Author: Phil Rehberg

Purging Deeper Sinfulness

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After turning away from the more obvious sins in our lives, we may begin to think that we are fairly godly. But now we face the real battle against sin. Sinful thoughts and attitudes remained buried deep within our hearts and control us in ways we don’t realize. If we saw all our sin at once, it would overwhelm us and drive some of us mad…which is a warning against over-examining ourselves. Yet we still desire to grow in godliness. We want to share His nature and reflect it to others, and to do that we must continually give Him permission to uncover deeper areas of our lives. Better yet, we should eagerly ask Him to do so. Then our hearts will have an attitude of continual openness to His promptings. We will be more willing to open the door when we begin to hear the faint knocking of His Continue Reading →

Forces That Ruin Fellowship – Lesson From Second Century

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Why did koinonia and dynamic church life fade in Christianity? Many of us sense that church should be more relational and that everyone should be able to develop and exercise their spiritual gifts. Without this church seems more like a spectator experience (or a “busy-ness” experience) than a participation experience. By the end of the 2nd century several forces began to combine to reduce koinonia, or fellowship, in the Christian church. Fellowship became less important in the Church’s spiritual theology (the theology of spiritual growth.) Understanding these forces will help us to avoid the same problems today and recommit ourselves to true koinonia. As you read this list you might ask yourself if there are similar forces today that interfere with koinonia. Here is a list of some of the forces: 1. The Church was focusing on teaching proper doctrine so believers would not be led astray. Christianity was experiencing Continue Reading →

Three High Impact Ideas For Developing Community And Gifts In A Fellowship

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The Great Commandment to love God and love others has been emphasized in churches over the past fifteen years or so. Thus churches should be places where real community happens and where people can exercise their gifts for one another. Here are some ways churches can start redesigning their fellowships so that we can fulfill the Great Commandment. 1. Whole Person Inventory. This would be for churches that are committed to building relationships. It would be a set of written inventory “tests” that would help people know their personality, strengths, and weaknesses. Many quality tests exist for this. If a church gave each leader a Whole Person Inventory it would go a long way to helping people understand themselves and how they can be a part of a community. Pastors would be able to decide how best to help this person grow. Leaders would also discover any significant disorders they Continue Reading →

Is Our Highest Calling Worship or Evangelism?

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Subtitle: The Great Commission, the “Great Catechism”, and the Great Commandment Sometimes we hear people debate a Christian’s greatest calling. A couple of professors from Liberty University (one teaches at the seminary) posted an article that reflects this debate very well. They ask: “So is it worship or evangelism? Which one is our greatest calling that deserves our most fervent effort?” They go on to say that the two are so closely connected that both deserve our top attention. (The article is about two pages and can be found at http://www.lifeway.com/Article/great-commission-worship-witness-evangelism.) In my experience worship and evangelism have been the activities most mentioned in American Christianity as the most important things we do. But is this what we find in the New Testament? Are worship and/or evangelism taught as the most important things that all Christians are called to? Strangely, the authors of the article don’t actually cite any verses Continue Reading →

Key Facts from the Huge Pew Religion Study

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The huge Pew Forum Religious Landscape Study was just released. The study was conducted in 2014 and the same study was also conducted in 2007 which allows us to see important trends in religious affiliations and beliefs. The full report can be found here: http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/ The study groups people into the following categories (in order of affiliation rank): Evangelical (25.4%), unaffiliated (22.8%), Catholic (20.8%), Mainline Protestant (14.7%), and Non-Christian faiths (5.9%). The biggest headline is that the Christian share of the population has fallen from 78.4% in 2007 to 70.6% of the U.S. population. Most of the losses have come for Catholics and Mainline Protestants. Christianity is still by far the most dominant religion in America and more Christians live in America than any other country in the world. It’s interesting that Evangelicals have only lost 0.9 percentage points since 2007, but this means a gain of about 2 million Continue Reading →