Why I Still Like "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"

It's a story of faith.

Linus believes in the doctrine of The Great Pumpkin, rising from the most sincere pumpkin patch in the world on midnight of Halloween and bringing gifts to its children. We don't know where he got the doctrine. It seems ridiculous; a mish-mash of other childish myths and fables. But, in his innocence, he is sold out on it.

So it's also a story of sincerity.

Though the other children in the Peanuts gallery make fun of him, they cannot doubt his own faith or sincerity. He is persecuted - even by Charlie Brown's little sister Sally, who dotes on him gives up her tricks-or-treats and a party to sit with him in the pumpkin patch - but he doesn't stop believing. Even when The Great Pumpkin just turns out to be an errant Easter Beagle named Snoopy, strayed from a World War I flying ace mission over the French countryside.

And it's a story of redemption.

Crabby older sister Lucy awakens at four in the morning, puts on her hat and coat, and goes out in the cold to fetch in little brother Linus, still shivering and asleep in the pumpkin patch. She pulls off his socks and shoes and tucks him into bed. In my eyes, Lucy is redeemed as a person by her love for her little brother.

Most of the children's fare that's cranked out for holiday broadcast these days is pretty much devoid of themes like these, even if you squint through a microscope at them.

That's why "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" is a classic, still played on network broadcast television two generations later, and that's why I still like to watch it.

But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

The Words We Use

... say a lot about us, and how frequently we use some words is even more revealing: it shows what we talk about, what we are passionate about.

And I became curious a little while ago. I don't have one of those word balloons on my blog that shows - graphically, at least - how often top phrases are used relative to each other. What does my blog talk about? What am I passionate about?

Then I began to wonder what other online sources would look like.

So I Googled, using advanced Google search, to find the incidences of some key words I came up with, out of my own head, as found on the sites Seek The Old Paths, back issues of Gospel Guardian, the NIV New Testament (using Bible Gateway's internal search engine), New Wineskins and this blog. (I think I got the left-to-right-leaning order backwards.)

And this is what resulted:

Keyword	STOP	GG	NIV	NW	Blog
grace	302	514	116	112	440
obey	86	604	57	97	108
obedience	224	48	12	144	71
baptism	101	1,110	22	327	318
baptize	64	208	50	51	37
confess	151	309	20	163	101
condemnation	88	216	6	37	54
condemned	147	493	28	72	60
salvation	121	1,070	40	417	346
cross	210	552	42	628	205
distinctive	48	61	0	60	7
distinctiveness	13	41	0	6	8
doctrine	348	1,190	7	207	156
faith	160	107	286	246	405
sin	96	1,020	436	520	279
music	250	664	3	828	119
sing	170	163	9	303	159
heresy	52	117	0	41	38
spirit	125	100	368	127	106
Christ	230	150	531	297	114
Jesus	210	99	1,276	260	133
God	266	164	1,287	398	131

I realize this is only a measure of how many times, not how, these words were used, and I hope you do, too. I thought about using an equalizing factor and percentages, but the total number of words in the different columns looked close enough to being in the same range that it seemed superfluous.

I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

I'm sure my blog isn't typical. But I will say that as far as emphasizing what scripture emphasizes in our online conversation, we all have a long journey ahead of us.

Distinctiveness

"Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing,and I will receive you." ~ 2 Corinthians 6:17

"I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil." ~ Romans 16:17-19

There is no doctrine of distinctiveness in the Bible.

Not as it has been taught in my fellowship, anyway; there's no scriptural doctrine of distinctiveness that says "We have everything right and any other believer or church which doesn't is apostate and we must have nothing to do with them," and then quotes verses like those above.

Because in the first one, Paul is talking about unbelievers. Not people who believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, crucified and risen and reigning, but disagree with you about some spin you've put on scripture. Unbelievers. He's talking about people who don't believe at all.

The second one is talking about people who are trying to split off and divide and "disfellowship" (another word which - like "distinctiveness" - is not in the Bible). After all, it's the person who draws lines where God hasn't that is divisive; not the one who, perhaps unwittingly, crosses that wholly imaginary line. So to use that scripture as a proof text to justify divisiveness would require one to not associate with himself or herself.

Good luck with that. Sounds kind of schizoid to me.

Distinctiveness from unbelievers, yes. I can see that. (If you have to put an extra-scriptural label on it.) We should be displaying the mind and heart and Spirit and actions of Christ, which will be difficult for unbelievers who do not know or will not accept Him. We do so to win their minds, their hearts, their souls, and their actions to Christ. We do so because we can; because as believers we have the Spirit of Christ. (Romans 8:9-11; Ephesians 1:13).

But not distinctiveness from other believers, even those with whom we disagree - no. Decidedly, NO. Insisting on such "distinctiveness" is not displaying the mind and heart and spirit and actions of Jesus. (And, no, we do not accept as fellow-believers those who live such lives sans shame or confession that they effectively deny a profession of faith in the humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ [Jude 1:4; 1 Corinthians 5:9-11; 1 John 2:18-23].)

Scripture has a word for teaching men's rules as if they were God's, and it is not "distinctiveness" ... it is "vain." (Matthew 15:9; Mark 7:7).

Let's just face facts.

The kind of distinctiveness that separates believers based on the teachings of man but not God is just a way to justify saying, "I'm right and you're wrong. I'm saved and you're not. I'm better than you are." It is arrogance. It is the refuse of male bovines. It is a lie.

You want to know what the truth is, what scripture does say, and what a great equalizer it is - not only of Jews and Gentiles but everyone on any side of any question?

"There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. ... Righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." ~ Romans 3:10, 22-24

None of us has it all right. None of us has done it all right. Not me. Not you. Not anyone. All of us are toast, as far as righteousness goes, but for the grace of God through the sacrifice of Christ.

Now that is doctrine. And we would do well to heed and teach it.

We would do even better to also trust God and not to lean on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).

That's doctrine, too.

The Truth About Halloween

There once was a holiday
that honored God’s saints
that merged with a pagan day –
dread had no restraints.

The Samhain* commemorates;
bad spirits are feared ...
All Hallow's Eve celebrates
His children revered.

How the clean and the unclean
could blend in a mess?
But the truth about Halloween:
It's anyone's guess!

As if what's in our own mind
isn't frightening enough,
in the scriptures you can find
plenty scary stuff.

Though there once was a witch who
called up Samuel’s ghost,
it was what King Saul might do
that scared her the most! ^{[1 Samuel 28]}

There may be many curses
and threats to our cheer,
but in dozens of verses,
our God says, “Don’t fear.” ^{[Isaiah 41:10]}

Of ghouls, vampires and mummies
it can just be said
that, in spite of those dummies,
only God wakes the dead. ^{[Ezekiel 37]}

It’s fun to dress and be seen
in costumes arrayed
But the truth about Halloween?
“Do not be afraid.” ^{[Genesis 15:1]}

It’s exciting with masks on;
it’s fun to know thrill –
but there are evil persons
who hurt and who kill.

So caution has always been
the best trick you’ve got
But the treat about Halloween
is God says, “Fear not.” ^{[Isaiah 43:1]}

Satan, who was prince of the air,
sent evil, no doubt,
to give a child a bad scare -
Jesus threw him out! ^{[Matthew 17]}

Then, that prince-who-had-not-been
nailed Jesus to a tree ...
and the truth about Halloween
was Easter, you see. ^{[Acts 2:24]}

To those who would cause harm
and bring terror near,
God sends this solemn alarm:
"It's Me you should fear." ^{[Matthew 10:28]}

For His children, always seen,
who hold His truth dear,
Here's the truth about Halloween:
“My love casts out fear.” ^{[1 John 4:18]}


<sub>*Pronounced “Sow-win.”

© 2009, W. Keith Brenton</sub>

Solemnity in Worship

It's kind of an oxymoron, really.

I can find no scripture which connects worship exclusively with solemnity. There is grieving worship - the whole of Lamentations, for example; or the 137th Psalm. In them, Israel mourned the sin that led to their expatriation. The Lord's admonition to keep silent before Him in His temple (which we often see cut from context and cut into wood plaques above sanctuary doors) was a command to repent from idolatry to "gods" of stone and wood in Habbakuk 2. There is mourning for people who are dead or at least thought dead. There is James' advice to quarrelsome brothers and sisters in chapter 4 to mourn in their penitence.

(Maybe some of our brothers and sisters who cause dissension and division by forbidding worship which entertains God and man should mourn ... and repent. - Then get over it, and experience some real joy!)

While there are these few examples of mourning and worship connected in scripture, what you will find throughout the Old and New Testaments are hundreds of examples of worship accompanied by joy.

From the poet's exultation in Psalm 100 to the disciples' recognition of the risen Lord in Luke 24:52, worship, praise and joy go together.

If you surround the Lord's table and do nothing but mourn His death, week after week after week, know this: HE IS RISEN! (Matthew 28:7; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:6 - why do you think most Christians celebrate it on the first day of the week?!?)

If you gather time after time after time to share the bread and the cup while only mourning your sins, know this: THEY ARE FORGIVEN! (Psalm 32:1; Acts 2:38; >Ephesians 1:7; 1 John 2:12)

If you sing songs of joy and gratitude Sunday after Sunday after Sunday with only muttering gravity in your voice and duty in your face, know this: THE JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH! (Psalm 28:7; Nehemiah 8:10)

Good people, if joyless fear and dread and silence is always and only to be the hallmark of worship acceptable to God, why is that Jesus, "full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, 'I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth ...'"? (Luke 10:21) Why then did His followers loudly and joyfully praise God for His miracles? (Luke 19:37)

If we are still to live and worship only in fear, why does the Hebrews writer go to such pains to distinguish the old covenant's mountain of fear from the new covenant's mountain of joyful angels? (Hebrews 12:18-24)

If our obedience to God in worship and life is paramount, why do we ignore 1 Thessalonians 5:16 - "Be joyful always"? Is the instruction to "entertain strangers" (Hebrews 13:2) not to be obeyed in the context of gathered worship?

You can't even find the word "solemn" in the New Testament, except as a description of an oath to assassinate Paul (Acts 23:14)! The New Testament is a testament of gospel; of good news; of great joy that shall be to all people!

Doesn't that bring you joy? Doesn't that bring enjoyment, knowing it? Shouldn't our worship to God reflect our enjoyment of His blessing, and entertain Him with our praise?

I recall a story told in a church I used to attend, of a brother who once asked a sour-faced elder if he was a happy person. "I suppose so," was the grudging response. So he answered, "Then why don't you let your face know it?"

Updating My Own Archives

My, has it really been four-and-a-half years since The Christian Affirmation? And has it made all the difference its authors had hoped?

Well, looking back into my archives, I discovered that it has a different home now:

http://www.austingrad.edu/christianaffirmation/affirmation.html

Don't use the old URL. It's evidently been allowed to expire or has been hacked - in either case, it seems to be in the care of some German-speaking porno promoters. That's probably a more understandable, though no less despicable, incursion on the site than by those half-wits who went about using the online form to sign other people's names, or totally foobulant names featuring uncomplimentary puns and other intendedly-humorous characteristics.*

At this viewing, I still count far less than a hundred signatories of the Affirmation. (Even including Howard Norton twice, since he did.)

---

One other update. My one and only sermon MP3 now resides at What The Rich Man Lacked. I've edited out the excessively long and unrelated introduction, which was actually what I was asked to speak about from the pulpit. But the sermon weighed more heavily on my heart. And it still does.

_{*I was going to define "foobulant" here - a word coined by one of my college roommates - but like David Gerrold's composed word "creebing," it defines itself from the context. And, Rick, I apologize if I misspelled "foobulant."}

Why Don't You Just Leave?

It's the reaction I seem to hear and read most often when a brother or sister in Christ in my fellowship disagrees with someone else's less-traditional beliefs or understandings of scripture.

"Why don't you just leave?"

I guess it's the self-centeredness of the question that grates against me the most. The underlying sentiment doesn't seem to be concern for the happiness of that person; it seems to express that they're wrong ... they're causing strife ... my church would be better off without them ... and if they leave, that proves I'm right and I'm worshiping at the church with the right name on the sign out front and they're heretics who should leave and the sooner they realize it, the purer my church will be.

"Why don't you just leave?"

I get that impression from the anger in the voice when I hear it; the tone of the words when I read it. And from suggestions like, "...please remove the name Church of Christ from your identity so others will not confuse your false doctrine with that which is found in the scriptures." (From the comment of a recent visitor with whom I disagreed.)

"Why don't you just leave?"

It seems to be the solution of first resort. Obviously, it's the solution that requires the least effort on the part of the one suggesting it. If the person who disagrees just goes away, then one doesn't have to get into the messy business of gently instructing (2 Timothy 2:25) or gently restoring (Galatians 6:1) or dealing gently with those going astray (Hebrews 5:2). My, that's a lot of inconvenient "gently"s.

"Why don't you just leave?"

If the other leaves, one does not have to go to him or her (Matthew 5:23) or go a second time with a couple of friends, or a third time with the whole assembly (18:15). Goodness, that's a bunch of "go"s - just a logistical nightmare making all of the appointments.

"Why don't you just leave?"

It seems like the simple solution, doesn't it?

Someone suggested it to me in the comments on this blog years ago when I expressed disagreement with traditional teachings that I don't believe square up with scripture. (Their actual phrasing was: "Why do you stay in the church of Christ if you don’t think it should be distinctive?")

My reply was: "I oppose the divisiveness of those who say 'Why don't you just leave?' as if it were just a matter of trying on a new jacket, rather than leaving a family I love."

And when I happened across that reply again recently, I realized what I had really said. When you say, "Why don't you just leave?" and they do, you think that you don't have to deal with that person, see that person, smile at and worship with and work with that person.

You don't have to love them anymore.

But that's a lie.

Think about all the people Paul had traveled far to meet, had worked with and learned to love and then moved on to plant another church and how hurt he was to learn they were turning from Christ to give in to self and Satan and how lovingly and sometimes angrily he wrote them to point them back out of their navels and toward the heavens ... and each other! Why did he do that?

Because he loved them.

Just as surely from a distance as when they felt the embrace of his greeting and his holy kiss upon their cheeks.

Why?

Because Christ loved him, and gave Himself up for him. (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:2; Philippians 2) John said it even more succinctly: "We love because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19) Wow. That's a lot of love.

So in the future, I'm just going to abbreviate my response from those years ago. When someone asks, "Why don't you just leave?", my response will be:

"Why don't you just love?"

All Winesksins and New Wineskins Archives Now Online

I'm a little tardy with the announcement, but ...

For the first time ever, all of the articles in both the online and printed editions of New Wineskins and Wineskins are available free online.

You can access any edition, all the way back to the inaugural issue in 1992, through the Archives link.

Some older issues have been named or themed in order to give you a more accurate idea of content.

While indexing by topic and author is still an ongoing process, you can always use the "Search" blank at the top left of any page to find articles with a keyword or an author's name.

Some of the articles are timely - and you'll read reactions to the Columbine shootings, the L.A. riots, the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9-11-01. Others are simply timeless.

You'll agree with some of them. You won't agree with all of them. (I don't!) But if you permit yourself, you'll examine what you believe and why all over again - and be blessed by meditating on those matters.

You might even find yourself drawn closer to God through Christ; closer to your brothers and sisters in your church family; closer to the person that the Lord wants you to become. (I do!)

You can comment on - if the scripts are functioning correctly - every article in the archive. Every one. You can register and/or log in to the site using your old subscription user name and password (or zoegroup.org user name and password) to participate in discussions in the Forums.

There are excerpts from at least a dozen books on the site, reviews for more than fifty.

Almost fifty interviews and conversations with noted theologians, authors and thinkers are onsite.

You'll find a new area, News from the Vineyard, recapping current events in Christianity.

It's all free. No subscription since 2007.

Luke 2:41-52

52 Weeks at the Table - Week 32

A boy of twelve goes missing, and we immediately fear the worst. Jesus was no ordinary boy, however, and not until a day out of Jerusalem headed for home did Joseph and Mary begin to be concerned (Luke 2:41-52). They went for the Passover feast every year, and He probably knew the way. They looked for Him among their kinfolk in the caravan, but after no more than a day and a half went by, they turned back. If you know the Story, you know that they found Him in the temple, listening and asking questions among the teachers. The teachers had obviously asked Him what He thought, for they were amazed at His answers and his comprehension.

Like any parents would, they asked, "Why have you treated us like this?" Like any twelve-year-old boy who thinks his parents know every fascination of his that makes time seem irrelevant, he answered, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"

Here in the temple - where He would one day be the greatest Teacher of all (Matthew 23), where his opponents would twice try to stone Him (John 8:48-58; 10:22-42), whose guards would arrest Him (Luke 22:52), where His followers would daily meet after His ascension (Acts 2:46) - was still His Father's house, whatever destiny it might later hold.

Until the time came for His Spirit to take residence in our bodies, His new temple (1 Corinthians 6:19).

Father God, we can only admire the inimitable faith of Your Son; His confidence that You would care for Him at Your temple. And we know that His faith in Your deliverance (Luke 9:22) is our example, even though that temple was no sanctuary from evil and treachery. We pray that You will nourish us with this bread of remembrance, fill us with Your eternal Spirit, and put us about Your business in Your house now and forever. Amen.

Holy One and only God, we recognize the blood of Jesus in this cup, the blood of Your Passover Lamb, Your Son. We read that He grew in wisdom and stature; in favor with man and with You. May this cup of remembrance help us to grow in all these ways as well, ever wiser, ever stronger, ever more loving, ever more spiritual - and always closer to You. In His name, amen.

Fairy Tale

Once upon a time ...

... the one who was righteous looked down from his lofty position of superior knowledge and unimpeachable works, and decided that there were too many followers. Too many who believed on Jesus, the Lord and Son. It was time to winnow out the chaff, to weed out the thistles, to cleanse the threshing floor.

He decided that there should be laws, just as there had been in the Old Covenant, but unexpressed instead of explicit, camouflaged in the language of love in the New. He deigned that those who did not correctly and logically deduce them from the hidden hints in scripture should be forever lost, no matter how much they believed, or loved, or helped, or shared, or worshiped. Nor should there be any gift of the Holy Spirit to help in the deciphering; they should be on their own with just the Word and the brains given them.

They should be judged publicly and condemned before their peers to burn forever in unquenchable fire for their stupidity and inability to decipher the silent commands or to obey the unspoken laws. It was to be justice for all and mercy toward none.

For no one who did not see things exactly the same way that he did should deserve to live happily ever after - the promises of grace notwithstanding, nor the blood of the Son, nor the love of a Father.

Fortunately, he was not God. He was a preacher at a church he wished was bigger ... or an editor of a newsprint periodical ... or a speaker at conferences that defend the hidden truth and mark the disagreeable ... or a troller of blogs, in search of heretics to reel in and gut and then hang out to dry.

Sadly, he was unaware or unwilling to believe that Jesus really meant what He said in Matthew 7:2 and Luke 6:37 ... that those words were not fairy tale, but Spirit and truth.

Yet he was also a beloved brother, a fellow believer, loved by God, redeemed by grace, bought by blood. There were, and still are, many of him.

So we pray.

And we hope.

Bad Bar Jokes

Not too long ago, I posted all of my bad bar jokes on Facebook. Here are a few:

A man walked into a bar and fell unconscious on the floor. It was a chin-up bar.

A man walked into a bar and ordered a Godiva chocolate liqueur. The bouncer threw him out. It was a Hershey bar.

A man walked into a bar with his collar open. The bouncer threw him out. It was a tie bar.

A man walked into a bar to pay off his tab but his bank account was on hold, so the bouncer threw him out. It was a no-holds bar.

A miserably depressed man walked into a bar and the bouncer threw him out. It was a gay bar.

A man walked into a bar, twirling an absurdly long mustache and the bouncer threw him out. It was a handlebar.

A mime walked into a bar, but the bouncer threw him out. It was a karaoke bar.

A lactose-intolerant man walked into a bar, but shortly thereafter threw up before finishing what he'd ordered. It was an ice-cream bar.

(They were all jokes about a man who had failed to enter the kind of bar where he would fit in and find refreshment and camaraderie and I was going somewhere with it, but I forgot where.)

A mildly-forgetful man walked into a bar and ... no, wait. That was me.

Probably because of a recent head injury.

A man walked into a bar and hurt himself. He should have used the door.

I saved the very worst until last, for this post:

A man walked into a bar and ordered a beer. "We don't serve beer; we serve customers," the marketing manager told him. He asked, "What happened to the bartender?" The CEO replied that the position was right-sized for economic reasons. So the man asked, "What happened to the beer?" The vice president of finance responded that the costs of purchase, transportation, cold storage and distribution were prohibitive, and it was decided to move that part of the operation online. But, the marketing manager added, the firm was doing very well promoting the idea of beer and the experience of beer; in fact, at the bar and in a couple of the booths there were usually several people each week discussing how thirsty they were and how much they would enjoy a beer right then ... and there was, of course, free wi-fi. "But how do you make any money?" the man asked. They all chorused: "Volume!"

It was a foobar.

("Foobar", in computer programming, is the name for a variable which has no relevant meaning - and it should be distinguished from its acronymal cousin, fubar. At least a little distinguished.)

And that was not so much a joke as it was a sad commentary on the current state of American commerce. After all, imagine:

A bar without beer.

Sort of like a church without Christ.

- But I digress.

The Next Restoration Movement

"It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel." ~ Romans 9:6

I have a little bit of hero worship going on in my heart toward the saints who began the Restoration Movement more than two hundred years ago. They were people of great courage, enormous faithfulness to the scripture, and an irenic, Christ-like spirit. Yet they were also products of their time as well as their choices, just like you or me or the disciples of century one or anyone else.

Sometimes we choose wisely. Sometimes we don't.

But there's a good chance that the factors affecting our choices are shaped by the era and circumstances which surround us.

In short, the Restoration's prime movers were men, dedicated to restoring a unified, non-denominational church at a time when a new nation had been formed of many united states. Their modus operandus was much the same as that of the nation's founders: issue a sort of declaration of independence (Barton W. Stone's document, the Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery) and then a sort of constitution (Alexander Campbell's Declaration and Address). Within a few years, their groups discovered each other and merged as a unity movement called "The Christian Connexion" (sometimes "Connection"). It was all very modern, very rational, institutional, very corporate, and all very, very American.

As well as very, very focused on the church.

While there is nothing essentially wrong with that - and the language of both documents and other initial writings urges a faithful conformity to the life and teachings of Christ as revealed in the Bible - it must be, not balanced by, but superceded, by a focus on Him. The focus of the generations that followed became more and more on the church and less and less on Christ.

In that way, the Restoration Movement succeeded in the succeeding generations - duplicating the church of century one and all of its difficulties: the congregations became fraught with issues of structure and function and office and practice and tradition and some members lording their supposed superiority over others and propounding misconceptions about the return of Christ and precepts of men being taught as doctrines of God. So, of course, the unity movement of century nineteen seceded into factions over all these teachings of men.

In short, the New Testament church was almost fully restored as it had existed in century one.

Except that, in those more "modern" and "enlightened" times, the scripture became law by which others must be judged rather than the gentle yet firm instructions of the Righteous Judge would guide the lives of those who love Him back, along with the presence of His Spirit in their lives. Somehow, even that Spirit was judged inferior to the written word, and was banished to a place of retirement, trapped for all time within its pages.

Vestiges of that belief system persist today, loudly judging others and proclaiming their righteous superiority and "marking" by name those who dare to question it or the conclusions they have reached in order to earn it.

I began this post with a verse from Paul's letter to the believers at Rome, describing his yearning for those of his Jewish heritage to be as accepting of Christ as Gentiles had been. He was pointing out that the failure to accept Christ was a matter of individual choice, not of the insufficiency of God's word. In the wake of the law's fulfillment in Christ, the time had simply come for something better than law.

I believe it's time for something better than a church-focused church. I believe it's time for twenty-first century revival, not nineteenth. I believe it's time for a new Restoration Movement, a movement that seeks to restore souls to Christ.

Starting with our own.

Over time - inspired by the Spirit to share the gospel Story - that will restore the church, the assembled saints, as the natural result.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with going to church in a building on a Sunday, hearing God's word preached by a paid full-time preacher, praying together, singing together, observing the Lord's Supper together, giving of our means to support the church, all while men do the leading. But in addition to those "acts of worship" which have been legislated as the only biblically-authorized ones by some of our forebears in fellowship, there is also nothing intrinsically wrong with:

• Meeting other days of the week, breaking bread together at places of worship and in homes, sharing goods and possessions with each other so that no one has need, and praising God. ~ Acts 2:42-47
• Giving to relieve suffering ~ Acts 11:27-30
• Giving to the poor ~ Acts 24:17
• Part-time / vocational ministry ~ Acts 18:3
• More than one speaker and discussion when the church is assembled (as long as it edifies) ~ 1 Corinthians 14:29-32
• Women praying and prophesying ~ 1 Corinthians 11:3-9
• Worship with instruments, which are obviously not intrinsically offensive to God ~ Revelation 15:2

What makes these things (and many, many other ways to worship God ~ Romans 12:1-2) permissible? Well, in addition to the fact that they are right there in scripture, they also reflect what Christ did and taught in century one ... rather than the rules and regulations laid down by men between then and now, based on assumptions and interpretations and sometimes outright additions to and subtractions from scripture. Forcibly retiring the Holy Spirit from His role in helping open that scripture to our hearts - quenching His fire, in other words - has been our failure by choice. Making the church of first importance, rather than Christ, is where we as a Restoration fellowship - as well as many, many other modern fellowships and movements - have gone wrong.

It is not as though God's word had failed.

But for the true Israel of God's people to seek and find Him, our goal should not be so much the restoration of a fallen church as the transformation of a risen Christ.