Worship Service Changes Beginning October 4

Church, please watch the above update detailing changes coming to our Sunday morning worship gatherings beginning in October. 

The text below summarizes the changes as well.

8:30 AM SERVICE

• Masks required for anyone 5 years of age and up

• Physical distancing measures in place

• Sanctuary capacity to be capped at 70 people

• 2 Pillars Kids available for children ages 0-3; all children are also welcomed in the sanctuary during the service

• Geneva House to remain closed

10:15 AM SERVICE

• Masks welcomed***

• Physical distancing measures in place

• Sanctuary capacity to be capped at 70 people

• No 2 Pillars Kids ministry, all children are welcomed in the sanctuary during the service

• Geneva House to remain closed

LIVESTREAM OPTION

For those unable to gather in-person due to health risks, we will continue to live-stream the 8:30am service at 2pillarschurch.com/live

SERVE (2pillarschurch.com/SERVE)

As we resume worshiping indoors, with two services, there are many opportunities and areas of need in terms of serving on Sunday mornings. Please fill out the form at 2pillarschurch.com/serve letting us know how you’d like to serve!

---

*** NOTE: In accordance with Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department Directed Health Measure (DHM) 2020-09, all individuals age five and older are required to wear a face covering when they are in an indoor space that is open to the public unless six feet of separation can be maintained. Masks are not required under the ordinance as long as individuals maintain 6 feet of distance from anyone not in their household. Additionally, Section 7 of the aforementioned DHM exempts religious services, stating that religious services are governed by the the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services Directed Health Measure Order 2020-LLHD-009, which has since been replaced by 2020-LLHD-010 (i.e. Phase IV re-opening), which removes the DHM section on churches and simply asks churches to follow the DHHS “Guidelines for the Conduct of Faith-Based Services Including Weddings and Funerals Held in Houses of Worship” which do not require the wearing of masks but rather provide guidance for physical distancing.

Be Happy: Jesus is Alive

As Christians, it’s okay for us to be happy.  In fact, we should be happy. 

Jesus is alive, He has conquered the grave, He has united us with Himself, and though in this world we will have trouble and tribulation, Jesus commands us to be of good cheer (to “take heart”), for He has overcome the world.

Why So Sad?

Within our stream of Christianity, there has been a bit of a reaction (a pendulum-swing, if you will) against the shallow, fake, overly-contrived emotional happiness of the contemporary church.  As with most pendulum swings, however, we’ve over-swung—rejecting the idea of that happiness has a place in the Christian life at all.

As Christians, we stand and affirm the truth that God is good.   We sing that “God is good… all of the time!”  We affirm and believe that Jesus died for our sins, that He reconciled us with God, that He rose from the grave, that we are united with Him in His resurrection, that He has ascended back to heaven, and is preparing a place for us.

We affirm and talk about and re-iterate that the gospel is “good news.”  And yet often times we don’t live as if we’ve heard any good news in weeks.

We worship without smiling.  We pray for change but not contentment.  We talk openly about our sin and our struggles but not our victory or our hope.  We pray for our needs, but don’t bask in His present provision.  We confess but we don’t adore.  We pray but we don’t praise.  

Wrestling for Contentment

It’s easy to be sad.  It’s easy to be discouraged and to point out everything that is wrong that needs to be fixed.  Being a critic or a cynic doesn't take much work.  We have to wrestle for contentment.  We have to wrestle for happiness.

This is a wrestling match that is worth winning.  

Such wrestling and striving doesn’t downplay how hard life can be.  It doesn’t downplay the brokenness and fallenness that we live in.  It doesn’t downplay suffering or pain or loss or depression.  And at the same time it doesn’t elevate happiness as the greatest good thereby negating any benefit that suffering has in this life.

Instead, it should lead us to understand what Paul meant when he said in 2 Corinthians 6:10 that we can be “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing… having nothing, yet possessing everything.”  In some ways, it’s a perspective change.  A change to seeing our lives the way God sees them.  Enveloped in His glorious grace; encapsulated within in His sovereign and glorious plan.

Happy

Beginning Easter Sunday morning and running for two weeks post-Easter, we'll be taking some time as a church to look at what it means to wrestle like this in a series we've titled, Happy: Wrestling for Contentment in Light of the Resurrection.

My prayer is that this series would be transformational corrective to our view of happiness as Christians.

From Ephesus to Us

"The letter to the Ephesians is a marvelously concise, yet comprehensive, summary of the Christian good news and its implications.  Nobody can read it without being moved to wonder and worship, and challenged to consistency of life," so claims theologian John Stott.

But can a nearly 2000 year-old letter, written to people you've never met, in a completely different culture, context, and time really achieve that?  How does it achieve that?  What's so amazing about this letter that nobody can read it without being moved and challenged?

Cultural Parallels

To begin to answer that question, we should first realize that the first-century city of Ephesus was not all that unlike our own city of Lincoln in the present.  At about 300,000 people in size, Ephesus was one of the largest and most important cities in it's respective area.  It was a center for trade, commerce, politics, as well as recreation and worship.

“To begin to answer that question, we should first realize that the first-century city of Ephesus was not all that unlike our own city of Lincoln in the present.”

The Temple of Artemis (or "Diana") was there.  Within reason, the Temple or Artemis was approximately the size of Memorial Stadium, made entirely out of marble, and regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.  As the goddess most worshiped in private devotions in the Mediterranean world, thousands upon thousands of people flocked to the city of Ephesus to pay tribute to Artemis.  While there, they spent lots of money and kept the local economy alive and thriving.

Gospel Parallels

Sometime early in the 1st century (likely A.D. 52), the people of Ephesus began to encounter the gospel of Jesus in a significant way when a missionary named Paul visited the city (Acts 18:19-20).  Upon arriving, he preached the good news about Jesus to the Jews in the synagogue but did not stay long, leaving to move on but later returning to stay for two and a half years there (see Acts 19).

When Paul did return, he found a city full of pagans as well as religious people (both Jews and non-Jewish God-fearers).  Additionally; however, as we read in Acts 19, there were also some people who had heard about Jesus, believed themselves to be disciples of Jesus, but truly were not saved.

Paul labored through tears and trials (Acts 20:19) for two and a half years in this city.  During that time, the church was established in Ephesus.

The Letter

Some years laters (between A.D. 60-62) Paul wrote at letter from prison in Rome intended for the fledgling Christians in Ephesus.  Some of the recipients (not unlike the makeup of a typical modern-day church) had been "religious" all their life but had only recently encountered the good news of the gospel of Jesus.  Others were pagans who became believers and found themselves growing into leadership in the local church.  Still others were those who believed they were Christ followers, only later to realize they weren't, who had since now become true Christ followers.

“And it’s for this reason that none of us should be able to read the letter to the Ephesians without “being moved to wonder and worship, and challenged to consistency of life.”

These fledgling Christians now found themselves "marginalized in a pluralistic culture tolerant of many things but not of the Christian gospel or the church which proclaimed it." (Ferguson, Let's Study Ephesians).

The letter to the Ephesians was thus written to encourage and instruct these believers.  

The Message: Encourage and Instruct

Perhaps the best summary of Ephesians is found in Ephesians 5:8: "For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Walk as children of light."

The order of that summary is important:  Who we now are (in Christ) proceeds, undergirds, and drives how we are to live.

This is the message of Ephesians.  Ephesians is a letter that is all about who we are "in Christ" (the first half of the letter) and how we are to live "in Christ" (the second half of the letter).  

The divine structuring of the letter reminds us that everything we're to do is founded on all that Christ has done—in other words, our gospel identity forms our gospel life.  

This is a message that transcends centuries, cultures and contexts.  It is the very heart of Christianity itself.  And it's for this reason that none of us should be able to read the letter to the Ephesians without "being moved to wonder and worship, and challenged to consistency of life."

Read.  Wonder.  Be moved.  Be challenged.

A People That Listens

The church is not a building, it's a people.  As a people, the church must be a people who listen.

First and foremost, the church is a people who listen to God through His Word and His Spirit.  Additionally, however, the church must be a people who listen to the culture around them.

Why Listening to the Culture is Important

We must listen to the culture (i.e. our city, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, media, and so on) in order that we can be good missionaries to our culture.  This will consist of listening to the culture to...

• …Identify idols in the culture
• …Understand who the culture consists of
• …Ascertain what those of the culture are interested in
• …Find points of connection to share the gospel
• …Know parts of the local culture well enough to integrate them into our presentation of the gospel.

We cannot be afraid of the culture, we've got to listen to the culture and engage the culture if we want to see the gospel of Jesus change and transform the culture.

The Example of Paul

“We cannot be afraid of the culture, we’ve got to listen to the culture and engage the culture if we want to see the gospel of Jesus change and transform the culture.”

Biblically, we see this exemplified by the Apostle Paul in Acts 17 when he enters into Athens.  When Paul got to Athens, he engaged the Athenian culture.  He doesn't hide himself from the culture or flat out reject the culture he runs headlong into it.  He does so as one with the gospel of Jesus Christ in a closed fist—never to be shaken, altered, changed, or watered-down.  But he also takes that gospel into the culture, getting to know the culture so that he can bring the unchangeable gospel to bear on that culture.

Do Not Be Afraid

As Christians—as the church—we cannot be afraid of the culture.  We are not to run from the culture to try and protect the gospel, we're to run to the culture with the gospel.  And as we do that, we are to listen to the culture so that we know the culture well enough to integrate what we know of the culture into our presentation of the gospel.

A People That Celebrates

Who, of the people you know, throws the best parties? Are those people Christians?  They should be.

The Most to Celebrate

Christians, out of all the people in the world, have the absolute most to celebrate. We have been redeemed by God, reconciled to the Father, made new, our sins have been forgiven, and we've been put in right standing with God.  We've been adopted by the heavenly Father who has promised to never leave or forsake us, the power of God lives in us, we've been promised eternal life, and we're heirs of the King!

What could possibly be more worthy of celebration than all of that?!

The Least Celebrative

And yet often times when I hear Chrisitians interact (and I'm guilty of this myself too), it seems as if none of the above is true.  We're so prone to focus on our struggles over and above our blessings - over and above all that Christ has done for us.

“Who, of the people you know, throws the best parties? Are those people Christians? They should be.”

It's not that discussing our sin struggles and experiencing suffering should be hidden away (they most certainly should not be); however, celebrating who God is and what He's done and who He's made us to be should have at least equal (I'd argue for more) airtime than our struggles.

When we get this flipped, we inherently communicate false truths about our God to the world around us as we slip into a quasi-redeemed fatalism that says: life is hard, I suck, sin is strong, things probably won't change, it is what it is but "thanks be to Jesus."

That doesn't sounds like "good news"... because it's not.

What Are We Celebrating?

When I first was planting 2 Pillars Church, I had a church planting coach who would call me once a month to equip, encourage, and help me in the planting process.  His name was Bob.  Each month as I prepared for that call, I had a list of struggles, questions, junk I needed to vent, lists of things that weren't going well, not to mention my own sins that I needed to confess and repent from.

“Christians, out of all the people in the world, have the absolute most to celebrate.”

Bob, knowing this was the case, would always start every single one of those coaching calls with the question: "What are we celebrating?"  

That sounds simple, I know.  It sounds cheesy, I know.  But, it was one of the most powerful things that God used to continue to point me back to His goodness, His blessings, and what He was doing, despite all the junk that I saw down in the muck and mire.

What Are You Celebrating?

You might not feel super celebratory today, but if you believe and belong to Jesus you have so much to celebrate.  What are you celebrating today?

How often do you focus on the things worth celebrating in your life?  

Photo Credit: Jessica Brinkmeyer

The Aim of the Church

Understanding that the church is not a building, but a people is essential to understanding the aim (or goal) of the church.

If we think the church is a building that we go to rather than a people who we are, it is very easy to begin to see the aim of the church as simply to get more people to go to church.  The problem is that if that works, all we've done is get a bunch of people into a building.  While that is not bad, it's certainly not complete.

On the other hand, when we begin to see that the church is a people who we are rather than a building that we go to, then we can begin to see that the aim of the church is to get the church to be the church so that those who are not the church can become the church and then go and do likewise.

The Church is the redeemed people of God.  The aim of the Church (in dependance and reliance upon the Holy Spirit) is to see more people become the redeemed people of God so that God receives more and more glory, honor, and worship.

For more on this idea, check out this resource.

Photo Credit: United Nations Photos

The Church Isn't a Building

---

"Do you go to church?"  "Where do you go to church?"  "Where is your church?"  

These questions are as common as college football in our city and culture and yet they portray a fundamentally flawed understanding of what exactly the church is.

Not a Building

Biblically, the church isn't a building it's a people.

As you read the Bible, you find several metaphors that are used for the church: 

• A body (Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27)
• The "bride" of Christ (Ephesians 5; Revelation 19:6-8) 
• A flock of sheep (to be shepherded - c.f. Acts 20:28-29; 1 Peter 5:2-3)
• A family (into which we have been adopted (Galatians 4:5) and now are to relate to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ (Matthew 12:48-50; 1 John 4:20; 1 Timothy 5:1-2)

What all of the biblical metaphors have in common is that they are not a place you go to, but rather a people whom we are.  You do not go to the body.  You either are a part of the body or you are not.  Likewise, family is not something you go to, it's something who you are.

In the Bible there are no pleas for people to "go to church."  The plea is for non-believers to become the church.  In the first century, if you were a believer you were, inherently, a part of the church.  If you weren't a part of the church, no one called you a believer.  Additionally, being a part of the church meant you were deeply involved in and committed to the life and well-being of the church (i.e. other believers).

“In the first century, if you were a believer you were, inherently, a part of the church. If you weren’t a part of the church, no one called you a believer.”

Why It Matters

When Christians substitute seeing themselves as the church and instead see the church as a building we go to, we lose a fundamental piece of what it means to actually be Christian.  

When I separate "church" out to something that I go to, I no longer see myself as a part of the church, but rather the church is peripheral to me.  There is me... and then there is the church... but the two are not one-in-the same.  

This is not biblical and it leads down a path to Christian consumerism where the church (which exists apart from me) is supposed to serve me and meet my needs and preferences.  Viewing the church in this way converts it from a people (which I am a part of) to a vending machine of religious goods and services for my personal benefit.

Recommitting to Being the Church

The church isn't a building, it's a people.  It's a people that love God and love others.  It's a people that celebrate.  It's a people that bless and serve those around them.  It's a people that listen well to those around them that do not yet know Jesus as Lord.  It's also a people who know how to rest and work to the glory of God.

It's a people that are much more than this, but certainly not a people that are less than this.

In the coming weeks we will be exploring more of this theme here on the blog. 

As a church, we will also be working through this idea during our Sunday gatherings over the next six weeks.  To hammer this idea home that the church isn't a building but a people, we will be gathering as the church not at our building, but in local parks several Sundays this summer.  For more information, visit 2PillarsChurch.com/inthepark

What's So "Good" About Good Friday?

Good Friday is the day of the year where Christians remember and celebrate the death of Jesus.  Death isn't something that we typically celebrate, so… what is it that is so "good" about Good Friday?

To make sense of this, we need to understand something about sin, something about blood, and something about Jesus.

Sin

The Bible teaches that every single one of us is sinful.  This includes you and it includes me.  Biblically speaking, however, we're not just considered sinful because we don't do what we should do (sins of omission) and do do what we shouldn't do (sins of commission); rather, we're born sinful.  Sin therefore infects every aspect of who we are - our actions, thoughts, emotions - everything.  

Another way to say that is to say: we're not sinful because we sin, we sin because we're sinful.

The Bible further teaches that because of our sinfulness, we are at odds with God and that when we die, if our relationship with God is not repaired, that we will spend eternity apart from God in what the Bible calls hell.

Blood Must Be Shed

When it comes to repairing our relationship with God, the Bible teaches that we are not able to do that in-and-of ourselves because everything we do is tainted by our sinfulness.  What that means is that even our best efforts to seek God or please God are not enough to repair the broken relationship with God.  Nothing we do can repair it.

Going to church every week can't do it. Reading the Bible every day can't do it.  Praying every morning can't do it.  Alleviating poverty can't do it.  Nothing we do can repair our broken relationship with God.

Instead, the Bible teaches, blood must be shed.  In fact, as you read through the Old Testament, that's exactly what the sacrifice system is all about: making atonement.  Making atonement is just a fancy way of saying that it is through the sacrifice that God's wrath is removed for an offense against God (sin).  More simply: blood must be shed in order for the wrath of God which we deserve for our sin to be appeased.

Enter Jesus.

Jesus

The Bible teaches that Jesus came to repair, once for all, the broken relationship between us and God.  That God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us (Romans 5:8).  That Jesus, the Son of God, was sent by the love of God the Father to rescue us in our brokenness and to repair our relationship.

When Jesus died on the cross on Good Friday, he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.  Having come and having lived the perfect life, he died the perfect death, in our place for our sin.  It was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices and he did it for us.

And when we believe and trust in Jesus, this is effective for us.  Not only is the wrath of God due to us for our sin appeased, but we are forgiven, redeemed, and restored according to the riches of his grace which he lavishes upon us.  When you believe and trust in Jesus, your broken relationship is fully and finally repaired.

That's what is so good about Good Friday.  That's why we, as Christians, remember and celebrate this day.  

Celebrate With Us

If you'd like to learn more about Good Friday or simply need a place to remember and celebrate it, we invite you to join us this Friday at 6:30pm for a one-hour worship gathering at the 2 Pillars Church building on the corner of 15th and South.

Photo Credit: Jason St Peter