This post may seem very odd...that might have something to do with the fact that it's 3 a.m. and sleep seems optional right now. So please...bear with me.
Technology is a double edged sword. On the one hand it gives us many unique kinds of services that improve our quality of life. On the other hand, technology can also deginerate the average human being in a number of fundamental ways. The internet is one of the wonders of modern technology. But again, the internet is certainly part of that double edged sword that I was just talking about. This particular website has been out in the cold vastness of cyber space for a fair number of years now. Like any endeavor that is seeking to glorify God we must always ask the question, "How is this glorifying our Lord?" I think BeTheChurch accomplishes this in a variety of ways.
First, here are some cool statistics for you:
First post on this site: January 8, 2003 - Author of that post was Chris Stewart
Total Number of Posts to Date: 578 (if you include this post)
Total Number of Comments to Posts: 860
Number of Current Contributing Authors: 6
Total Number of Times the Site Has Been Viewed Since It's Inception: 77,617
Numbers alone don't make a site successful...but I just figured I'd share with you some things you might not know about this website. When Chris launched this site four years ago (WOW...it's been over four years already?!) he gave birth to something that would bloom into a station on the information super highway that was a beacon for declaring the glory of God. The site has changed much in the last four years. Everything from the way it looked, to the content that was available has changed dramatically. I'm sure the change is in no way complete. Chris and I have spitballed around all kinds of ideas for new content that we could bring to this forum. The possibilities really are limitless. But what I want to take a moment to do is reflect on what this website has meant to my life.
When this blog first began I didn't really come to it very often. I was still doing a lot of reading and posting at a site that no longer exists that was called the Oasis Cafe. It wasn't long, however, that I began checking this site every single day. Chris and I began meeting on a regular basis (by then I was in like my 11th year of my undergraduate degree)...content on the site was changing...Chris had all these exciting ideas...he seemed to be learning all these new things...possibilities with the site were really beginning to open up. For a long time BeTheChurch.com was my daily dose of sanity. I loved the theology that I was reading when I came here. I loved the way that the Oasis family was on display. But most of all I loved how everything about this site seemed to shout...ISN'T GOD WONDERFUL AND GLORIOUS...ISN'T IT AMAZING THAT HE IS OUR KING AND OUR CREATOR AND THE ONE COMPLETELY WORTHY OF ALL WORSHIP AND HONOR! It was around November of 04 that Chris invited me to become a contributing author to the site. I was pretty excited about the opporutnity to contribute to the forum of things that were developing. My first post, I'm ashamed to say, talked about a study that I never did finish on the site. I think I tried to come back to it later but for some reason it just never materialized on the web. I know that for me personally, this site has challenged me to grow in my maturity of faith. It has spurned me forward into many different kinds of endeavors (like the James commentary that has been unfolding here for the last 7 months).
What has the site meant to you? Is it the sermons that you come to download? Do you come here for the music? Do you come here to remind yourselves what our core values are as the gathered body of Oasis? Is it all the Oasis 101 stuff that you just can't get enough of? What is it that draws you back to the site on a regular basis?
By the way, Chris has no idea I'm typing this post right now...I suppose I could prank call him...it's only 3:41 in the morning...probably shouldn't...Brock and Kaylee (sorry if I mispelled it) need their sleep...besides...April might attack me with a waffle iron or something on Sunday if I did that.
I think Chris would agree with me when I say that I hope you find this website strenghting, encouraging, educational, uplifting, challenging, funny at times but above all...glorifying to God. I personally appreciate this site. I hope that you do as well. Please feel free to share your reflections on BeTheChurch.com. I know that I and the other authors will try to continue to keep good quality content rolling your way. You never know what kinds of new and exciting things will pop up at this address.
Interesting stats.
I'm with you, Chad. I definately, since I heard of the site through Chris, checked it everyday. It was a source of God's purpose, focused devotion and dialogue of CHristianity and her interaction with the World (in particular the church at Oasis).
Now, unfortunately, I haven't been as frequent to the site as I want to be. I am a tech guy and have been a bit burnt out on computers the past couple months. SOme days I just don't want to touch them after working 8 hours on them.
bethechurch.com was and has been a virtual church family for me as I have been able to be apart at least in-part of this online community.
Besides the posts, I hit the audio messages and notes, especially the 101 stuff.
Posted by: Josh Lynch | June 15, 2007 at 11:14 AM
Greetings,
I was reading your blog, and of course there were some comments that I wanted to make. Firstly, I respect everyone's religion. Religion has been here since the beginning of time--whenever that was--and a majority of it is used to control human behavior. To be honest, no one religion has the whole truth, and every religious follower of whatever sect, belief, church, faith, etc, is taught by their superiors that their belief or choice is the right one. You have the bible, you have the Koran, doctrines of all sorts made-up by people and their phisophies and theologies; which has been passed down generation to generation and century to century, with everyone adding his or her own opinions or understandings to it.
Everyone wants something to believe in, everyone wants hope that this terror we live in isn't a reality and that when we die something better is to come. Everyone also wants to believe that they are going to be taken away to a better place and not have to taste death. Everyone also wants to believe that in their time of crisis someone will come along and help them out of it....But is it a mind trick, or a reality?
Since the age of four-years-old, I was raised christian. First baptist, then pentecostal, and after I visited other churches. It seemed to me that everyone used the same book, but understood it differently, and taught it differently. From what I understood about the bible, no man has the right to change the context therein, add to it, or take away. Every church says that they don't do this, but lets face reality, they do...in their own self-justified ways.
Anyhow, being raise a christian, believing, reading, ministering to individuals on the streets and etc, all the things a christian is suppose to do--I prayed for the truth constantly, and the feeling I kept getting, was that all these churches are nothing more than cults!
I believe in God, as a matter of fact, I know there is a God, a creator, our father, however, I do not believe that Jesus is God. When people started that, they started blasphemy in a since. Not that God would mind, because we know that Jesus was a very loving, intelligent, righteous, and God fearing man. But, the context is twisted..the churches teach to worship someone other than God. For example: Islam, they worship Mohammed. They believe that he was the last prophet. Everything that Mohammed taught, they follow to a "T". Although their religion is based on the teachings of Mohammed, they do give God credit. Christianity, they worship Jesus. Jesus this, and Jesus that, they even call Jesus God. Where does God come into the picture? The writer's of the Gospels get more credit than God does. Paul this, and Paul that, and etc..The names and the bibles are better served that God is. Jesus taught us things, but yet, all those, well a majority, who claim to be a christian do not practice what he preached!
They judge, they discriminate, they hate, they accuse, they are full of pride, and worst of all, christians try to play God. To get to my point,,,I have had many experiences in my life walking as a christian and walking as one who believes in a God. I have seen things and experienced things that I were taught in church, wasn't true, didn't exist, and if I had these experiences, I belonged to the Devil rather than God...sounds familiar?
Well, as I said, I prayed, and when I prayed I prayed for truth. I received my truth. I also received a piece of mind. I wasn't comfortable following what people said, and dedicating y life to following a so-called pastor, rather than following the heart and mind that God gave me.
I see that you referred to "New Age" people as nutties or fruits...that's so Christ like isn't it? My point exactly. You don't know what the truth is. You follow which ever way the wind blows as long as you're getting paid to read the same sermond in a different context every Sunday, and have people look-up to you and admire you like you are God himself. That's the feeling I got, and if I am wrong about you, do forgive me, but that comment you made speaks louder than words..it was your actions in typing that, not your thoughts. See, emotions are dangerous. Emotions get us into trouble. Emotions are to help us think, and reason, not to act, because our actions as Imperfect beings will always get us into trouble if we let our emotions control us. You passed judgement on a group of people you know nothing about. All you have against them is that they don't believe the way you do, and that is the very thing that turns people away. So, if you feel that God has used you to reap his harvest, you're wrong. God loves us all, regardless of skin color, race, background, culture, or ethicincity--God created us all. We aren't here to battle against eachother and the good conscious of the variety of hearts, we are here to learn and to resist evil, and become the very things God intended us to be. If there was one saint on this earth, he / she would not be here. So remember, there is always something to learn, and you are never too old to learn or never too wise. No one has mastered knowledge, because knowledge is continuously changing and growing. No one owns Wisdom, because wisdom is continuously acquired throughout time and experience--it is never complete.
I hope that God gives you a change of heart!
Blessings
Posted by: Tiffany | December 10, 2007 at 10:53 PM
Tiffany,
First of all let me say a warm greeting to you. I hope that your holiday season is going well and that you will be blessed throughout this wonderful season. Welcome to the blog and thank you for your thoughts. I always encourage any viewpoint, opposing or affirming. Let me respond directly to some of your thoughts. In doing this I’m merely going to go through your post and try to respond as insightfully as I can.
You said, “Firstly, I respect everyone's religion. Religion has been here since the beginning of time--whenever that was--and a majority of it is used to control human behavior. To be honest, no one religion has the whole truth, and every religious follower of whatever sect, belief, church, faith, etc, is taught by their superiors that their belief or choice is the right one.”
This comment raised several questions for me instantaneously. 1…Do you equate religion with God? I find that religion and God have nothing in common. You’re correct in saying that religion has been used all throughout history as a means of control and oppressive authority. Yet who do we blame this on? Do we blame it on God or the fallible nature of human beings? There’s a notable difference. Religion is not God. Religion is merely a set of beliefs that human beings, who are not infallible, assert. Often times they do this in destructive and greedy ways. However, if we’re talking about the Bible, you’ll see that the Bible does not prescribe that anyone should dogmatize themselves to foolish “religions”. So in one regard I agree with your critique on “religion” but it seems to me like you equate God and religion as one in the same. On the latter point I would have to disagree with you. Please correct me if I’m reading your comments the wrong way.
2…You said that no one religion has the whole truth. I disagree. I believe that what we see contained in the Bible is the whole truth and nothing less than that. I believe that the entire Christian message, Old Testament through New Testament, is the exact truth. What you never really made clear throughout your post is why you think that Christianity does not represent the whole truth. As I type this response I’m trying to carefully read over everything that you’ve written. I see that you, since the age of four, were raised Christian. It seems like your aversion to Christianity as the bearer of the whole truth seems to stem for the following statements you made: “Anyhow, being raise a christian, believing, reading, ministering to individuals on the streets and etc, all the things a christian is suppose to do--I prayed for the truth constantly, and the feeling I kept getting, was that all these churches are nothing more than cults!” Let me first say that I feel that there are many churches that are nothing more than cults. So are you saying that you feel that because many churches are flawed, that must mean that the gospel is flawed? You see, what concerns me is that you seem to be drawing a number of conclusions about God and Christianity based on your experience with bad, non-God centered churches. Does that say something about God and the Bible or does it say something about the flawed nature of human beings? I greatly desire to hear your responses to these questions. I don’t mean that in a cheeky way…I mean that in an absolutely sincere way. I think you would be an interesting person to dialogue with on a regular basis so I hope that we have a chance to talk more about these things. Let me continue…
You said, “I believe in God, as a matter of fact, I know there is a God, a creator, our father, however, I do not believe that Jesus is God. When people started that, they started blasphemy in a since. Not that God would mind, because we know that Jesus was a very loving, intelligent, righteous, and God fearing man. But, the context is twisted..the churches teach to worship someone other than God.”
Based on your earlier statements I’m a little confused as to how you’re referring to God. You say that you don’t feel that any one religion has the whole truth. If you truly believe this then I find it hard to digest that you could be referring to the God described in the Bible. Illustrate to me, from a biblical perspective, how you could assert, “…no one religion has the whole truth.” If you believe that the bible is nothing more than, as you said, “…doctrines of all sorts made-up by people and their phisophies and theologies; which has been passed down generation to generation and century to century, with everyone adding his or her own opinions or understandings to it,” then how can you trust, or properly illustrate to anyone, that there is a God. I don’t believe that you can pull beliefs from all the different religions in the world and illustrate that there is a God. I think this is both reckless and confusing thinking. I continue to stand firmly on the assertion that the Bible, and what it teaches, is absolutely true and that God has influenced every last word of it. Yet if you stand on no particular doctrine then aren’t you guilty of your own accusations…I’m referring to one of your earlier statements, “…doctrines of all sorts made-up by people and their phisophies and theologies; which has been passed down generation to generation and century to century, with everyone adding his or her own opinions or understandings to it.” If you trust no particular doctrine, like the Bible for example, as the representative of the truth then are you not merely creating your own philosophies and theologies. Aren’t you adding your own opinions and understandings to your argument. Does this, in turn, mean that you’re citing yourself as the ultimate authority of knowledge and wisdom? I ask this question because I want to better understand where the foundations of your argument are rooted. If your response would be something like, “I believe that parts of the Bible are true but not all of it,” then I would have to resoundingly disagree with you. I would also have questions like, “What particular parts of the Bible do you feel lack the proper foundation to encompass the whole truth?”
I also want to respond to your assertion of “Jesus is not God.” I merely have a question: What are you basing that assertion on? You’re saying that this is something that people started. Did they? You may be familiar with John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” But let’s not stop there. Titus 2:13 says that as Christians we are “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” You might look at the Titus passage and say, “Notice how it says God and Savior…is that not two different things being spoken of?” Okay, let’s keep going. In John 20:28 Thomas cried out to the resurrected Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” In the book of Hebrews (1:8) God says this of Jesus, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever…” John 1:18 says this of Jesus, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” The biblical support does not stop there. Consider this: (the following is taken from John Piper’s website…www.desiringgod.org)
Another way the Bible teaches that Jesus is God is by showing that He has all of the attributes of God. He knows everything (Matthew 18:20; 28:20; Acts 18:10), is everywhere (Mt 16:21; Luke 11:17; John 4:29), has all power (Mt 8:26, 27; 28:18; Jn 11:38-44; Lk 7:14-15; Revelation 1:8), depends on nothing outside of Himself for life (Jn 1:4; 14:6; 8:58), rules over everything (Mt 28:18; Rev 19:16; 1:5) never began to exist and never will cease to exist (John 1:1; 8:58), and is our Creator (Colossians 1:16). In other words, everything that God is, Jesus is. For Jesus is God.
So, in short, people did not start the whole Jesus is God thing. The Bible began that. If, in the light of the biblical evidence that I’ve just provided, you still feel that people began the whole idea of Jesus is God then I would like to know what the foundation of your argument is. At the moment I see no more support outside of your own personal convictions but I cannot clearly tell from where you have drawn them.
You said, “The names and the bibles are better served that God is. Jesus taught us things, but yet, all those, well a majority, who claim to be a christian do not practice what he preached! They judge, they discriminate, they hate, they accuse, they are full of pride, and worst of all, christians try to play God.” I agree…there is an alarming number of Christians who do not live up to what God calls them to live up to. Far too many people think carelessly of God demands from their lives. Such people tend to believe that so long as they make a claim of belief, get dunked under water, and attend church on a regular basis that this makes them a Christian. The Bible, however, is quite clear that if the “fruit” of your life does not reflect that of one who has been transformed by the gospel then it probably means that your faith is counterfeit and that you’re fooling yourself. You’re right on the money with your assessment of how many Christians behave in todays world. But again I ask, does that say something about God and the Bible or does it say something about the fallible nature of people? Are you saying that because people mess up and lead sinful lives, the Bible is less true because of it?
You said, “I see that you referred to "New Age" people as nutties or fruits...that's so Christ like isn't it? My point exactly. You don't know what the truth is. You follow which ever way the wind blows as long as you're getting paid to read the same sermond in a different context every Sunday, and have people look-up to you and admire you like you are God himself. That's the feeling I got, and if I am wrong about you, do forgive me, but that comment you made speaks louder than words..it was your actions in typing that, not your thoughts.”
First let me begin by going back and visiting what I actually said in the post that you’re referring to. You must look at what I said in context. In the post you’re talking about I said, “I detest new age nuttiness. I say that because some of what I’m about to say might make mature Christians say, ‘Um…is he going to talk about how God is the wind…next he’s going to tell me that God is my wristwatch…what a new age fruit!’
I truly do detest new age philosophy. You talk as though I know nothing about it. I know, for example, that it is the common practice of certain new age thinkers to ammend additional beliefs onto traditional religious thought. Again I’ll bring back your quote as a reminder that you seem to be against this very thing, “…doctrines of all sorts made-up by people and their phisophies and theologies; which has been passed down generation to generation and century to century, with everyone adding his or her own opinions or understandings to it.” In fact some of what you have said seems to coincide with certain facets of popular new age philosophy. Part of new age tradition is to take elements of the varying religions in the world (Spiritualism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism etc.) and combine them with current popular trends in modern thought. It is from such individuals that I most often hear things like, “I believe in a God but not the particular God of the popular religions in the world. A piece of the true God is contained in several world religions. It is only by studying these that we can truly understand what the real God is all about.” I couldn’t disagree more. I continue to say what I’ve said before. I believe that there is but one God and it is the God described in the Bible. If people seek God then they need look no further than the Bible. I feel the truths of the Bible to be completely conclusive.
There are many Christians who feel that new age people are simply digging for the truth in the wrong place. Some even consider their search to be a little silly. I’ll admit that perhaps I didn’t use the best choice of words in this sentence. However, based off of one statement you seemed to form a whole post. I don’t see you referencing anything else I’ve posted on this blog. I don’t see you making an honest effort to truly understand where my intentions lie. If you had then I think you would better understand that it is not my intention to insult people who subscribe to new age philosophy. I merely disagree with them and sometimes when people disagree with other people they make heated statements without really thinking about them. You’ve made several in your post regarding the nature of my character and my theology yet you cite nothing else that I’ve said anywhere on this blog. Again I would ask, on what foundations are you drawing your conclusions? I’m exhorting both you and myself to be more careful in the future. I may perhaps go back into the post you’ve cited and fix the wording to more properly reflect what I intended. However, it doesn’t change the fact that I believe that new age philosophy and theology are simply dead wrong. Let me continue with a few other responses since it was this particular statement of mine that bothered you so much.
If it is your desire to get me to say that sometimes I make mistakes and say sinful things, congratulations…I admit it. I used a poor choice of wording. Yet how does this lead to some of your other conclusions. As a Christian I’m trying diligently to become a more steadfast and discerning servant of God. I will stumble along the way. Yet how does that lead you to conclude, “You don’t know what the truth is. You follow which ever way the wind blows as long as you're getting paid to read the same sermond in a different context every Sunday, and have people look-up to you and admire you like you are God himself.”
Let me say several things to clear a little bit of confusion. Do you think I’m a paid full time pastor? If so, where did you get that idea? I lead our time of musical worship at our fellowship on most Sundays but I don’t receive any kind of monetary endorsement to do so. I do it because it is what I feel God has called me to do. I also preach on occasion, yet I do not receive any kind of monetary endorsement from our fellowship to do so. I do it because I feel like it is another facet of what God is calling me to do in my life. I also want to be clear that I have absolutely zero desire to have people look up to me and admire me as though I were God himself. That would be complete and utter heresy. I want nothing to rob God of the glory that He is due. I try very hard to do nothing that draws attention to me. That would put me on display and I’m certainly not worthy of that. Only God deserves such attention and glory. And speaking of sermons…have you ever listened to any of our sermons? If not how can you make any kind of claim about what we teach at our fellowship.
Look, we don’t mind criticism one bit. Yet if people want to criticize us we always challenge them to be thorough in their assessment. There are certain aspects of your critique that simply lack support. So what I encourage you to do is respond to this message with more specific citations. For example, if you think we teach canned sermons from Sunday to Sunday but just keep changing the context, then cite several instances that you have heard. You can listen to many of our sermons on our website. We also have a podcast that you can tune in to. Also, cite specifically how you think it is, based on what you’ve seen at our blog, that it is the desire of either Chris Stewart or Chad Dodson (that’s me) to put all the intention on ourselves and be worshipped as God. That’s a pretty serious accusation. Substantiate it with something because at the moment you’ve said nothing to validate your point of view.
Tiffany, I believe all your words to be heartfelt and in love with the hope that it is God who will be glorified in our conversation. Know that everything that I’ve said here comes from the influence of 1 Timothy 1:5, “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Nothing that you’ve said here has upset me. And know that you have an open forum here to respond in all the honesty that you can possibly muster. I hope that this is not the last conversation that we have. I hope that we can grow and learn together in the spirit of glorifying our great and wonderful God. May God bring blessing upon your life.
Sincerely,
Chad Dodson
Posted by: Chad Dodson | December 11, 2007 at 11:02 PM