June 1, 2025

The nature of the Church is described most often as family. This term implies a number of important principals. Families are the smallest and arguable the most important social structure. Our primary allegiance and closest relationships are with our family (1 Tim 5:8). 

If the Church is the household of God then we are brothers and sisters. We should value our relationships with brethren as we do our own families. We should miss them when we don’t see them. We should be concerned about their well-being; we should help them when they are in need. We should take an interest in their lives. 

Caring about people this way doesn’t just happen. These kinds of relationships take time and attention. There is no question that each Christian should endeavour to get to know and spend time with brethren. 

The local congregation also has a role in facilitating this relationship development. Certainly, the teaching ministry needs to work to impart these principals. In addition, the congregation should look for ways to make fellowship a part of each of our regular meetings. Something like coffee before and after Sunday service or areas of the building with chairs and tables for people to gather. Specific events that are planned with an eye toward fellowship are important as well. 

Many churches have potluck meals together. This is great, events outside the building like sports or activities can add options that allow for mutual shared interests among brethren. In planning these the physical abilities of some may need to be considered and accommodated. This is not to say we exclude considering activities or events it just means we provide options that will be appealing to different groups. Some may like a quilting group while others want to go on a hike or play paint ball. The latter may sound like youth group activities but there is great value in keeping as many events as possible open to all generations.

The encouragement and camaraderie of the local congregation is a wonderful blessing that God has provided. Let us be thankful for it and seek ways to embrace fellowship in our individual and congregational lives.

~ Kevin Cleary

May 25, 2025

Some animals are born with innate abilities that they need for survival. Cat’s don’t need to be taught to chase something small and fast moving. Humans however come with very few innate abilities. Nearly everything we need we will have to be taught. This is true not only of cooking Kraft Dinner but also of understanding religious truth. Christianity is a taught religion. I believe we could sustain the argument that humans do have an instinctual desire to seek God. However, that instinct does not offer us insights into having a right relationship with said God. Hence the need for teaching. Evangelism involves teaching people initially about what God has done for them and why. In addition, those who respond to the call of the gospel will then need further instruction as per Matthew 28:20. Paul makes the importance of teaching obvious in his letter to the Thessalonians chapter 3:8-10 Paul makes clear that he needs to further instruct them in order to supply what is lacking in their faith. On another later occasion Paul tells the Ephesian elders that he has not failed to declare to them the whole council of God. He further entrusts them to the written record of this teaching (Acts 20:17-32). Paul further makes clear the need for teaching when he explains that the roles within the church including teachers and evangelists exist so that saints can be equipped for the work of ministry, he explicitly ties this effort to gaining knowledge (Eph 4:11-13). If the church at large or a local congregation of it is to grow and develop as it should it needs to have an effective teaching ministry. 

If we as Christians are to grow in our ability to serve God and share his love with others we should have a learning ministry. We sometimes make the mistake of taking Bible classes lightly as teachers we may not take the appropriate time and energy to be fully prepared to teach God’s word. As learners we may not be devoting attention and respect to learning Gods word. We must all admit that we can only do better if we know better. Paul reminds us that it is God’s word that is able to make us complete (2Tim 2:15-17). God’s word can’t do it’s work by osmosis we must take an active and determined role in teaching it and learning it. 

~ Kevin Cleary

May 18, 2025

The local congregation of God’s people has long been understood to serve one primary purpose along with three secondary purposes. That primary purpose is revealed by Jesus when he expresses his purpose in Luke 19:10, “the Son of man came to seek and save that which was lost.” If this was Jesus’ mission, then his body (Eph 1:22-23), the instrument we all use to carry out our wishes, must occupy itself primarily with that same goal. Just like other institutions, there are other key works that the local body must concern itself with if it is to have the capacity to carry out the primary goal. These would be education/edification, fellowship, and benevolence. People who are not healthy and capable themselves will be unable to reach help others. Just like a military unit has one mission but several necessary functions that are important but secondary to that mission, so the Lord’s church has one mission but a number of important secondary considerations.

We would rightly consider it foolish for a military general to exhaust all his or her resources on munitions while devoting nothing to food or shelter for the soldiers. Starving Soldiers can’t fight, the same is true of tired soldiers. Attention must be paid to logistics if we can’t deploy forces to the right areas and keep them supplied again their ability to perform is greatly reduced or eliminated altogether. For this reason, a good General will give careful attention and planning to these secondary matters while never losing sight of the primary mission. 

Such is also needed in our consideration of how to effectively share the good news about what God has done in the world. If we are to win the battle for souls, there are a number of key elements that need to be in place and our allocation of resources must be carefully considered. For example, a church which has no teaching may engage in evangelism but have no ability to “teach all” that Jesus has commanded. Thus, there is no maturity or longevity. Similarly, a church with no community building attitude or activities may invite souls into the body but then leave them to a social life devoid of Godly people or principles. 

~ Kevin Cleary

May 11, 2025

     A number of years ago I had the opportunity to volunteer at a music festival. A number of bands played and then were critiqued by the adjudicators. The two men who did the adjudication were skilled musicians and university music professors. It was interesting to hear them explain to the various bands how they could improve as a group and even to hear improvement in the few minutes they worked with each group. One thing they repeatedly told each band was something I had never heard before. They told them to hum or sing the notes and compare their playing to their singing. I wondered why for the first few times until one of the adjudicators explained. “The goal of any musician is to sound like the human voice”. He pointed out that the greatest complement a musician can receive is to be told their playing sounded vocal. I couldn’t help but take note.

     No wonder then when God revealed how his new covenant people should worship it was using the only instrument created by Him, which every other instrument tries to be, the human voice. As God’s people leave behind the imperfect and embrace the perfect it only makes sense. We leave the imperfect and ineffective animal sacrifice for the perfect effective sacrifice of Christ Heb 10:1-12. We leave behind the imperfect music of mechanical instruments for the perfect fruit of men’s lips Heb 13:15.

     In this light it’s no wonder that Charles Spurgeon puts it as he does; “Praise the Lord with the harp. Israel was at school, and used childish things to help her to learn; but in these days when Jesus gives us spiritual food, one can make melody without strings and pipes. We do not need them. They would hinder rather than help our praise. Sing unto him. This is the sweetest and best music. No instrument like the human voice.” (Commentary on Psalms 42:4) “David appears to have had a peculiarly tender remembrance of the singing of the pilgrims, and assuredly it is the most delightful part of worship and that which comes nearest to the adoration of heaven. What a degradation to supplant the intelligent song of the whole congregation by the theatrical prettiness of a quartet, bellows, and pipes! We might as well pray by machinery as praise by it.” (Spurgeon preached to 20,000 people every Sunday for 20 years in the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle and never were mechanical instruments of music used in his services. When asked why, he quoted 1st Corinthians 14:15. “I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.” He then declared: “I would as soon pray to God with machinery as to sing to God with machinery.” (Charles H. Spurgeon,)

     Thank God that he has blessed us with the ability to express our love and devotion with the beauty and simplicity of voices raised to heaven.

~ Kevin Cleary

May 4, 2025

The term woke gets thrown around a lot in contemporary political and social discussion. It seems however that people are using different definitions of the term and because of that are often talking past each other. The term has some value as it captures a large swath of related ideas but sometimes it is stretched too far both by those who use it in a good way and those who use it in a derogatory way. So, what exactly is woke as currently used?

In its current form wokeness goes back to Karl Marx. Marx applied the Hegelian dialectic to economics and envisioned a synthesis which would offer economic freedom to the oppressed (proletariat) from their capitalist overlords (bourgeois). Marx’s economic theory has held great appeal for many despite its catastrophic consequences manifested in cruel regimes around the world. 

Not long after Marx, certain academics, especially those of the Frankfurt school and then the institution for social research at Columbia university, applied Marx’s economic division to sociology. They agreed with Marx about the oppressor- oppressed power dynamic but deemed it to be a cultural division rather than an economic one. Thus, liberation could be achieved not by the economic implementation of communism or socialism but by sweeping cultural change. There remains a strong sympathy for communism and socialism they simply don’t go far enough. 

Shortly after and somewhat during the sociological influence of the Frankfurt School came the Postmodernists. These scholars contributed a key idea to the oppressor oppressed social conception. The cultural oppression described above was achieved through meta-narratives (an overarching understanding of how the world works). Jean-Francis Leotard defined postmodernism as “incredulity toward meta-narratives.” To be truly free the oppressed must be released from truth itself. 

It’s not capitalists oppressing the workers, rather, its Western culture oppressing subordinate cultures. To achieve liberation, it is necessary to help people see this oppression and being aware of it respond accordingly. Those who engage in the effort to identify oppression/ oppressive ideas, make people aware of it, and cause them to respond to it, are called Critical Theorists. This is the academic term, the layman term for adherents to Critical Theory is “woke.” 

Many who call themselves woke, don’t want to see an end to western civilization. They don’t want to usher in a communist/ socialist regime. They still believe truth is knowable and actionable. They have just been tricked by a good marketing ploy which says if you are compassionate and want to help people then you are woke. When in fact the term carries a host of political and ideological baggage. Many left leaning politicians are actually woke which is why some myself included have responded so negatively to them, and fought so hard to keep them out of power. 

I would urge the reader to consider a further matter which can be discussed later. Can/ should a Christian be woke?

~ Kevin Cleary