February 16, 2025

One More Thing…

The Seven Principles of Christian Nonconformity

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” – Romans 12.2, CSB

“The cross is where reconciliation is provided, and the church is where reconciliation is proclaimed.” – Alistair Begg

Dear Church

The Way of Jesus is the way of forgiveness. The Way of Jesus is all about God’s effort to repair that which we have broken. Sin, the Bible tells us, breaks stuff. It breaks relationships. It breaks creation. It breaks my heart, and your heart. Reconciliation heals, repairs, and makes new that which we’ve broken. Christian nonconformity believes in the truth that repair is always preferable to retribution, and always possible no matter how broken things might be. Christian nonconformity reminds us that God’s intent isn’t to punish – God’s intent is to heal every heart and recreate a new heaven and a new earth. Of course, sin mars and scars. The wages of sin is death – but God’s choice is eternal reconciliation through the faithfulness of Jesus.

Reconciliation requires from us a rejection of violence as our means to “solve” the problem. Retribution and violence offer no hope and bring no solution. Retribution only ensures that despair deepens. Reconciliation doesn’t mean that we ignore the perpetration of violence by others. Instead, it means we seek to resist the violence of others through faith, hope, and love. Reconciliation does not pretend that there is no evil. Quite the opposite. Reconciliation means we shine the light on evil in the world. It means we unmask evil in the world. It proclaims to perpetrations of evil and violence that we will love them even as we oppose them...for God can redeem anyone and heal any brokenness.

So, let’s go, church (and confront the power of evil with God’s good news)!

Pastor Jeff

jeff@bgmc.net

P.S. Debbie and I are, Lord willing, on the West Coast as you read this blog. I will be back in Pennsylvania on March 1 (in time for the MYF auction!). Which means I’ll be back at the A&N Diner to listen to whatever is on your mind on Monday, March 3 (7:30am-8:45am), and I’ll be back for an afternoon Caffe Breve at the Broad Street Grind on Friday, March 7 (3:30pm-4:45pm).

February 9, 2025

One More Thing…

The Seven Principles of Christian Nonconformity

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” – Romans 12.2, CSB

“I sometimes fear that we have so redefined conversion in terms of human decisions and have so removed any necessity of the experience of God’s Spirit, that many people think they are saved when in fact they only have Christian ideas in their head, not spiritual power in their heart.” – John Piper

Dear Church,

It could be that for us in the Anabaptist-Mennonite family of the Christian movement, conversion has become the hardest point of nonconformity for us to accept. Historic, “crusade” approaches to evangelism and conversion across the Swiss German Mennonite community as defined by evangelists like George R. Brunk II and the Brunk Brother Revival Campaigns have cast a firm point of view that shapes, for better or for worse, the contemporary Mennonite understanding of evangelism and conversion. In the main, many Mennonites express some degree of warmth at experiencing the invitation to live in the gospel from the environment of a tent revival, while just as many, maybe more, perhaps look back on such an experience as controlling and manipulative.

The challenge of Christian conversion is to recognize that it is not a once and done experience. Billy Graham, the greatest English-speaking evangelist of the 20th century said, “Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion – it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ.” Conversion is a starting point for the journey together with Jesus. It is the fulcrum of the Jesus Way. Conversion is the nonconformist launching pad that sends us to the scriptures and calls us into community so that we can become disciples. Conversion is the starting point that leads us to reconciliation and the cross so that we live a life of active faithfulness. Conversion is the nonconforming way of transformation. As A.W. Tozer said, “If your Christian conversion did not reverse the direction of your life, if it did not transform it, then you are not converted at all. You are simply a victim of the ‘Accept Jesus’ heresy.’”

Conversion is not an ideological acknowledgement of a few theological propositions. Conversion is a way of life that leads us to a spirituality of discipleship and fuels are activism in the gospel.

So, let’s go, church (and be converted)

Pastor Jeff

jeff@bgmc.net

P.S. Well, the time has come for another trip to the West Coast. I’ll be at the A&N Diner on Monday, February 10 (7:30am-8:45am) for conversation. Debbie and I leave for a West Coast trip on Wednesday, February 12, so by all means go have a coffee with someone you love at the Broad Street Grind on Friday, February 14!