^[5] Even if that contention is granted, it simply affirms that those who come to Christ for salvation must acknowledge that He is God. The implications of that are even more demanding than if “Lord” only meant “Master”!
The fact is, “Lord” does mean “God” in all those verses. More precisely, it means “God who rules,” and that only bolsters the arguments for lordship salvation. No one who comes for salvation with genuine faith, sincerely believing that Jesus is the eternal, almighty, sovereign God, will willfully reject His authority. True faith is not lip service. Our Lord Himself pronounced condemnation on those who worshiped Him with their lips but not with their lives (Matthew 15:7–9). He does not become anyone’s Savior until that person receives Him for who He is—Lord of all (Acts 10:36).
A.W. Tozer said:
The Lord will not save those whom He cannot command. He will not divide His offices. You cannot believe on a half-Christ. We take Him for what He is—the anointed Saviour and Lord who is King of kings and Lord of all lords! He would not be Who He is if He saved us and called us and chose us without the understanding that He can also guide and control our lives. ^[6]
Faith and True Discipleship
Those who teach that obedience and submission are extraneous to saving faith are forced to make a firm but unbiblical distinction between salvation and discipleship. This dichotomy, like that of the carnal/spiritual Christian, sets up two classes of Christians: believers only and true disciples. Most who hold this position discard the evangelistic intent of virtually every recorded invitation of Jesus, saying those apply to discipleship, not to salvation. ^[7] One writer says of this view, “No distinction is more vital to theology, more basic to a correct understanding of the New Testament, or more relevant to every believer’s life and witness.” ^[8]
On the contrary, no distinction has done so much to undermine the authority of Jesus’ message. Are we to believe that when Jesus told the multitudes to deny themselves (Luke 14:26), to take up a cross (v. 27), and to forsake all and follow Him (v. 33), His words had no meaning whatsoever for the unsaved people in the crowd? How could that be true of One who said He came not to call the righteous but sinners (Matthew 9:13)?
James M. Boice, in his book Christ’s Call to Discipleship, writes with insight about the salvation/discipleship dichotomy, which he frankly describes as “defective theology”:
This theology separates faith from discipleship and grace from obedience. It teaches that Jesus can be received as one’s Savior without being received as one’s Lord.
This is a common defect in times of prosperity. In days of hardship, particularly persecution, those who are in the process of becoming Christians count the cost of discipleship carefully before taking up the cross of the Nazarene. Preachers do not beguile them with false promises of an easy life or indulgence of sins. But in good times, the cost does not seem so high, and people take the name of Christ without undergoing the radical transformation of life that true conversion implies. ^[9]
The call to Calvary must be recognized for what it is: a call to discipleship under the lordship of Jesus Christ. To respond to that call is to become a believer. Anything less is simply unbelief.
The gospel according to Jesus explicitly and unequivocally rules out easy-believism. To make all of our Lord’s difficult demands apply only to a higher class of Christians blunts the force of His entire message. It makes room for a cheap and meaningless faith—a faith that has absolutely no effect on the fleshly life of sin. That is not saving faith.

Fifteen Smart Things to Do During Your First Year in Ministry

By Jim Wideman

“This advice applies whether you’re launching a ministry from scratch or you’re the new children’s pastor at a church of 2,000-plus.”

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It’s your first day on staff as children’s pastor at a new church. The senior pastor has introduced you to the staff, donuts from your first day welcome party have been reduced to crumbs in the bottom of an empty box, and you’re sitting alone in your office. Now what? How you handle the next few months will have a tremendous impact on the remainder of your ministry. Let’s make sure you get off on the right foot. By the way, this advice applies whether you’re launching a ministry from scratch or you’re the new children’s pastor at a church of 2,000-plus.
1. First, do nothing.
Spend a few months not changing anything that’s currently in place. Use the time to find out what’s been done in the past. Ask lots of questions. Observe carefully. You need to understand exactly how the pastor, parents, kids and current volunteers define a “great” children’s ministry. It’s likely that their definition won’t be in complete agreement, but everyone will assume your definition of “great” matches his or her own.
2. Now fix something—but something small.
Find one small problem and fix it. Don’t tackle anything big yet; nobody knows you well enough to trust you, and you may create a bigger problem than you solve. Find something—anything—that makes life a little better for your kids, teachers or kids’ families. You want people to realize that you’re actually good for the organization and worth listening to.
3. Connect with your leader.
When you go into a church to serve as children’s pastor, decide you’ll be committed to and support your senior pastor. I believe every church staff member should give the senior pastor what the leader wants. We need to all be working toward the same goal. When you come into a church, ask yourself, “What can God teach me through this pastor?” Your teachable attitude will allow you to do significant ministry and also grow spiritually.
4. Figure out where you are.
Once you understand the pastor’s vision for the children ministry, see if you have the resources you need to meet it. Is the correct leadership in place? Do you have the right tools—the curriculum, furniture and rooms? Summarize on paper how you view your current ministry situation. Summarize where you think the ministry should go, too, and share what you’ve written with your senior pastor. This is your pastor’s chance to fine-tune your direction before you set out and make changes.
5. Join the team.
Go to lunch with other people on your church staff, one at a time. Ask what’s important to them.  Hear their heartbeat for ministry. Remember that even if the youth group consistently leaves the room you share in chaos, you and the youth pastor are on the same ministry team. Next year you’ll be releasing some of your children into the care of that youth pastor. Esteem that pastor and offer your support. If we want others to respect us, we need to respect them. That means respecting everyone on your team. Don’t fall into the “Us versus Them” trap. “We’re all on the same team.”
6. Determine where you’re going.
Set goal areas of your children’s ministry. What do the kids in the nursery need? The preschoolers? Be specific. Here’s a great exercise to help you develop goals: Ask yourself what you want children to do when they’re adults. Make a list. You want them to know Jesus? Write it down. Want them to have a servant’s heart? Write it down. Want them to be givers? Put it on the list. Now you become those things, and put people who do those things in front of children. Teach children what God’s word says about those things, and model what living it looks like. Let your ministry be a place where children see what God wants them to become and where they can practice serving, giving and being faithful. People follow people with a plan. If you haven’t developed a plan in your first three months to get from where you are to where you’re going, people aren’t going to follow you.
7. Communicate with the right people.
Most children’s pastors spend 90 percent of their time working on communicating with kids. That’s great, but you need to communicate with other audiences, too. Create a newsletter that tells parents what you’re teaching and what’s on the schedule. Since you can’t assume that “take-home papers make it home, you have to communicate by snail mail, email or even a worker webpage. Look for ways to keep information flowing to your team also remember to communicate upward.
8. Update job descriptions.
Everyone needs a job description. I like to give every volunteer his or her job description, plus everyone else’s job description. When volunteers know where they fit, everyone does better. Write your own job description first, and submit it to the senior pastor for tweaking. Then write everyone else’s description. When your job description aligns with the pastor’s vision, and the other job descriptions align with yours, you’re all on the same page.
9. Build a team.
We say team building is important. We even believe it. So why don’t we do it? If you don’t allow others to learn by doing—coaching and encouraging them as they go—there’s no way you’ll build a team. See yourself as a coach and a mentor whether you have a team of 200 or a volunteer staff of two. Delegation is good: It’s letting someone represent you in accomplishing tasks and duties. You need that. But even better than delegation is duplication: creating an exact copy of an original. When you instill your heart and passion in another children’s worker, you’ve gone beyond just delegation and actually duplicated yourself.
10. Be visible in worship.
It’s important for your own spiritual life that you be in worship. It’s also important for your own spiritual life that you be a worshipper. Your actions set an expectation that every children’s ministry volunteer should be growing in his or her faith. Sit right down front, and be visible as a cheerleader for the church, not just for your own ministry.
11. Use the church calendar.
Make sure your church office has a central, master calendar and use it. Staying coordinated with other ministries avoids facility conflicts. It also increases participation in children’s ministry because families don’t have to choose between conflicting meetings.
12. Tend to the budget.
Find out how budgets are done, by whom, when and what the approval process is. Become an expert in the process before you have to produce an annual budget. You can accomplish more with money than without it, so don’t be shy about figuring out how to ask for money. To create a budget, ask yourself what you want to accomplish in the lives of your kids. Then develop on paper a ministry that meets those goals. Price the programs and total them up. That’s the budget you’ll ask for.
13. Shelve the great program you did in your last church. 
The program that went well in your last church may not meet the needs of children in your new church. Always start by identifying needs and then finding a program or curriculum that addresses those needs.
14. Be creative and open to change.
Creative people are open to new ideas. They put things together in innovative ways. They tweak and twist and rearrange stuff. And they don’t accept the first solution offered just because it’s the easiest. That tiny change you wanted to make in your first few weeks may just be adding some direction signs so that people can find their way from one place to another. A small change, but a huge difference.
15. Do the job only you can do.
The first priority for any children’s pastor is to work on leadership skills. We have to be problem solvers, encouragers, cheerleaders, coaches. You simply cannot spend all your time in classrooms with kids. Ask the Lord if you’re more valuable to your pastor being a leader of leaders and a problem solver than as a teacher of kids. There are other people who can teach kids, but you may be the only one who can do your role.
This might not seem like a full year’s worth of things to do, but believe me, these 15 things will keep you busy. It’s not easy doing all 15 of these at the same time. Some will be easier to accomplish than others. The key is to remember this first year is all about relationships. One of the best words of advise I could give a person in a new position or church would be to remember that ministry is a marathon, it is not a sprint. Don’t try to do everything that needs to be done all at one time. It’s also important to remember that your family also needs you. They are new too. They’ll make the needed adjustments they need to make if they have you leading them. Don’t be an absentee parent. Be the leader at home as well as at the church. 

7 Healthy Ways to Resolve Conflict at Church or Work

By Carey Nieuwhof

Rather than let conflict linger, address it. The stakes are simply too high.

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So you’re dealing with a conflict and you’re feeling some tension with someone you work with or serve with at church.
Join the club.
But rather than let it linger, address it. The stakes are simply too high.
I’m increasingly convinced many churches simply don’t grow because they suffer from conflict and that many teams never thrive because there’s simply too much tension.
What do you do?
Well, first realize you’re not alone. In the United States, 70 percent of the people who go to work today will tell you they don’t like their jobs.
So many people I know get frustrated at work. And one of the top frustrations?
The people they work with.
Conflict happens wherever people gather: in families, in churches, at work and in their communities.
I think Christians often struggle with conflict because:
In the name of grace, we feel we need to sacrifice truth.
When we speak truth, we often don’t know how to speak it with grace.
We worry about hurting other people’s feelings when one of the best things we can do is offer honest feedback.
We’re not sure how to support someone we genuinely disagree with.
None of that needs to be.
I have learned, through trial and error, that these seven strategies below can help me deal with conflict.
I hope they can help you.
Here are seven ways that I hope can help you resolve conflict:

1. Own your part of the conflict

Conflict and even bad chemistry is almost never 100 percent one person’s fault.
Thinking you’re not part of the problem is often the problem.
One of the best expressions I’ve heard of how to figure out the extent to which you might be part of the problem is to ask a compelling question: What’s it like to be on the other side of me?
Jeff Henderson asked that question in a great series at North Point Church called Climate Change.
Own what you can. What is it like to be on the other side of you? Ask some people.

2. Go direct 

Often issues are mishandled because we talk about someone rather than to someone.
Your co-worker at the water cooler isn’t the problem, so why talk to him about it?
Jesus was crystal clear on how to handle conflict, but very few Christians follow his practice. In the name of being ‘nice’ (“I can’t tell her that!”), we become ineffective.
Talk to the person you have the problem with. Directly. If you haven’t got the courage to do it, maybe the problem isn’t even big enough to worry about.

3. Believe the best about others

It’s easy to assign bad motives to people. Instead, give them the benefit of the doubt.  They might not realize how they are coming across. Believe the best about others; don’t assume the worst.
Believing the best can help you address an issue directly without ruining the relationship. It can turn hurtful into helpful. Here’s an example: “Rachel, you might not realize this, but sometimes your emails can come across as demanding or even demeaning. I’m not sure you’re aware of that, but I just wanted to let you know how they leave me feeling sometimes. I know you probably don’t mean to do that.”
That gives the person an out, and frankly, many times, they probably had no idea they were coming across negatively.
When you believe the best about others, you tend to get the best from others.

4. Explain—don’t blame

How to talk to the person you’re struggling with is where many people struggle.
And those conversations often go sideways because people begin with blame. Don’t blame. Explain. Instead of saying “You always” or “You never” (which might be how you feel like starting), begin by talking about how you experience them.
If you’re dealing with an ‘angry person’ for example, you might frame it this way: “Jake, I just want you to know that when you get upset in a meeting, it makes me feel like the discussion is over and I can’t make a contribution.”
If you’re dealing with gossip, try something like:  “Ryan, on Tuesday when you told me what happened to Greg on the weekend, I felt like that was something Greg should have told me directly.”
Do you hear the difference between explaining and blaming?
Blaming others is a guarantee that the only person who won’t grow is you.

5. Be specific 

Giving one or two specific incidents is much better than making general accusations or commenting on personality traits. “The other day in the meeting” or “In your email on the August numbers yesterday” is much more helpful than “You just always seem so frustrated.”
The more specific you are, the more you de-escalate conflict and move toward a hopeful ending.

6. Tell them you want things to get better 

What the person you’re confronting needs is hope.
At this point, they probably feel defensive, ashamed and (hopefully) sorry.
Let them know the gifts they bring to the table and the good they do.
Tell them you are looking forward to the future and want things to work out.

7. Pray for them

I know this sounds trite, but it’s not.
Don’t pray about them. Pray for them.
It is almost impossible to stay angry with someone you pray for.
It can also give you empathy for them, and at least in your mind’s eye, it places you both firmly at the foot of the cross in need of forgiveness. It will take any smirk of superiority out of your attitude, which goes a long way toward solving problems.

What Do You Think?

Do these seven steps always result in a positive outcome? No. But I believe they will resolve the majority of cases in front of you in a very healthy way. At least they have for me. (This approach, by the way, is also effective at home and in most relationships in life.)
I don’t get all seven approaches right every time, but when I practice them, I find that conflict almost always resolves better.
What would you add to the list? What’s worked for you?

Why Christians Should Let Non-Christians Off the Moral Hook

By Carey Nieuwhof

“If you want to keep being ineffective at reaching unchurched people, keep judging them.”

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I feel like I need to get something off my chest.
It bothers me that Christians continually express shock, disapproval and judgment at the way non-Christians live.
You’ve seen it, and maybe even done it:
Doesn’t anyone believe in marriage anymore?
I can’t get over how many people today smoke weed.
Can you believe they just sleep in instead of coming to church?
Did you hear they moved in together? That’s so bad!
What’s wrong with our government? Why don’t they uphold biblical values?
Whenever I hear that, I feel like saying, “Do you seriously expect non-Christians to behave like Christians?”
Think it through.
Most people in the West no longer consider themselves Christian.
Or even if they use the term “Christian” to describe themselves, few believe in the authority of scripture or profess a personal faith in Jesus Christ.
So why would we expect them to behave like Christians? Why would we expect people who don’t profess to be Christians to:
Wait until marriage to have sex?
Clean up their language?
Be celibate when they’re attracted to people of the same sex?
Pass laws like the entire nation was Christian?
Seriously? Why?
They’re not pretending to be Christians. Why would they adopt Christian values or morals?
Please don’t get me wrong.
I’m a pastor. I completely believe that the Jesus is not only the Way, but that God’s way is the best way.
When you follow biblical teachings about how to live life, your life simply goes better. It just does. I 100 percent agree.
I do everything I personally can to align my life with the teachings of scripture, and I’m passionate about helping every follower of Christ do the same.

But what’s the logic behind judging people who don’t follow Jesus for behaving like people who don’t follow Jesus?
Why would you hold the world to the same standard you hold the church?
Before you judge a non-Christian for behaving like a non-Christian, think about this:

1. They act more consistently with their value system than you do.

It’s difficult for a non-Christian to be a hypocrite because they tend to live out what they believe.
Chances are they are better at living out their values than you or I are.
Jesus never blamed pagans for acting like pagans.
But he did speak out against religious people for acting hypocritically.

2. Your disapproval is destroying the relationship (if you have even have a relationship in the first place).

Some of the most judgmental Christians have zero non-Christian friends. Is that a surprise, really?
I mean, on a human level, how many people have you made time for this week that you know disapprove of who you are and the way you live?
Exactly.

3. Judgment is a terrible evangelism strategy

People don’t line up to be judged.
If you want to keep being ineffective at reaching unchurched people, keep judging them.

4. Judging outsiders is un-Christian

Paul told us to stop judging people outside the church. Jesus said God will judge us by the same standard with which we judge others.
Paul also reminds us to drop the uppity attitude; that none of us was saved by the good we did but by grace.
So what can you do?

1. Stop judging non-Christians. Start loving them.

Very few people have been judged into life-change. Many have been loved into it.

2. Empathize with non-Christians.

Ask yourself, “If I wasn’t a Christian, what would I be doing?” Chances are, you might be doing exactly what the non-Christians in your neighborhood are doing.
Understanding that and empathizing with that completely changes how you see people. And they can tell how you see them.

3. Hang out with non-Christians.

Jesus did. And caught plenty of disapproval for it. I have a friend who continually drops f-bombs in my presence.
As much as it bothers me, I never correct him (he’s not a kid, he’s my peer). But I do pray for him every day and we talk about my faith.
I pray I see the day when he’s baptized.

4. Pray for unchurched people.

How many unchurched people do you pray for daily? How many people you disagree with do you pray for daily?
It is impossible to hate someone you genuinely pray for daily.

5. Live out your faith authentically.

Your actions carry weight. Humility is far more attractive than pride. When a non-Christian sees integrity, it’s compelling.
I just have a feeling if we in the church loved the world the way Jesus did, the world might come running to Christ.
And then the change we long to see might actually begin to happen.
What do you think? Scroll down and leave a comment. 🙂

Want Practical Help?

If you want more on how your church can relate to a constantly changing culture, I wrote about it in my new book, Lasting Impact: 7 Powerful Conversations That Can Help Your Church Grow. 

JOHANN GOTTLIEB SCHWARZ

JOHANN GOTTLIEB SCHWARZ

Johann Gottlieb Schwarz lahir pada tanggal 21 April 1800 di Konigsbergen (Jerman Timur). Pada awal tahun 1821, ia membaca berita mengenai penginjilan Barenburg di tengah mayoritas agama lain. Berita inilah yang menimbulkan cita-cita Johann untuk terjun ke ladang penginjilan. Ia berdoa agar diberi kekuatan menggenapkan rencananya.

Pada tahun itu juga ia mendengar tentang pembukaan suatu "Zendeling Institut" untuk mendidik pendeta-penginjil di Berlin. Keinginannya untuk bergabung ke Zendeling Institut membawa dia ke Berlin pada tanggal 31 Agustus 1821 dan sementara menunggu pembukaan Zendeling Institut pada tanggal 1 Mei 1822, ia bekerja sebagai tukang sepatu. Di sinilah, ia bertemu dengan Johann Frederik Riedel yang akan menjadi teman penginjilannya kelak. Mereka belajar sampai tahun 1825. Kemudian, Nederlandsche Zendeling Genootschap (NZG) melalui Berlijnse Zendeling Genootschap meminta Johann Gottlieb Schwarz dan Johann Frederik Riedel untuk menjadi penginjil ke tengah masyarakat mayoritas beragama lain, dan hal ini sangat disetujui oleh mereka.

Pada tanggal 12 Januari 1828, ia berangkat ke Rotterdam dan bersama J.F. Riedel, mereka menambah pendidikan sampai 1829. Pada November 1830, mereka bersama dengan Douwes Dekker berangkat ke Indonesia dan sampai di Batavia (Jakarta), kemudian ke Surabaya dan tiba di Ambon 23 November 1830. Di Ambon, ia mempelajari bahasa Melayu, dan dalam waktu singkat melanjutkan perjalanan ke Manado dan tiba di Manado pada tanggal 12 Juni 1931 (sekarang diperingati Gereja Masehi Injili di Minahasa sebagai HUT Perkabaran Injil).

Dari bulan Juni -- Oktober 1831, Schwarz mempelajari bahasa Tombulu, Toulour, Tonsea, dan Tountemboan. Hingga Oktober 1831, ia kembali ke Batavia dan langsung ke Singapura untuk mengambil seluruh keperluan penginjilan, sekolah, dan obat-obatan. Setelah itu, ia langsung kembali dan tiba di Langowan pada tanggal 7 Januari 1832. Di Langowan, ia tidak mendapat rumah sehingga untuk sementara ia tinggal di Kakas. Rumah kediaman Schwarz di Langowan selesai pada bulan Juli 1834, dan di lokasi rumah tersebut dibangun sekarang berdiri SMU Kristen Schwarz Langowan.

Sebelum masuknya agama Kristen, penduduk Langowan sudah beragama. Pada waktu kedatangan Schwarz, tempat berkumpul untuk mengadakan upacara keagamaan penduduk setempat adalah lokasi di mana sekarang berdiri gedung gereja GMIM Schwarz Sentrum Langowan. Dahulu, di situ terdapat sebuah pohon besar yang dalam bahasa Tountemboan disebut Wates yang daunnya lebat dan pada batangnya terdapat lobang besar yang dalam bahasa Tountemboan disebut rangowa. Pohon ini dianggap keramat karena tempat ini menjadi tempat pasoringan -- tempat memanggil dan mendengarkan bunyi burung Wala oleh Walian dan Tona’as (pemimpin-pemimpin pemerintahan).

Pada waktu itu, daerah Langowan belum memiliki nama yang spesifik, dan berawal dari Schwarz-lah nama "Langowan" pertama kali digunakan. Karena bagi orang Eropa seperti Schwarz adalah sulit bagi lidahnya untuk mengucapkan kata "rangow", dan huruf "R" yang diucapkannya menjadi huruf "L" sehingga "rangow" menjadi "Langow". Jadilah "Langowan" disahkan menjadi nama daerah Langowan hingga sekarang.

Awalnya, Schwarz sulit mengadakan kontak dengan penduduk karena ia masih kaku menggunakan bahasa-bahasa penduduk. Maklumlah bahwa peranan bahasa itu penting dalam kontak pergaulan terutama bagi penyebaran agama. Suatu cara dari Schwarz yang selalu ditempuhnya dalam menghadapi kesulitan-kesulitan ini, yaitu memberikan obat-obat malaria, demam, obat-obat luka, dan lain-lain, yang dapat menolong orang-orang sakit sebagai penentang mantra dari para Walian.

Banyaklah yang sadar atas kegunaan dari obat-obat yang diberikannya, yang oleh Schwarz hal ini dijelaskan sebagai pertolongan dari Tuhan. Akan tetapi, ada juga yang setelah sembuh kembali menyembah agama alifuru. Walaupun demikian, Schwarz tabah menghadapi semua ini sekalipun memerlukan waktu yang lama asal tujuan dapat tercapai, yakni dapat memberitakan Injil kepada penduduk setempat.

Diambil dari:
Nama situs: STEMI PEMUDA
Alamat URL: http://pemuda.stemi.id/article/johann-gottlieb-schwarz
Judul artikel: Injil di Minahasa
Penulis artikel: -
Tanggal akses: 11 Maret 2016


POKOK DOA

1. Doakan bagi jemaat gereja GMIM Schwarz Sentrum Langowan supaya mereka memiliki kerinduan untuk bermisi dan mengabarkan Injil seperti yang dilakukan Schwarz.

2. Doakan bagi para pelajar SMU Kristen Schwarz Langowan supaya mereka tetap memiliki semangat seperti Schwarz dan meneladani perjuangannya.

3. Doakan bagi orang-orang yang melayani di bidang misi supaya mereka mempunyai hati yang tabah di dalam Tuhan ketika menghadapi berbagai pencobaan.

How to Overcome a Shattered Past

By Kurt Bubna

“Let go of the things you can’t change about your past, and trust God with your present and your future.”

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We tend to see God through our shattered perspective, and that’s a big problem. With a severely damaged self-image, we generally have a broken God-image too. In fact, let’s be honest; some of us believe God is great and all-powerful, but we can’t imagine Him doing anything astonishing through our lives. We sing worship songs about His awesomeness, but we believe God is limited in what He can do with screw-ups like us.
A huge part of the dilemma is that we like to create gods in our own image. We make gods out of the rich and famous. We elevate leaders (including politicians and pastors) to god-like status. We put them on a pedestal somewhere prominent in our lives, but in the end it’s a puny little god we’ve made to worship rather than Almighty God. Here’s the problem: If our God is too tiny or too human (like us), then our faith and confidence in Him will be too small.
Deep down we want to believe that God can do anything, but we’re pretty sure He has limits when it comes to us. Time or space might not constrain God, but a craftsman is only as good as the material he has to work with, right? And we know what we are.
More mud than marble.
More sandstone than diamond.
More broken than whole.
I’m not a big fan of self-confidence. Despite what the positive thinking gurus have to say, I’m not OK (and neither are you). I can sit in a lotus position for hours chanting, “I am good. I am awesome. My life force in the universe matters.” But in my gut I know I’m not that good. In fact, I’m pretty messed up at times.
So what’s the alternative to emotional self-flogging? The substitute for self-confidence is God-confidence. (Stop and read that line again.) In other words, it’s not about me. So I put my confidence and hope in God and His ability to accomplish anything through a cracked pot like me.
The god I’ve created in my mind has limits.
The God of the universe does not.
I am broken.
He is not.
In fact, working with people who typically are relegated to the scratch-and-dent pile of life is God’s specialty.
Many of us feel we’ve gone too far and failed too miserably to ever get back on track. Even if God once had a great plan for our lives, we believe it’s too late now. But avoiding epic failure is not a prerequisite to experiencing an epic life.
Moses was a murderer. David was an adulterer. Rahab was a prostitute. Peter was a betrayer. Saul (aka: Paul) persecuted and imprisoned Christians. Yet each of them lived amazingly epic lives when they followed God.
We’re all in trouble if the path to adventure in Christ requires perfection. We must learn to get past what we’ve done and get beyond our glaring inadequacies. God is bigger than our foolishness.
Perhaps you often drift in your mind to some horrendous past sin you’ve committed. Possibly you’re devoured by your failure and overwhelmed by your foolishness. Maybe the misery of yesterday and the emptiness of today have stolen from you any joy or hope for a better tomorrow.
If that’s you, please listen to these words: God knows where you’ve been, where you are and where He will take you. He knows your past, present and future better than you do, but He sees a sunrise of hope on your horizon.
How do you overcome a shattered and sinful past?
You simply confess your sin and rest in God’s goodness and grace. You truly can be free and forgiven because of Jesus. Let go of the things you can’t change about your past, and trust God with your present and your future. He is able to redeem, restore and renew any life that is fully surrendered to Him.
There’s a reason why they call it amazing grace.

Born This Way

By Jon Bloom

Provided by

“There is a better way to live than the way we were born.”

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Lady Gaga (Stefani Germanotta) speaks for millions in her song “Born This Way,” when she declares,
I’m beautiful in my way,
‘Cause God makes no mistakes
I’m on the right track, baby
I was born this way (Streamline/Interscope/KonLive, 2011)
The song is a hodgepodge of pluralistic affirmations, but its dominant message is unmistakably sexual, which Gaga’s music video makes explicitly clear (viewer discretion strongly advised):
No matter gay, straight, or bi
Lesbian, transgendered life
I’m on the right track, baby
I was born to survive
“Born This Way” is a pop anthem of Western culture, a musical declaration of sexual independence. But it is not revolutionary, like Queen’s “We Will Rock You” or “We Are the Champions” from a generation ago. Gaga (a name inspired by Queen’s “Radio Gaga”) is singing a mainstream manifesto, a dominant cultural belief about self-identity: I am my sexuality (my sexual desires and self-determined gender identity), I am beautiful, and I was born this way.
As Christians, how do we respond? This question is crucial. And for many of us it is not abstract, but personally painful. For not only do we live daily engaged in a war of resistance against our own sexual brokenness, but people very precious to us have anguished and struggled over disordered sexual orientations and desires and, not seeing change, have embraced this manifesto. And in our biblical convictions they often hear an unloving rejection of who they believe they are as persons. What do we say to them?

A Loving Affirmation of True Personhood

The first thing we say without hesitancy is that we really do love them deeply. And God, who is love, also loves them deeply—deeper than they (or we) comprehend (1 John 4:8; John 3:16).
And we do love them for who they really are as persons. But who they are fundamentally is something far greater than their sexual experience, as prominent and at times dominant as that can feel. They are glorious creatures uniquely made in God’s image as males and females (Genesis 1:26–27).
Though Christians are accused of holding bigoted and inhumane beliefs about sexuality, this is not true. Our view of sexuality is rooted not in fear or self-righteous prudery. It is rooted in our high view of human dignity as God’s image-bearers. That’s why we do not believe that sexuality defines humanity, nor do we believe humanity defines sexuality. Being human, and thus made in the likeness of God, is so noble a thing that God alone reserves the right to confer the definition of our true personhood. We do not say with Lady Gaga, “I’m beautiful in my way.” We say, “I am beautiful in God’s way.” To the degree that we abandon God’s way, we abandon our beauty.

We Were Born Broken

This then leads us to say something about our personhood that is not beautiful: We are broken image-bearers. There is a profound truth in the statement, “I was born this way,” but not in the sense that Lady Gaga means. In myriad ways, we were all born broken (Romans 1:29–31). We are not “on the right track, baby,” we are off the tracks.
Our sexuality is a particular witness against us that something is wrong with us (Romans 1:26–27). We all know this (Romans 1:32). The spectrum of human sexual brokenness is broad, covering almost everything imaginable, even if unspeakable, since almost everything that can be sexually imagined, experienced and practiced beyond God’s design has been imagined, experienced and practiced by people since times ancient. That’s why the sexual prohibitions cataloged in Leviticus 18 are so specific: They were the (often literally) familiar sexual practices of the peoples of Canaan (Leviticus 18:24). And this list is not exhaustive. Some things simply shouldn’t be said (Ephesians 5:12).
But they are said. And done. We are reminded daily that all the sexual practices in times ancient are practiced today. This sexual brokenness is not beautiful. Our brokenness is not beautiful and none of our manifestos can make it so. Calling our brokenness wholeness does not make it whole. It only affirms the disintegration of our true personhood.
For our brokenness is part of the curse from the fall and fueled by our indwelling sin (Genesis 3:16–19). Our deepest brokenness is not our defects, but our defiance against God, our desire to be our own god. This sin infects and affects our whole being, making us “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3) who participate in “unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11).
We were born this way: broken. What we need is to be born again (John 3:3).

God Makes No Mistakes

This is where we have abundant hope to offer. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” who came “into the world [not] to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16–17). He came to pay the penalty for our sin, to provide the power for us to once again walk in the freedom of faith in his word, no longer slaves to sin-induced brokenness (Romans 6:17). He came to save us from the way we were born and give us new life.
“God makes no mistakes,” that is true. Not one of us is a mistaken creation (Acts 17:26). But it is a mistake to infer from this, as Lady Gaga does, that all our various sexual inclinations are gifts from God. For that’s not what God says. God makes no mistakes, so we must listen to him.
That is the path of life. That’s what a Christian does: We listen to God the Father who says of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him” (Mark 9:7). And only Jesus has the words of eternal life (John 6:68), the truth that can set us free (John 8:32).
Whoever really wants to be on the right track, whoever wants to be truly beautiful, whoever wants to be born into a “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) must believe in the God who makes no mistakes. We must trust his promises to redeem us and make us happy more than we trust the promises that our sexual preferences, orientations or imaginations make to us.

Better Than the Way We Were Born

Jesus does not promise that if we believe in him all our broken inclinations will disappear in this age (though he promises this in the age to come). But he does promise that if we will deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow him, we will save our lives (Luke 9:23–24).
This was not a popular invitation when it was offered, and it is not popular now. Lady Gaga’s manifesto is. But not all ways that seem right lead to life (Proverbs 14:12).
Though our biblical convictions might sound like unloving rejection to a loved one, they are not. What’s not love is to simply let a loved one gain the world and lose his soul (Luke 9:25). There is a better way to live than the way we were born.