Steve Addison's Blog, page 30

The Sad State of Christianity in Germany

Germanic tribes began converting to Christianity in the 4th century. Since then Christianity grew to be the dominant faith of the German people.

For well over 1,000 years Germany has been at the centre of Christianity in Europe. Today the influence of Christianity is still seen everywhere in modern Germany. There are church buildings in most villages and neighbourhoods. Fifty-five percent of the population still identifies with the official Protestant or Catholic Churches.

When the church and the state went their separate ways in 1919 a deal was struck and dependence on state funds continued. Protestant and Catholic Germans are taxed and extra 9% of their income. Ever year billions of euros ensure the churches are well funded.

In 2019 the Catholic Church collected the equivalent of $8 billion USD, the Protestants collected $7 billion.

Despite the history and the funding, less than 10% of Catholics attend church and only 3% of Protestants. In 2019 over half a million Protestants and Catholics officially disassociated themselves from their church.

It gets worse. Around half of Protestants and Catholics no longer believe in the resurrection. Only 40% of Catholics and 32% of Protestants believe in life after death. Atheists make up 24% of Protestants and 11% of Catholics.

The churches are empty and an increasing number of “Christians” no longer believe the faith.

What can we learn from this sad story?

Source: 6 facts about Catholic and Protestant influence in Germany

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Published on April 12, 2021 16:28

245-Your Part in God's Story - The Interview

My latest book is out — Your Part in God’s Story: 40 Days from Genesis to Revelation. Here’s the interview I did on the book with Peter “Pheaney” Lindell for his On The Road podcast.

Sign up here for the 40-Day Challenge.

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Published on April 08, 2021 20:58

Interview with Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer

Recently I spoke with Ed Stetzer, head of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College about my book, Your Part in God’s Story. The interview was published online by Christianity Today.

Ed Stetzer: Why did you write this book?

Steve Addison: For years I’ve been struck by what happened when Jesus rose from the dead and discovered his disciples had scattered in fear, failure and despair. As far as they were concerned it was all over.

Yet Jesus was about to launch a missionary movement that will go to the whole world with these same disciples who have failed him. How did he do that?

Jesus restored them, then he walked them through the books of Moses, the Psalms and the Prophets over a period of forty days. He showed them why the Messiah had to suffer then rise from the dead. He gave them their mission to take the gospel to the world and then he promised them the power of the Holy Spirit.

That’s how Jesus turned failed disciples into a missionary movement. If he did it for them, he can do it for us today.

Ed: What’s the format?

Steve: Over the last few years I’ve been working through Genesis to Revelation asking these questions:

What do we learn about God and his mission?

How does God shape the people he calls?

What is God saying about my part in his story?

How will I think and act differently?

I wanted others to ask the same questions of the Scriptures and of themselves. That meant choosing forty decisive moments on the journey from Genesis to Revelation. Understand those moments, and you’ll understand God’s story and your place in it.

God’s story is the one story that unites all the stories of Scripture—from creation to the new heavens and earth. Along the way God chooses ordinary people to play their part in his story. Each one is an unlikely hero, but God shapes them and enables them to fulfill his purposes. There’s a grand story unfolding that includes individual stories of the people God has called and shaped to play their part.

Ed: Give us some examples of the studies.

Steve: We drop in on Isaiah at the time of King Uzziah’s death (Isaiah 6). The might of Assyria is on the rise. Judah is under threat. Where will Isaiah put his hope? In a human king? He has a vision of the living God whose glory the temple can contain. Angels cry, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The building shakes and smoke fills the temple.

God’s people were meant to display his glory to the world instead they worship idols, indulge in sexual immorality, and oppress the poor. They defile God’s name. Isaiah cries out to God for his own sin and the sin of his people. God took the initiative, he revealed his glory and his judgment. He chose Isaiah, forgave his sin and sent him to call a rebellious people to repentance. Isaiah sees that from Israel will come a holy remnant. From beginning to end this is a work of God, yet Isaiah is shaped by God to play his part. The Bible is full of stories like this. They tell the story of the one true God who has a plan and calls us into it.

We follow Peter’s story over three studies. We look at his calling. He’s just a fisherman who has met Jesus. His life was turned upside-down with that miraculous catch of fish. He gets a glimpse of who Jesus is and is overwhelmed by his unworthiness. Jesus commanded Peter to follow him and promised to teach him to fish for people. Peter didn’t volunteer, he was chosen. Then at the cross Peter failed his Lord. This is the man Jesus chose as the leader of a missionary movement. Jesus restored Peter and shaped him to fulfil his calling in the power of the Spirit. That ought to encourage us. Then ten years later God intervened to disrupt Peter again at the house of the Roman centurion Cornelius. Peter and the early church had dragged their feet in obeying the command to go to the nations. It is God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—who turned Peter around and then through Peter turned the church around. Now the way was prepared for the Gentile mission led by Paul. It’s God’s story, he writes it, but he calls us and shapes us to play our part.

Ed: Who are you writing for?

Steve: Anyone who wants to follow Jesus and allow him to teach them to fish for people. Through my podcast I get to interview people from all around the world who are obeying Christ’s command to make disciples—in Texas prisons, in high tech companies in London, in the townships of South Africa, in their local high school, or in lands where disciples are under the constant threat of violence. They are my heroes. I want them to know that what they are doing flows from the heart of God. I want them to learn how God prepares, calls and shapes them. How he reveals his power through their weakness to display his glory. How his plan will triumph over every obstacle. I want them to know that they are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who have gone before them.

Ed: How did writing this book change you?

Steve: I am by nature a glass half-empty person. I wrestle with the temptation to despair—the state of the world, the state of the church, the unfinished task of making disciples. Writing this book taught me to shift my focus to the One who is Creator and Lord. He has spoken and he will fulfil his Word. As Luke 24 tells us, the Messiah has suffered and is risen. The message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins will go out to all peoples in the power of the Spirit. The fruit of God’s mission will be disciples learning to obey Christ together in communities all over world. Getting there means travelling over some bumpy roads, but God will do it.

Ed: How does this fit with the other books you’ve written on movements?

Steve: This book goes to our identity. Too often we think our strategies and methods will carry the day. They’re important, but unless we know the character and purposes of God, practical considerations are not enough. We need to know that what we are doing is right, that it aligns with the life and ministry of Jesus, regardless of immediate successes or failures. Jesus’ identity, affirmed in his baptism and wilderness testing, was the foundation for the launch of his missionary movement.

A journey from Genesis to Revelation in the presence of the Risen Lord provides the foundation we need for a lifetime of serving him faithfully.

Ed: What’s the 40-Day Challenge?

Steve: I don’t want people just to read this book and put it back on the shelf. I’m challenging them to commit to forty days of reading, reflection and prayer to understand God’s story and their part in it.

They can journey as an individual or in groups. They can trust Jesus to do for them what he did for those early disciples. He met them in their failure. He opened their minds to understand his Word. He showed them their part in God’s story. He promised the power of the Holy Spirit. Then he set them loose on the world!

40-Day Challenge

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Published on April 07, 2021 22:04

He Opened Their Minds

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas - Caravaggio

Day 25: Your Part in God’s Story

Read Luke 24:33-49

It was the Sunday evening following the crucifixion. The disciples were meeting behind locked doors. Early that morning, some of the women had discovered the empty tomb, and Jesus had appeared to them and to Simon. As the disciples tried to make sense of these reports, Cleopas and another disciple arrived with news. It was true: Jesus is risen! They had met him on the road to Emmaus.

Suddenly Jesus stood among them and announced, “Peace be with you.” The normal Jewish greeting was filled with the promise of forgiveness for their desertion and denial. Jesus had come to restore the band of disciples, to show them his resurrection was real, to help them understand that the Messiah had to suffer and rise again, and to prepare them to take the good news to the world.

The disciples were afraid and could not believe what was happening. Jesus assured them he wasn’t a ghost. He showed them the wounds in his hands and feet. They touched him. He took a piece of broiled fish and ate. His body was real. The foundation of their faith will rest on that reality. Without the resurrection, Jesus died a martyr, not a “not a Savior. Now they saw his death in the light of his resurrection.

He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures—the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms—every major division of the Hebrew Bible. The whole story of God’s mission was building to the coming of Jesus, his death and resurrection, and the proclamation of the gospel to the nations. Once the disciples grasped these things, they were ready to begin their mission.

Their message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins was not new. It was John’s message, and it was Jesus’ message. John the Baptist, Jesus, and the disciples all share in the one mission of God, which is now expanding to include the whole world. The mission Jesus gives his disciples will show us “what the kingdom of God looks like now that Christ has come, died, risen and ascended to the right hand of the Father.

This is the fulfilment of God’s plan to deal with sin. The descendant of the woman has crushed the Serpent’s head. From Jerusalem, the Word of the Lord will go out to all nations, fulfilling the promise to Abraham that through him all nations would be blessed; and fulfilling the prophecy that the Servant of the Lord will be a light for the Gentiles and, through him, salvation will reach the ends of the earth.

There’s just one more thing …

The same Holy Spirit who came upon Jesus at his baptism will now fill his disciples with power to be his witnesses. Jesus doesn’t mention the Spirit by name. The Spirit is the power from on high. He is what the Father has promised. Mystery and anticipation surround this power and this promise. The disciples know that he is coming, and when he comes, he will be full of surprises.

In just forty days, Jesus transformed a defeated group of disciples into fearless witnesses and disciple-makers. Notice how he shaped them over the course of three years, knowing they would fail him. Through failure, they discovered the grace of God. Jesus restored them, he taught them, he gave them their part in God’s story, and he promised them the life and power of the Holy Spirit. This is how Jesus launched a missionary movement that will go to the ends of the earth. It’s his mission, and he shapes us so that we can play our part in God’s story.

An extract from Your Part in God’s Story: 40 Days from Genesis to Revelation , Day 25.

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Published on April 03, 2021 14:00

My God, My God! Why?

Leon Bonnat - The Crucifixion

Day 24: The 40-Day Challenge

Read Mark 15:15–41

Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate had Jesus ﬂogged and handed him over to be cruciﬁed. Jesus had prophesied this would happen: the Son of Man would be handed over into human hands to be killed (Mark 9:31). Isaiah also prophesied that the Suﬀering Servant would be handed over for the sake of our sins (Isaiah 53). In the Old Testament, God handed his people over to the Gentiles as judgment for their sin. “God is ultimately behind this handing over.” This is God’s plan, that Jesus will die, not for his sins, but for ours.

Like the Servant in Isaiah, Jesus submitted to his Father’s will and went in silence. He hung on the cross, deserted by people, deserted by God—alone. At noon, darkness covered the land for three hours—a sign of God’s wrath. Out of the darkness, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Words can’t describe what was happening here, but we must try. Yes, Jesus identiﬁed with suﬀering humanity. He entered into our world and experienced the worst this world can do—the depths of human tragedy. But there is more. Forsaken, he cried out to God, “Why have you forsaken me?” Not “I feel forsaken,” but “Why have you forsaken me?” Jesus was under the judgment of God. His cry was the fulﬁlment of his Servant mission.

Was the Son separated from the Father? No. “Father, Son and Spirit, are united together and cannot be divided … or set one against another.” This is a deep mystery. There is no rift in God, yet Jesus died under the curse of God. The Father did not rescue him. In Christ, God took upon himself the guilt and shame of our sin. In Christ, God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—condemned our sin. God turned his face away and poured out his wrath. It was the Lord’s will to crush him; his life was an oﬀering for sin (Isaiah 53:10).

Jesus’ cry of abandonment came from the depths of God’s heart. “The Father, Son and Holy Spirit were in this cry.” Jesus cried out as one of us, broken and alienated from God’s holy love. He stood in our place and experienced the might of God’s opposition to evil. He bore our sin. He won our freedom. His love is beyond comprehension.

It is ﬁnished.

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last, and the temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom. e purpose of the temple has been fulﬁlled and surpassed by Jesus. Now there is free access to God through the work of his Son on the cross.

The pagan centurion who cruciﬁed Jesus stepped forward. Looking up at the tortured body of a Galilean carpenter on a Roman cross, he declared, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

This man under God’s judgment is God’s Son, revealing God’s plan of salvation to the world. This is the good news that must go to the nations. This is God’s glory revealed. This is God’s story, and we are called to play our part in making it known—everywhere.

An extract from Your Part in God’s Story: 40 Days from Genesis to Revelation , Day 24.

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Published on April 02, 2021 05:48

244-A Conversation with Dave Ferguson

I talk to Dave Ferguson about his latest book, BLESS. Dave talks to me about my new book, Your Part in God’s Story.

Dave is lead pastor of Community Christian Church in Chicago. He also provides visionary leadership for the international church-planting movement NewThing and is the president of the Exponential Conference.