I am the recipient of extravagant grace, husband to an amazing wife, father to three very cool kids (14, 12 and 6), and church planter for the brand new Creekstone Church in Dahlonega, GA, a college town in the mountains 60 miles north of downtown Atlanta.
www.creekstonechurch.com
www.facebook.com/mckaycaston
www.twitter.com/mckaycaston
New favorite quote:
"The secret of the gospel is that we actually do more when we hear less about all we need to do for God and hear more about all that God has already done for us.” ~ Kevin DeYoung
I enjoy hiking, writing, teaching, playing guitar, watching college football, reading, talking the gospel with friends, and my newest interests, mountain biking and camping.
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religion
Does the Christianity of the NT Still Exist?
In The Call, Os Guinness says, "For everyone attracted to Christ, there are scores bored or repelled by 'Christianity.'" Or as a t-shirt says, "Jesus, save me from your followers!" Thankfully, I know a number of genuine believers who, if there were more of them, may make that shirt obsolete. These are the ones for whom Christianity is not a mere "religion." For them, being a Christian is knowing Jesus and being overwhelmed by the grace of the gospel. They are the ones who have tried Jesus and found him fully satisfying. They are the one whom George Bernard Shaw (who was not a believer) said, "Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it."
Guinness quotes others:
- "Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God." ~ Commedian Lenny Bruce
- "The Christianity of the New Testament simply does not exist." ~ Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher
- "Either these are not the gospels, or we are not Christians." ~ Thomas Linacre, physician to King Henry VII and VIII
Whatever we make of such statements, the obvious is that there is a lot of corosion on the church today, and a lot of corosion on my understanding of what it means to be a Christian. What will it mean to remove that corosion? What will it mean to live the gospel in community in such a way that people are powerfully attracted and compelled to Jesus the way sinners were in the New Testament? That is the mission of Creekstone Church. It will be messy at times, and potentially controversial. But so was the ministry Jesus. Radical truth and radical grace—that is the message of the cross.
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Arthur Burns' Helpful Prayer
In the 1970s there was a group that met in the White House for a time of informal prayer and fellowship. A newcomer to the group was asked to lead one week, and at the end of the meeting, he asked Arthur Burns to close them in prayer. The kicker that the newcomer didn't know: Burns was Jewish. What would he say? How would he pray in the context of a Christian prayer fellowship? In The Call, Os Guinness records Burns' prayer for us:
"Lord, I pray that you would bring Jews to know Jesus Christ. I pray that you would bring Muslims to know Jesus Christ. Finally, Lord, I pray that you would bring Christians to know Jesus Christ. Amen."
Burns was praying for revival, which is when religious people are stripped of their religion and come alive to the wonder of God's grace through the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus. That is what I am praying for in my own life... to be stripped of my religion (being accepted by God based on my doing) so that I, as a professing Christian, can really know Jesus (being accepted by God based on his doing). So thanks, Arthur, for such a helpful prayer.
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