Paul Stewart

Come & Listen

Last weekend at Gateway we successfully launched our second worship service. On top of that we rolled out a brand new stage design, child check-in process, connection table and newcomer assimilation process. Needless to say, it was a busy week. In fact this week I felt a lot like I did two years ago after our very first worship service. Tired and happy. But all of our hard work paid off. We had over 230 people in attendance with dozens of first-time visitors. I am so proud of our staff, our ministry teams and our entire church. God is really doing something remarkable in downtown Des Moines.

This Sunday we are beginning a new sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Nowhere does Jesus talk more clearly about what it looks like to follow him than in the Sermon on the Mount. It's a provocative and counter-intuitive announcement about what happens when God shows up: The poor, the meek, and those who mourn are called blessed. Enemies are loved, the poor are cared for God's will is done on earth.

Jesus is announcing that God is showing up! That the life of heaven, which had seemed so distant and unreal, is in the process of coming true on earth. These are not rules that need to be obeyed in order to be rewarded. Things to avoid if you want to make it to heaven. This is an announcement about an entirely new state of affairs, a new reality which is in the process of bursting into the world. 

The sermon is a radical call to action. It sets forth a revolutionary new way of life. We are told to 'turn the other cheek' to 'love our enemies' and to 'invest our treasure in heaven.' But all of these demands are ultimately a summons - beckoning us to experience His kingdom, to live under its values, right now in the present. Come and listen! The kingdom of God is here.

Convoy of Hope is Coming to Des Moines

On November 12th Gateway will be partnering with a number of other churches in our city along with corporations, schools, non-profit agencies and thousands of volunteers in  one of the largest community outreaches our city has ever seen. 

The event will be held on Saturday, November 12th from 10am - 2pm at Wells Fargo Arena downtown Des Moines. We'll provide thousands of free groceries, job and health fairs, haircuts and makeovers as well as inflatables and activities for children.

Volunteers will be given an opportunity to connect with thousands of people in our city and display Christ’s love and mercy to all - regardless of age, race, physical appearance, or spiritual condition.

If you attend Gateway you can sign up to volunteer by clicking HERE.
If you don't attend Gateway but you, your church or your organization would like to get involved go HERE. 

Steve Jobs and the Meaning of Life

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
                                                                         - Steve Jobs

The consciousness of death is the beginning of all philosophy. It causes you to stop and question - what really matters? What does it all mean? What am I doing that will last? I was struck when I picked up the newspaper this morning and learned of Steve Jobs death. He had such an impact on my life through the films he helped create at Pixar to the technology he designed at Apple. Our world will never be the same. Or will it?

The quote above is from Jobs' commencement address at Stanford in 2005 and has been making the rounds across the internet over the past 24 hours. The words are inspiring and especially poignant on a day like today, however, I’m not sure I agree.

At Gateway we’ve been in a sermon series on Ecclesiastes. This book is unlike any other book in the Bible. Most of the books of the Bible we go to to find answers. But Ecclesiastes is a book of questions, not answers. It was written to draw something out of you. It asks life’s tough questions and pushes you to the follow the logical conclusion of your assumptions and beliefs. It asks, “Why do you believe that? And if you believe that, do you see where that belief ultimately leads?”

It begins like this: "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?”

The word “meaningless” and the phrase “under the sun” are repeated again and again throughout the book and are the keys to understanding the approach of the Teacher.

The Hebrew word for “meaningless” is hevel which translates vapor, mist, or breath. Life is vapor. It’s all a mist. Success, invention, money, fame, wisdom, education, power - it’s all hevel. It is here today and gone tomorrow.

The phrase “under the sun” refers to the realm of the created, which exists in time. Namely the time between the day you were born and the day you die. It is everything we can touch, see and observe. The Teacher is saying, “Let’s assume that nature is all there is. Let’s assume that the only life is the life under the sun. There is no heaven or hell. There is no God. If that is the case, what does it all mean?”

This book was written thousands of years ago, but this is actually a very modern approach. Every scientist will tell you that one day our sun will burn up and die. Which means that absolutely everything you do will be utterly forgotten. Nothing you do will make any lasting difference. There is no gain! There is no profit! It is all meaningless!

If this life is all there is then death trumps every card you can play.

No amount of strategic planning.
No amount of due-diligence.
No amount of risk management.
No amount of hard work will stop it!

So in the face of death what does really matter? What can we do that will last? What does it all mean?

Like Jobs, the Teacher tries “following his heart.” He pursues a variety of different paths. Pleasure and frivolity (2v10); wisdom and education (2v15); work and philanthropy (2v4). Like Jobs he did it all. Accomplished it all. He got the BMW. Solved the equation. Finished the book. Invented the iPod. Then he looks all that he had done and has the guts to ask - what does it all mean? “When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” (2v11)

If our origin is insignificant and our destiny is insignificant then our lives must be insignificant. Following your heart is just vague sentimentality. 

So what is the answer? The book of Ecclesiastes only hints at it. In the end the Teacher concludes, “A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” (2v24). Here, for the first time in this book, we see God begin to invade life under the sun. God the uncreated entering into the realm of the created. 

What is the Teacher saying? 

Either there is life above the sun - a God who created you, sustains you, and will ultimately judge you - or else everything is ultimately meaningless. Either there is life above the sun and there is meaning or there is only life under the sun and nothing means anything. And there is no middle ground.

So how do we know?

John chapter 1 says, “In the beginning was the logos, and the logos was with God, and the logos was God... The logos became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

Logos is a Greek philosophical term that essentially meant the reason for life. In the time before Christ the Greek philosophers used to get together and say, “if we could just discover the logos of life, then things will be fine.” So they would argue about what the logos could be. Confucius said we should honor our parents and ancestors. Others said our logos is to make the world a better place. Others said we should just follow our heart. But everyone found that when they brought their lives into accord with it, it didn’t transform them.

By the time Jesus arrived many were saying there is no logos. There is no meaning in life.

And into that, John steps in and says there is logos. But the logos is not a truth brought by a person, it is a truth that is a person. It is not an abstract principle or theorem. The logos is a human being. God come to earth. Invading life under the sun. Dwelling among us. Showing us how much we matter. How much creation matters. How much every moment of our lives matter!

And when you know this logos you find your reason for life and now instead of nothing meaning anything, everything means everything.

To be a Christian means to follow Christ and reflect his nature - and when you do you begin to realize that everything in this life matters. Every moment. Every child’s hug. Every midnight conversation. Every walk in nature. Everything is a reflection of the truth of God’s nature.

I know the reason that Winter turns into Spring and that a seed becomes flower is because God brings life out of death.

I know that when I talk to someone in the airport, I could have the opportunity to turn them toward God and that conversation could be something that 3 billion years from now we look back on with laughter and tears in our eyes because right now counts forever. 

I know that when my baby is crying at 4am and I go to help her out that this child is not just the result of a random collision of molecules and that nothing she ever does will ultimately matter. No. I know this child is created in the image of God. Created with an immortal soul. If this child turns toward the Lord than someday we will sit together around the throne of God laughing and loving and rejoicing in eternity.

When I clean my house, wash my car, cook a meal - this is not just an electro-chemical need in my brain for order. It’s because I was made in the image of a God who brings order out of chaos.

Everything means everything or nothing means anything. If Jesus becomes your logos - than every moment matters.

2 Years. 2 Services.

In the past two years Gateway has grown from a handful of people meeting in a living room to nearly 200 gathering weekly to discover the way of Jesus, to connect with community, and to explore together ways we can serve one another and our world.

On October 16th, in an effort to accomodate continued growth and impact on our city, we will be launching a second service. The new service times will be 9am & 10:45am and will be identical.

Our gatherings are a great opportunity to express our faith together through song, Scripture reading and teaching. To meditate together on the truths of the gospel: God’s beauty and holiness, our brokenness and need for humility, grace, and healing, and the glory of Christ in uniting us to God and to one another in love. If you're in Des Moines, we would love for you to join us!

A New Kind of Pentecostal

This week the 54th General Council of the Assemblies of God was held down in Phoenix, Arizona. I was unable to attend, but have followed along from a distance. There were only a few issues on the docket that really seemed substantial but what I am most excited about is the tone coming out of Phoenix. 

There is no question that we are a different movement than we were only four years ago. We are a fellowship that is more gender, race and age inclusive; more compassionate and forgiving; more passionate and strategic; a people full of the Holy Spirit and yet more prepared than ever for Him to move in and through us in new and creative ways. A movement that I believe is both more true to its roots and more relevant for the future.

While the Assemblies of God never completely abandoned issues of justice and mercy - creating such incredible ministries as Teen Challenge, Latin American Childcare and more recently Convoy of Hope - we are now more intentional than ever about social action. In 2009, General Superintendent George Wood led the charge to add 'compassion' as the fourth element in our reason for being—in recognition that Jesus came to glorify God (worship), save the lost (evangelize), make disciples (disciple), but also serve human need (compassion).

I believe this small and seemingly obvious change to our bylaws has already helped our  movement become more true to the whole-gospel message; more aware of the needs of our Pentecostal brothers and sisters around the world (close to 600 million) and more relevant to a new generation of Pentecostal pastors and leaders. 

This week Christianity Today ran “A New Kind of Pentecostal” highlighting many of these changes. In it Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, points out that for decades American Pentecostalism has been predominantly white and rural but it will soon become primarily ethnic and urban. 

Rodriguez also notes that American Pentecostals have traditionally held a vertical worldview of their faith, focusing on personal beliefs and a salvation that prepares one's soul to make the Rapture.

Ethnic Pentecostals on the other hand say, 'I am saved by grace, but I also receive the power of God so my family can be transformed, and so we can overcome social ills and gangs in our neighborhood.' The priorities of this [ethnic Pentecostal] community are issues of life, biblical marriage, education, sex trafficking, immigration reform, poverty alleviation—all under the canopy of the Great Commission."

Rodriguez says that recently there has been a shift that has drawn younger Pentecostals to both the vertical and horizontal planes of the Cross.

The new Pentecostals "stand at the nexus of both dynamics—salvation and transformation, covenant and community, righteousness and justice, Billy Graham and Dr. Martin Luther King. 

The Spirit is always moving; always renewing. Our Pentecostal forefathers were able to perceive that and follow the Spirit in remarkable ways. The World Christian Encyclopedia states that in 1900, only seven-tenths of 1 percent of Christians were Pentecostal; today, approximately 25 percent are. 

But how do we maintain this momentum going forward? This is a problem for every institution, but unlike Lutherans or Methodists we can’t look back and find our identity from the writings of our founder. Rather the “identity” of our movement was a common experience of the Holy Spirit by a group of very common people.

This experience can never be passed down through a doctrine. In fact, the key to the Pentecostal movement was never about a doctrine but a passionate pursuit of God for an empowering work of the Spirit to carry forth the Great Commission of Jesus.

Pentecostalism, therefore, only works for one generation. After that it is Pentecostal in name only, unless there is another revival. But revival never looks the same twice. Every generation must experience the Spirit for themselves. The Spirit is always moving; always renewing. 

May we never confine the supernatural move of the Spirit into a simple formula, doctrine or institution. Rather may we continue to perceive the Spirit’s movement in our generation, adapt to Him and join in His renewal of all things. 

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
Isaiah 43v19

Support A Creative Theology

One of our dreams for The Gateway Church has always been that it would become a place that would foster the arts, cultivate imagination and unleash the creativity inside the human spirit to change the world. 

That is why I am so excited about A Creative Theology - a new book written by my friend Sam Mahlstadt. This book wrestles with the concepts of faith and creativity. Foundational to the book is the belief that there is something theological about creativity. That if we explore the relational force of creativity, we will uncover something both fascinating and life-changing.

The book is filled with profound insights on the beauty of creation, the ravages of the fall and the promise of restoration. It is a passionate call to wake up the creative spirit that has been woven into all of us but lies dormant within so many of us and to join The Creator in His project of restoration and renewal.

Sam worked together with a few talented designers from Gateway on creating a book that is so much more than a book. They have turned a series of words and thoughts into beautiful art. You can view some samples here.

With our help, Sam will be publishing this as a full-color, hardcover book that you will return to not only for the concepts within the pages, but for the inspiring modern design. Click here to find out more and to help Sam get this incredible project off the ground!

Evangelical Celebrity Death Match

This week another well known Christian speaker and author has thrown his hat in the ring on the debate about hell, creating some kind of an evangelical celebrity death match: Francis Chan vs. Rob Bell. 

Let me say that I have deep respect for these men but I strongly disagree with both of them on this issue. In fact, I find Chan's recently posted ad for his new book Erasing Hell as troubling as anything I read or heard from Bell.

 

It seems to me that the main thrust of Chan's argument for the traditional understanding of hell (eternal conscious torment) is that God's ways are not like our ways. His justice is higher than our justice. His love is not like our love. Chan's says, “I’m a piece of clay trying to explain to other pieces of clay what the potter is like. It’s silly to think we are experts on him. Our only hope is that he would reveal to us what he is like, and then we repeat those things.”

All of this is of course true, but Chan is using this as a starting point to show what can and cannot be known about God. This is what I find troubling.

All Christian doctrines undergo a certain amount of development over time. A variety of factors in society, history and philosophical thought impact the way issues are viewed and interpreted. Scripture is of course primary - but it is illumined by two millennia of Church history, vivified in personal experience and confirmed by reason.

In other words, the traditional doctrine of hell forms a "lens" through which we view and interpret the Bible. But unlike the Bible, tradition is not infallible and it must be balanced and tested by reason and experience. Reason (rational thinking and sensible interpretation) and experience (how a particular view of scripture is actually lived out) is the means by which we may evaluate and even challenge the assumptions of tradition and adjust our interpretations of Scripture.

This is what I find so troubling about Chan's video. Arguments such as these, whether offered in love and humility or with contempt and fear, have been used by religion for thousands of years to prop up the existing tradition and stifle reason and sensible interpretation.

This morning over at Jesus Creed, pastor-philosopher Jeff Cook offers up three more important critiques to Chan's video (his book has not been released yet) which I would like to share with you here:

(1) In contrast to Chan’s claim, we need to rationally wrestle with our views about who God is and what he does, and to fail to do so is sloth. Scripturally speaking God invites us to use our minds when engaging who he is and what he does (Isa 1:18, Rm 12:2, among many others). In fact, we put God’s actions “in submission to our reasoning” every time we say that what God does is praise-worthy, loving, good, just, wise, self-sacrificial, etc, These are all rational assessments of God’s nature, actions, and character—and they should not be avoided. I can bring into this discussion two quotations from those who have pondered Job — one from C.S. Lewis and one from Robert Gordis.

“The point [of Job] is that the man who accepts our ordinary standard of good and by it hotly criticizes divine justice receives the divine approval: the orthodox, pious people who palter with that standard in the attempt to justify God are condemned.  Apparently the way to advance from our imperfect apprehension of justice to the absolute justice is not to throw our imperfect apprehensions aside but boldly to go on applying them” (C.S. Lewis, “De Futilitate,” in Christian Reflections, 70).

“Faced with the tragic dilemma of a righteous man’s suffering in an immoral world created by a righteous God, Job is nevertheless unwilling to surrender his ideal of rectitude ” (R. Gordis, Book of God and Man: A Study of Job , 153).

(2) There’s a real problem with criticizing all claims that begin with, “I wouldn’t believe in a God who would….” We should choose not to believe in a God who would … repeatedly torture three year olds for fun. We should choose not to believe in a God who would …. command cowardice, betrayal, abuse, and ignorance.

“Belief in God” implies trust and devotion, and it seems to me *some* pictures of God are not worthy of either trust or devotion.

Now, if I say, “I wouldn’t believe in a God who would … create a few billion people, knowing that they will never believe in him and are irreversibly destined to suffer in unending isolation and fire,” that *can be* an appropriate move. I can make that move while acknowledging that my course of action “might be the one flawed.” I can make that move while acknowledging that God’s “sense of justice” is superior to mine, and that God thinks about things in a different way than I do.

What those who defend the traditional view of hell must do is showcase why a good God *could* think unending conscious torment is the best option for the damned. Otherwise, it seems appropriate for a reasonable person (if they believe a “good” being by definition will not create conditions in which a person will experience torment for countless lifetimes) to either reject that picture of God or reject that view of hell.

(3) The idea of “justice” must be the same for God and for us, otherwise the term lacks linguistic value. Chan asks, “Do you ever even consider the possibility that maybe the creator’s sense of justice is actually more developed than yours?” Of course it is in one sense, but if God’s concept of justice is radically different than ours then it makes no sense for us to call God “just” any more. If we are to talk about “justice” at all, the definition must hold for ants as well as deities, otherwise we are talking of apples and oranges and all such language breaks down.

Cook concludes by saying that what Chan and others must do is show how the traditional view of hell is in any way “just,” The response that, “God knows things we don’t” or “God does things we wouldn’t do” is insufficient here (In philosophical jargon, this is a “phantom argument”). Some kind of story needs to be told that makes initiating eternal conscious torment morally praise-worthy and in accord with what we mean (or should mean) by “justice.”

Those who affirm the traditional view of hell need to do more than say “this is what the Bible says and we’re just repeating it.” Everyone involved in the debate about hell right now is saying “this is what the Bible says”. What those who affirm the traditional view must show is why that view is worthy of devotion.

By the way, Tim Keller does that better than anyone in his book Reason for God and in an article he posted HERE and I hope that in the book Chan will move more in that direction.

Eggs Eggs Everywhere!

In every culture there are celebrations going on. Some of the celebrations are about music and the arts, others are about patriotism and country, and (if we were honest) many are just an excuse to sell greeting cards and get drunk.

But as Christians our job isn't to withdraw from the celebration in protest or to create our own celebrations and force the culture to celebrate like we do, our job is to engage in the celebration.

Think about Jesus' first miracle. It was at a wedding celebration where he turned water into wine. As his followers we are sent into a culture to engage in the celebrations with the people and we bring the better wine!

In other words, we bring what’s lacking to the party. We bring redemption to things that are broken. Or we just clean up the mess.

This Spring, in an effort to bring the downtown community together and share the good news of Easter we are launching Eggs Eggs Everywhere! A unique Easter egg hunt located in the heart of our city and open to everyone in the neighborhood.

Beyond the hunt, we are planning to provide families activities including:

• Kids’ Art Station
• Giant inflatables for jumping play
• Face Painting Station
• Free coffee provided by Freedom Blend!

At Gateway our vision is to become a part of the fabric of the city of Des Moines; to join God in the renewal of the city. We can do that through ministry to the homeless, the widow and the orphan, the refugee and the outcasts... and we can do that by organizing a massive, free Easter Egg Hunt in the heart of our city! We believe this event will help us establish our identity and our credibility in the downtown community as we engage in this celebration and bring what's lacking to the party!

Rob Bell: Inaugurated Eschatology vs. Consummated Eschatology

Over the past few weeks I’ve read countless reviews or Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Scot McKnight has put together a few of the highlights, but my favorite review so far came from my friend George P. Wood.

George and I have blogged together before and have had actually interacted quite a bit on this topic. While we don’t agree on the nature of hell itself, I think his critique of Bell as a “hell-believing universalist” is spot on.

Wood begins by pointing out that in this world there are two kinds of people: those who love questions and those who love answers. Rob Bell loves questions. His critics love answers. This difference between them - a difference that is both temperamental and methodological - illuminates the controversy surrounding Love Wins.

Bell asks, "Does God get what God wants?"--namely, "all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 2:4). He further asks, "Do we get what we want?" A "yes" answer to the first question makes you a universalist, that is, a person who believes that God both desires the salvation of all people and realizes that desire. A "yes" answer to the second question makes you a proponent of hell, that is, a person who believes that we can be separated from God for eternity.

A "yes" answer to both questions makes you Rob Bell, a hell-believing universalist.

If that description of Bell strikes you as an oxymoron, you are probably an answer-lover who longs for clarity and certainty. To you, belief in universalism and belief in hell form an incoherent set. Either/or but not both/and.  

But Bell is a question-lover comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty. God will get what God wants. And we will get what we want. Either way, love wins. "If we want hell, if we want heaven, they are ours. That's how love works. It can't be forced, manipulated, or coerced. It always leaves room for the other to decide. God says yes, we can have what we want, because love wins."

I believe as Bell does that hell is self-chosen and is a continuation of the “hell” we create for ourselves on this earth. The problem is that Bell doesn't draw a sharp distinction between this age and the age to come.

He argues--correctly, forcefully, and with great insight--that they overlap in the present age. (He also argues--again, correctly, forcefully, and with great insight--that our eschatology should shape our ethics.) Theologians describe the overlap as inaugurated eschatology. In other words, through his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ inaugurates "the age to come" in the midst of "this age." In terms of heaven, this means that we can begin to experience "eternal life" right here and right now. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come," Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17: "The old has gone, the new is here!" But inaugurated eschatology also applies in terms of hell. Romans 1:18 says, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people." And 2:5 adds, "because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed." According to these verses, right now, we begin to experience either "eternal life" and "new creation" or "wrath" and "judgment."

But the New Testament not only teaches an inaugurated eschatology, it also teaches consummated eschatology. If the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ inaugurates, his second coming consummates. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52: "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." And John in Revelation 19:11: "I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war." In these passages, and in many others, Christ's return marks a definitive turning point in the relationship between God and his creatures. In the words of the Nicene Creed, "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead."

For Bell, there does not seem to be a definitive turning point, a crisis moment where destinies are finalized. Hell, especially, is temporal and remedial. How long one spends there depends on how long one resists God's love. "Hell is our refusal to trust God's retelling of our story." Bell draws attention to Revelation 21:25, which says of the New Jerusalem: "On no day will its gates ever be shut." Then he writes: "That's a small detail, and its' important we don't get too hung up on details and specific images because it's possible to treat something so literally that it becomes less true in the process. But gates, gates are for keeping people in and keeping people out. If the gates are never shut, then people are free to come and go." Bell sees this as an image of hope. Those who have chosen hell can choose heaven. Logically, though, the image contains a note of despair, for what stops a person who has chosen heaven from choosing hell? Absent the precipitating event of Christ's second coming and the final judgment, it seems to me that life as Rob Bell portrays it will always be an ongoing struggle between heaven and hell, with no guarantee of a final resolution. And if that's the case, in what sense does love actually win?

Thanks George for this excellent review!

Ash Wednesday

If you are in Des Moines, join us tomorrow at 12:05pm for a special Ash Wednesday Service in the Temple for Performing Arts. It will be a unique time of scripture reading, song, meditation, communion and the imposition of ashes over the noon hour. The service will be approximately 45 minutes long. No childcare provided.