As some of you know I’ve left Hawaii for the summer and have become an intern at Lancaster Baptist Church. I have been giving a list of projects and one of the items is Personal Development. I’m glad that they care about my personal development and that many organizations don’t ever seem to care. I have been given four books to read. One of which was written by my Pastor, and boss, Paul Chappell. The book is called Grace for Godly Living. I am to read and write a report by the end of the month. I’ve only really cracked open the book and have thought about many of the points in the book. The following is an outline of thoughts and a rough idea of what my end report will look like. Feel free to read and comment. Also, the outline doesn’t come out so well on the blog and I don’t feel like making it pretty so just use some imagination. 
- [ ] Part One – discipline by Grace
– [ ] Kill Joys
– [ ] I think that many people feel that fundamental bible
believing churches are ‘kill joy’s because they attend
churches that had strong biblical principles but failed
to develop a personal relationship with the people. Also,
possibly, a Chrisitan who has often been judgmental
towards the actions of an unsaved person but never has
taken the time to talk or get to know the unsaved person.
– [ ] Holy living and grace go hand in hand.
– [ ] Grace without Holy living is just an excuse to do what
you want. It is not what God intended for the life of a
Christian.
– [ ] Lack of Balance
– [ ] The two extremes are intensely dangerous. One side is
that there are no standards of living and you are living
in what they call ‘grace’. The other side, everyone ought
to be perfect and that if you are not living that way you
are not welcomed. Neither of these two points have
positive outcomes. A church that balances love and
accepts all types of people and all stages of chrstian
development and combines that with a drive to help
improve and challenge those same people to take another
step towards Godly living. This church will present a
challenge or standard and back it up with a biblical
principal. The bible is our final authority and this
gives credibility for the standard. You can argue a rule
with no backing, however, it is difficult to argue a
standard based on God’s Word regardless of your stage in
your sanctification.
– [ ] Changes in Society
– [ ] The churches stance may not change, but as the world
becomes a darker place it becomes more noticeable and
because of this draws more attention. To get away from
this attention the church might dim its light and
accommodate to the darkening world or just put out the
light because it is noticeable and allow the church to be
consumed by the darkness it was repressing.
