This Sunday is part two of a message I shared last week redefining Good Religion. Sunday we will look at a very familiar story from Luke 10, the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The context of this parable is Jesus and an expert of the Jewish law are discussing how a person can inherit eternal life. Another way to say that is, what is a good religion? Jesus and the man agree that good religion is loving God and loving your neighbor. But the expert of the law wants to justify himself and what has been his typical religious practice of neighboring, so he asks the question, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responds by sharing the parable of the Good Samaritan. I’m assuming we are all familiar with the account. Jesus closes the discussion by asking the expert a different question. A better question. The more important question: “Who was the neighbor to the man who fell to the hands of robbers?” Jesus masterfully connects Good Religion first, to love for God, which, if sincere, will be accompanied by a sacrificial love for others.
It is easy to think of religion as something we do in a sanctuary building or on a mountain top experience. Jesus teaches us that true religion is as practical as meeting the needs of others who can never repay our kindnesses. That is a true neighbor! Join me this Sunday for part two of Good Religion.

“Good Religion” in many ways seems to be an oxymoron. Can religion be good? I know that seems like a strange comment coming from a Baptist preacher who has devoted his life in service to a religious organization. To be honest, I’ve always struggled with the term religion and have bristled when people have referred to me as a religious person. Why is that? There are two reasons why I think I hold that position to the term “religion.” First, Jesus himself condemned religion. Jesus saw religion as a bad attempt to come to God on our terms and was more about self-promotion than the glory of God. Secondly, I’ve seen too many people hurt by overly religious people. The crusades are a vivid example from world history, but I’ve also personally seen wounds inflicted on others through religious judgement and because of self-promotion. For the culture we are trying to reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ, the concept of religion is a barrier for them to come to Christ. Can religion be good?
This Sunday we are going to visit the book of Nehemiah where we will see the aftermath of religion gone bad and how good religion is reestablished. The man Nehemiah began his life in a position of service to others. Through his faithful service God saw qualities in his life that God tapped into to lead the nation toward a good religion. As he led the effort to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem Nehemiah faced opposition, to which he responded by giving each family and groups of families the responsibility to not only build but to defend the area closest to them. In these developments we see the dynamics of good religion. Nehemiah’s rallying cry was, “As I follow God, follow me and invite others to follow you in obedience to the Lord.”
Good religion is not complicated – it’s simple. Good religion is not top down – it’s as grass roots as it gets. Good religion can’t be compared to secular organizations – it must be understood as a spiritual organism. Good religion is not trapped in the confines of tradition – it organically adapts to relate the Gospel to the culture the church exists in. Nehemiah was a spiritually minded leader who saw the necessity of enabling other spiritually minded leaders of people. The church today must do the same thing. My message title, “Good religion needs someone to follow,” implies that same truth. The focus of our ministry is to help all people become more fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, and in the process, spiritually minded. It takes spiritually minded leaders to do this at every level of the ministry. This Sunday, ask God to reveal to you a spiritually minded person that you could gravitate toward – a person that could help you and others grow in Christ-likeness. As you the body do this, those who God desires to lead our church to practice Good Religion will become self-evident. Good Religion Needs Someone to Follow.

Sunday we wrap up our Summer Sermon Series, The Journey of Faith, with the 15th message of the series: Jesus – The Object of Our Faith. From Hebrews 11 we have looked into the lives of people commended for their faith. These were less than perfect people, often with a small faith.
What I hope we have learned through this amazing chapter is that the most important thing in the Journey of Faith is not the person demonstrating the faith (us), which can often have small or weak faith, but the most important thing is the object of our faith, which must be Jesus.
The teaching from Hebrews 11 continues into Chapter 12:1-3 where we see this clearly. The Hebrew’s writer calls us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” A little bit of faith in a big God is an awesome thing. Join me this Sunday for the conclusion to our summer series.