March 18, 2025

Dear Friends,

I spent three hours yesterday using a tiny little motorized drum sander to shape compound rounded notches in several blocks of wood. On a previous day, I spent a couple of hours cutting 3 1/2” by 4”, five degree wedges out of blocks of maple. On a couple of other days, I spent several hours with carving tools, cutting six mortises. Each of these operations are a skill in themselves but I was not doing them to hone my skills. They aren’t random pursuits.

I thought of this after a conversation with a friend last Sunday. He talked about a previous church he’d attended where people spent a great deal of time, effort and resources that ultimately produced what he termed, “only good works.” That put me in mind of a comment Dallas Willard once made: “For conservative evangelicals, the gospel is about getting sin dealt with so that people get into heaven. For liberal evangelicals, the gospel is about getting good works and justice accomplished. And both groups are misguided.”

As a local church, we’re putting a great deal of emphasis on developing a spiritual life by practicing tried and tested disciplines that enable us to live a life in the reality of God’s kingdom in its current form. We are also expending a significant degree of resources and energy to make life better for people in all sorts of ways. But all these things we are doing are analogous to my work in my shop.

You see, those shop tasks would truly be only exercises if it wasn’t for one important thing. Each of the processes I described to you has an end goal. I’m building a dining room table. Each of those steps are given much greater meaning and importance in light of that fact.

As a church, our goal is not simply to develop great processes for making disciples. Neither is it to simply do as much as we can to alleviate suffering, captivity and injustice in this world around us. Admirable as these pursuits are, they are not what Jesus told us to do. He was clear: “Go and make disciples.” “You shall be my witnesses.” Paul also understood this, saying, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

Released prisoners still go to hell without yielding to Jesus. Victims of injustice still go to hell, despite having attained justice, if they don’t yield to Jesus. Conversely, people who pray a prayer to “receive Christ” and then live their own way don’t understand the gospel and most likely hinder others from entering into life in God’s kingdom.

All these things we do to become more like Jesus and to do the works Jesus would do if he were working through us are made meaningful by a greater goal: “that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness and into his wonderful light.” We work to become good people who actually bear witness to Jesus. God uses us to draw people to himself so that we will one day all sit a great dining table, feasting with Jesus. Now, go and be the people of God where you are led to be today! Do what your hand finds to do as unto him.

Blessings!

Doug