Or maybe not. I haven’t really taken an intentional break from blogging, but life has gotten crazy for me. Changes jobs. Sold a house. Bought a house. Moved (obvious). Left the country on vacation for 10 days. And more.

If you’re really interested in getting bite-sized pieces of what’s going on in my life you can follow me on twitter or check out my facebook profile.

More posts soon…maybe.

I shot this quick video of my new office with my MacBook Pro.

One of the fringe benefits of visiting Brea’s family in Stillwater is that her dad is handy at almost everything. He built his house from the ground up, has restored at least one car and Cushman scooter, and probably a lot of other things that I’ve never heard of. He has a shop that makes working on cars easier. That’s the theory at least.

While I was here I decided to tackle a “minor” fix on Brea’s 2006 Hyundai Sonata. The brake light in her rear window needed to be replaced. This turned out to be a ridiculously hard task when you consider that it was just one stinking, tiny, little light bulb that needed to be replaced.

In order to get to the compartment that held the light, we had to remove the back access area, which required us removing the sides of the back seat, the side panels above the seat, the plastic panel frame, and the top cover (I’m making up names for all these parts). It took a total of about 90 minutes to get to the little light bulb.

We got it all put back together and in working order, but the job reminded me that sometimes in church life we do the same thing. We make what should a simple task, following Christ, in to an extremely complex and complicated thing.

Jesus, thankfully, tells us what it takes to follow him: Love God with all that we are and all that we have and to love people (Matthew 22:34-40). That’s it. Unfortunately we like to make things more complicated than this. No wonder so many people who are new to the church give up on it.

Lord, help me to never forget that following you is simply a matter of growing in relationships.

• 6:10 PM Kevin Rossen – It’s the final week of our church history class. This week’s topic is how Christianity triumphed over Rome.
• 6:11 PM kevin –
  
• 6:13 PM Kevin Rossen – Doctrine is dynamic. Practice is dynamic, too. Example: we use air conditioner in our church buildings but the early church didn’t.
• 6:14 PM Kevin Rossen – Some people argue against having church practices that change. Some of the examples given on why we shouldn’t include the Catholic church authorizing both infant baptism and pouring or sprinkling as examples of changes that were considered unorthodox.
• 6:16 PM Kevin Rossen – One of the biggest events that dramatically changed Christianity overnight was the legalization of the religion. Some people think that this started a long, downhill fall of the faith.
• 6:20 PM Kevin Rossen – Diocletian was one of those geniuses that nobody likes. He suggested dividing Rome into east and west Rome. en.wikipedia.org
• 6:24 PM Kevin Rossen – The two halves of the Empire were too large for any one man to rule over as emperor, so he setup an emperor of the east and another one of the west. He also established an apprentice type of program for emperors, so that instead of having chaos when the emperor died, his replacement was already known and would be ready to go.
• 6:28 PM Kevin Rossen – Diocletian also re-instituted the persecution of Christians. The thought was that they were too pacifist to be able to serve in the military.
• 6:29 PM Kevin Rossen – He gave orders to burn all of the sacred writings of the Christians. He thought that the way of a Christian’s life was directed by the Scriptures, so if you took away their writings you would take away their faith.
• 6:30 PM Kevin Rossen – The persecution lasted for about eight years (303-311). It was considered the bloodiest period of persecution up to that point.
• 6:32 PM Kevin Rossen – Diocletian was removed from power through a series of intrigues and assassinations planned by Constantine.
• 6:34 PM Kevin Rossen – There are conflicting versions of history on how Constantine came to faith in Christ. One version has it that Constantine has all his soldiers paint a labarum en.wikipedia.org on their shields, which may have been an early symbol for Christianity.
• 6:35 PM Kevin Rossen – The other version is that he had a dream of the symbol of the cross which he had his soldiers paint.
• 6:38 PM Kevin Rossen – In 311, Galerius, the emperor of the east, was sick and weak. In one of his last acts he declared that Christianity was acceptable as long as the Christians would pray for him and his government.
• 6:42 PM Kevin Rossen – Constantine didn’t experience full conversion at the battle for Rome. This can be seen in particular when he dedicated the walls of Constantinople (formerly Byzantium) with Christian leaders and pagan priests standing with him.
• 6:44 PM Kevin Rossen – Even though he may or may not have experienced a true, full conversion to Christ, Constantine was the first emperor of Rome who was not anti-Christian. He also invited Christians to publicly build church buildings which were accepted as locations for worship.
• 6:46 PM Kevin Rossen – “As T.D. Jakes says, ‘Different levels – different devils.'” (Quote by Chris’ co-worker). The idea is that even though the church experienced a new kind of freedom, they were also facing new temptations.
• 6:48 PM Kevin Rossen – Another major change during the time of Constantine was that Christians were now appointed to public office, which went against 50 years of history. This would have been shocking to the Christians of the day. Imagine if the Supreme Court issued a ruling tomorrow allowing teachers to profess their faith in the classroom, Christianity to be taught, and it was acceptable to pray in the name of Jesus. We would be wondering if it was some kind of trick.
• 6:51 PM Kevin Rossen – The Emperor was the person who called together the first ecumenical council of all the church bishops. He promised them safe passage to the council.
• 6:54 PM Kevin Rossen – Churches were built lavishly. This probably had something to do with the fact that for the first time in history wealthy people were converting to Christianity. They were probably inspired to join the church partially (or primarily) because Constantine was choosing Christians to be servants in public office.
• 6:56 PM Kevin Rossen – With more and more people coming into the church, more and more changes came. Incense became part of the practice, which was a symbol of imperial authority. Ministers began wearing luxurious clothes instead of everyday clothes. Worship became more processional. The congregation took a less active role in worship.
• 6:57 PM Kevin Rossen – There were some who didn’t see the Emperor as God’s agent, rather he was a messenger from Satan. This caused some to flee to the deserts to live solitary lives in order to not submit to the Emperor’s authority.
• 6:58 PM Kevin Rossen – [I’m out to baptize someone, so notes are done]

• 6:59 PM Kevin Rossen – Tonight’s title was “Early Christian Life” but Chris renamed it “Lifestyles of the Early Christians”
• 7:07 PM Kevin Rossen – Updated note from last week: 25% of world population was within Rome’s borders, not 75%.
• 7:09 PM Kevin Rossen – For the church’s first 300 years, life and Christianity was nothing like we experience today.
• 7:12 PM Kevin Rossen – Chris wrote some of the notes for tonight’s handout while he was overseeing detention at his school. He said, “I was half distracted because I was making students copy from the dictionary. I love detention.”
• 7:13 PM Kevin Rossen – What we know today about early Christian life is put together from scattered bits of information and a few archeological clues.
• 7:13 PM Kevin Rossen – Three social classes in the Roman Empire:
  – Elite: very wealthy. Less than 2%.
  – More Humble: Free men & women. Farmers, laborers, shopkeepers, and soldiers. Approximately 65%.
  – Slaves: Very poor. 33%.
• 7:18 PM Kevin Rossen – Celsus, Greek philosopher, wrote that Christians were ignorant people who came from the lowest levels of society. This has truth to it, because Christianity has thrived among the poor and outcasts.
  Read about Celsus: en.wikipedia.org
• 7:20 PM Kevin Rossen – The NT supports this in a few ways. Jesus said the it’s easier for the rich to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter heaven. Paul wrote a letter to Philemon, a slave. Jesus said that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
• 7:23 PM Kevin Rossen – Though the claim that Christianity as whole was based on superstitious beliefs is false, there were some who held a superstitious view of Jesus as seen writings such as the Gospel of Thomas.
• 7:26 PM Kevin Rossen – Most of early Christianity was centered around poor people and slaves. There were some influential authors, but for the most part churches had average, everyday citizens.
• 7:28 PM Kevin Rossen – Our thoughts of God today would mirror those of the common Christians than the influential authors, but all we really have today are the writings.
• 7:33 PM Kevin Rossen – The biggest change that church made to how they worshiped was that they changed the day of worship to the first day of the week (Sunday). It was a normal workday for Rome, so the church had to meet for worship REALLY EARLY in the morning.
• 7:35 PM Kevin Rossen – A main practice of worship for the church involved the Lord’s Supper. Communion service focused primarily on the resurrection, not the death, of Christ.

  Chris recommends the book “Come to the Table” to read more about the Lord’s Supper: www.amazon.com

• 7:39 PM Kevin Rossen – The main focus of worship was “to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and the promises of which that resurrection was the seal”
• 7:41 PM Kevin Rossen – Another practice during worship was the reading of a portion of Scripture. Most Christians did not own any portion of the Bible, so this was the primary way that most Christians would have learned the Bible.
• 7:42 PM Kevin Rossen – The Churches of Christ are probably right that the early church did not use instruments, but it was probably not for theological reasons but practical ones. There was the threat of persecution, so drawing extra attention to itself was not desired. Also, they tended to meet in people’s homes or the temple courts, so it would have been difficult to get the instruments to the location, unless the owner of the home had one.
• 7:43 PM Kevin Rossen – All the praying, reading, and singing were leading up to the time for communion, that is that worship would end with it.
• 7:50 PM Kevin Rossen – When we’re baptized we’re connected to Christ. We normally accept this without really thinking about it much. If the water started glowing after we’re baptized we’d be better able to grasp this, but when you really think about this connection it’s really profound.
• 7:51 PM Kevin Rossen – The first church building that has been found is thought to have been from around 256 AD. It was likely that this was originally a home that was converted into a building for worship.
• 7:52 PM Kevin Rossen – A lot of us focus way too much on the need for property and a church building. In its history, the church has grown the most when it has face persecution and the government was against what the church was doing. That said, having buildings today are still a blessing.
• 8:00 PM Kevin Rossen – Churches today, because of their size, have to do things differently. You can’t just tell people today “the elementary kids meet down the hall in Suzie’s room.”
• 8:01 PM Kevin Rossen – Part of the weekly practice of church life was to fast on Fridays in recognition of Christ’s crucifixion taking place that day.
• 8:04 PM Kevin Rossen – Baptisms typically took place on Easter. Candidates would fast Friday and Saturday then baptized early on Sunday morning. They were baptized naked then were given a white robe to wear after they came out of the water.
• 8:04 PM Kevin Rossen – Chris: “There’s no way I’m getting baptized naked. I don’t care if you separate the men and women.”
• 8:05 PM Kevin Rossen – This practice of being baptized naked was probably not a mandate of how it had to be done, but was more likely how the church chose to do it then but we’re not compelled to do so today.
• 8:10 PM Kevin Rossen – There seemed to be two or three distinct positions: bishop, presbyter/elder, and deacon. It’s likely that the terms bishop, presbyter, and elder were terms that were used interchangeably to describe the same position.
• 8:16 PM Kevin Rossen – There were very few dedicated missionaries as we think of them today. This might be primarily because of practical reasons. The church was by and large very poor, so it would not have been able to financially support full-time missionaries.
• 8:16 PM Kevin Rossen – Most of Christianity was spread by either people on business trips, which would last months at a time, or by slaves who would be moved from household to household.
• 8:18 PM kevin –
  

• 7:11 PM Kevin Rossen – Chris Powell is doing a review of last week’s class. I was out of town, so this is good info for me.
• 7:13 PM Kevin Rossen – Four teachers of the church: Irenaeus of Lyons – The Pastors (130 AD); Clement of Alexandria – The Intellectual (215 AD); Tertullian – The Lawyer (202 AD); and Origen of Alexandria – The Scholar.
• 7:15 PM Kevin Rossen – Chris just said “I’m a good Republican who hates trees, so I printed off a bunch of stuff.” Funny stuff.
• 7:17 PM Kevin Rossen – Rome’s official stance was not to seek out Christians to persecute, but they allowed it to happen if Christians were found.
• 7:18 PM Kevin Rossen – Anyone who gets power by force knows they gotta do something to keep that power.
• 7:21 PM Kevin Rossen – In 202 AD, Septimius Severus didn’t really care if people had a particular religion, but he wanted them to also worship the Sol invictus too. Christians and Jews caused problems along with this, since they wouldn’t conform to his wishes.
• 7:22 PM Kevin Rossen – Severus was the first emperor who was vocally against Christians because they wouldn’t bow to his wishes.
• 7:25 PM Kevin Rossen – Severus went after the primary teachers of the church to bring them down, but his main goal was to make people afraid to convert to Christianity. He thought that by scaring them away from faith in Christ that Christianity would die within a generation.
• 7:26 PM Kevin Rossen – Romans invented lawyers and the justice system has never moved swiftly since.
• 7:30 PM Kevin Rossen – After Severus died in 211 AD the church enjoyed an almost 50 year period of peace.
• 7:31 PM Kevin Rossen – It’s estimated that 2/3 of the world’s population at 200 AD lived in the Roman Empire.
• 7:34 PM Kevin Rossen – Decius became emperor in 249 AD at about the time when wheat crops were failing. He thought that the biggest problem Rome had was that they had ignored their heritage that made it strong. Most importantly, they were not devoted to their true gods.
• 7:35 PM Kevin Rossen – Decius didn’t want to fuel devotion to Christ by killing Christians to make them martyrs. He instead thought that it would be more effective to torture them.
• 7:37 PM Kevin Rossen – Chris is going to make a recipe tonight that needs 10 blocks of cream cheese. Sounds tasty.
• 7:41 PM kevin –
  
• 7:42 PM Kevin Rossen – When someone is holding a sword to you it makes you start to consider your commitments in a way you never have before.
• 7:45 PM Kevin Rossen – There was a group of Christians (kind of like high C’s today) that thought that the way that they could get the certificate from Decius to avoid persecution without actually worshiping the Roman gods by bribing someone for one.
• 7:45 PM Kevin Rossen – There were a group of Christian who did not shrink away from persecution at all. Their attitude was “you took one arm, but I’ve got a another good one. Go ahead and chop it off. I’ll never forsake Christ.”
• 7:46 PM Kevin Rossen – After Decius dies around the late 250’s the church enjoyed another period of peace for about forty years.
• 7:47 PM Kevin Rossen – The Christians that stayed true to Christ in the face of persecution were called Confessors. They were easy to identify because of the missing limbs.
• 7:48 PM Kevin Rossen – After the persecution ends, the church had to pick up the pieces. What should be done with the Christians who “lapsed” in faith?
• 7:51 PM Kevin Rossen – The leaders had to figure out what to do when people who remained faithful and lost body parts, people who bought certificates from the black market, and those who abandoned the church all showed up to worship together.
• 7:54 PM Kevin Rossen – Some people thought that those who lost a leg (confessors) deserved to be listened to more than the existing preachers.Some bishops fled to the desert to escape persecution. This created a power struggle and created the threat of a church split.
• 7:56 PM Kevin Rossen – Bishops pulled rank by saying that Confessors didn’t have any real authority because they were just named but were not a recognized leader in an official capacity of the church.
• 7:58 PM Kevin Rossen – Cyprian was an interesting dude. en.wikipedia.org
• 7:59 PM Kevin Rossen – Cyprian called for a synod of the bishops in North Africa to address the issue of the church split.
• 7:59 PM Kevin Rossen –
  
• 8:02 PM Kevin Rossen – Cyprian said that those who bought false certificates but never worshiped the false gods could be readmitted to the church immediately, but those who worshiped false gods would only be readmitted to the church on their deathbeds or if a future persecution led to martyrdom.
• 8:02 PM Kevin Rossen – There was a huge shift in policy change because the bishops were starting to decide who was in and who was out.
• 8:03 PM Kevin Rossen – Confessors were thought of as in good standing as long as they submitted to the authority of the bishops.
• 8:04 PM Kevin Rossen – The bishops probably weren’t really power-hungry. They were just responding to real world issues.
• 8:06 PM Kevin Rossen – When Rome fell apart, 2/3 of the world still needed to eat. This caused the power of the bishops to rise.
• 8:07 PM Kevin Rossen – The Muslim expansion in the 7th century caused there to only be two bishops remaining in power.
• 8:10 PM Kevin Rossen – Questions to consider:
  1) How would your faith stand up if there was a sudden outbreak of persecution?
  2) Do you believe there are different degrees of sin?
  3) Does the church have the authority to decide who is in good standing? What is the role of repentance in restoring someone to the church?
  4) Which is more important in restoring repentant Christians: mercy toward the individual or purity for the congregation?
• 8:17 PM Kevin Rossen – “We use the sword of the Spirit as a chainsaw on our brothers” – Said to a room full Bible College students.
• 8:23 PM Kevin Rossen – Closing prayer time. Goodnight.
• 8:25 PM kevin –
  

Bible Study Magazine and Mars Hill are giving away 20 copies of Mark Driscoll’s new book, Vintage Church. Not only that, but they are also giving away five subscriptions to Bible Study Magazine and a copy of their Bible Study Library software! Enter to win on the Bible Study Magazine Mark Driscoll page, then take a look at all the cool tools they have to take your Bible study to the next level!