Tuesday morning evangelistic smack-down, #15

Insightful counting: “Unless Matthew, Mark, and Luke are totally wrong, all who want to preach and live like Jesus must place the “kingdom of God” at the center of their thought and action. This phrase (or Matthew’s equivalent, the ‘kingdom of heaven’) appears 122 times in the first three Gospels – most of the time (92) on the lips of Jesus himself. (Ronald J. Sider, Good News and Good Works)

Compassionate thought of the week: “We need to ask ourselves: Are we offering not coerced silver, but our lives? If we talk of crisis pregnancies, are we actually willing to provide a home to a pregnant young woman? If we talk of abandoned children, are we actually willing to adopt a child? Most of our twentieth-century schemes, based on having someone else take action, are proven failures. It’s time to learn from the warm hearts and hard heads of earlier times, and to bring that understanding into our own lives.” (Marvin Olasky, The Tragedy of American Compassion)

On the tithe: “The teaching that a man should give one tenth of his money to God and then be gfree to use the nine tenths for himself is an utterly dangerous teaching. In giving the one tenth and using the nine tenths for himself he may be buying off his conscience with the one tenth and thereby hallowing an utter selfishness.” (E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount)

“And the people are challenged…” We have too many preachers preaching without practicing, too many professors teaching without activating, too many parents scolding without leading and too many laymen partaking of a church experience without contributing to it. But occasionally, someone goes and does something noble, compassionate, evangelistic – and in that moment, God smiles and the people are challenged. Good.

Prerequisite to preaching: “Never preach an inch beyond your experience.” (Dawson Trotman, quoted in Daws)

This week’s Latin phrase: Difficile est tenere quae acceperis nisi exerceas - It is difficult to retain what you may have learned unless you should practice it. (Pliny the Younger)

Buster research: When asked to put the findings about Busters in context, especially in comparison to the views and behaviors of Baby Boomers, Kinnaman explained that “the morality of Busters comes from a very different background. For instance, divorce, crime, single-parent households, and suicide were much more prevalent while Busters grew up. Boomers took moral experimentation to new heights, but Busters now live in a world where such experimentation is the norm, not the exception. Busters have a more disconnected, individualized, less trusting spin on morality. They are trying to create a sense of identity because they feel that shaping influences such as family, church, and community have failed them. Boomers experimented to overthrow the morals of their parents, while Busters live with a mindset of trying to survive.

“It is important for churches to understand the natural skepticism of Busters as well as their desire for spiritual and conversational depth,” he continued. “Young adults do not want to hear on-the-stage monologues about moral regulations. To earn access to their hearts and minds, you have to understand each person’s unique background, identity, and doubts, and must tangibly model a biblical lifestyle for them beyond the walls of the church.” (Barna.org, A New Generation of Adults Bends Moral and Sexual Rules to Their Liking_)

Jesus - took us by surprise?

The Lord of all comes as a slave amidst poverty. The hunter has no wish to startle his prey. Choosing for his birthplace an unknown village in a remote province, he is born of a poor maiden and accepts all that poverty implies, for he hopes by stealth to ensnare and save us.

If he had been born to high rank and amidst luxury, unbelievers would have said the world had been transformed by wealth. If he had chosen as his birthplace the great city of Rome, they would have thought the transformation had been brought about by civil power. Suppose he had been the son of an emperor. They would have said: "How useful it is to be powerful!" Imagine him the son of a senator. It would have been: "Look what can be accomplished by legislation!"

But in fact, what did he do? He chose surroundings that were poor and simple, so ordinary as to be almost unnoticed, so that people would know it was the Godhead alone that had changed the world. This was his reason for choosing his mother from among the poor of a very poor country, and for becoming poor himself.

—Theodotus of Ancyra, a martyred saint from the 4th century

Lucrative Jesus

Goodness, this hurts. Bad. And have you read my latest column on this kind of a subject yet?

With nearly 87 percent of Americans identifying themselves as Christians, experts said, religion has become a lucrative part of American popular culture.

The influence of evangelicals is everywhere in today's society, according to Alan Wolfe, a sociologist at Boston College, but that is because evangelicals are being influenced by popular culture, not the other way around.

"I see them not as shapers of American culture, I see popular culture shaping them," Wolfe said. "Evangelicals are different from fundamentalists who reject popular culture because they think it is corrupt. Evangelicals don't want to reject the world, they want to persuade others to the way of Jesus and engage other people in their religion. Embracing popular culture has allowed them to do that."

Think there's nothing you can do about neighborhood blight? Think again!

Great article.

You also took on the local liquor stores. Why?
I got that idea from Charles Sheldon's In His Steps, the book about people who asked, "What Would Jesus Do?" They tried to get the local bars closed because they had lots of problems with town drunks, and they thought that's what Jesus would do. But in the book they don't succeed.

After reading that book, I was driving down a street in our area and counted 26 liquor stores in 19 blocks. I thought, They don't have that kind of proliferation in the suburbs.

I got our attorneys to research what it takes to vote a community dry. In Chicago, we learned, you can vote a whole precinct dry.

So I preached a sermon (everything is connected to a sermon, by the way), "The Real Truth Behind the Liquor Industry." I talked about how it's destroying communities. I talked about how affluent communities don't have four liquor stores to each block, and it's something that keeps impoverished people in poverty. I told the church we had to go out and get 10 percent of the registered voters to sign a petition to put the issue on the ballot.

We accomplished that. Then, the Sunday before the election I preached a sermon called, "Let's Get Ready To Rumble." It was about Jehoshaphat going out to battle, and he takes the choir with him. They do all this singing. So we took our choir, and put them in front of this great, big march.

We had a band on the back of a truck and music and our church marched through the community. And as people came out on their porches, we reminded them that this was the week that we vote our community dry.

It worked. All those stores in our district are gone. Then to anyone who lost a job working in one of those liquor stores, we offered to send them through job training and we would pay their salary until they got another job.

Then we put a Christian bookstore in the building where the largest liquor store used to be.

Woohoo! Anybody feel the "call of God" on their life right now?

Conservatives give more than liberals. Surprised?

This is obvious. No? Even the liberals, in their heart of hearts, know it is true.

Brooks has written a book that concludes religious conservatives donate far more money than secular liberals to all sorts of charitable activities, irrespective of income.

In the book, he cites extensive data analysis to demonstrate that values advocated by conservatives -- from church attendance and two-parent families to the Protestant work ethic and a distaste for government-funded social services -- make conservatives more generous than liberals.

The book, titled "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism" (Basic Books, $26), is due for release Nov. 24.

When it comes to helping the needy, Brooks writes: "For too long, liberals have been claiming they are the most virtuous members of American society. Although they usually give less to charity, they have nevertheless lambasted conservatives for their callousness in the face of social injustice."

The questions is, what makes a conservative more generous? God? Something else?

Why religious television programming is just plain awful

For the first time, we are now being told, most American homes have more televisions than people. According to the latest data from Nielsen Media Research, the average U.S. household has 2.55 people and 2.73 TVs.

Much of the programming, alas, is religious.

Whenever I think about television, I am mindful of the late Neil Postman who penned a tome titled Amusing Ourselves to Death. In it he briefly contrasts Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World. The year '84 has come and is now long gone, said the author, but don't feel too good about it.

• Orwell feared those who would ban books. Huxley feared there would be no reason to ban them, for no one would want to read one.
• Orwell feared those who would deprive us information. Huxley feared so much information that we would be reduced to passivity.
• Orwell feared the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.
• Orwell feared those who control by inflicting pain. Huxley feared those who control by inflicting pleasure.
• Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.
  

Huxley and Postman were right in surmising that the "Brave New World" should be our greatest fear. And television should be part of that fright.

Postman, however, doesn’t stop with the passing of 1984. He quotes a former executive director of the National Religious Broadcasters Association in his volume who stated all too plainly the obvious law of television preachers: “You can get your share of the audience only by offering people something they want.”

Postman:

“You will note, I am sure, that this is an unusual religious credo. There is no great religious leader – from the Buddha to Moses to Jesus to Mohammed to Luther – who offered people what they want. Only what they need. But television is not well suited to offering people what they need….As a consequence, what is preached on television is not anything like the Sermon on the Mount. Religious programs are filled with good cheer. They celebrate affluence. Their featured players become celebrities. Though their messages are trivial, the shows have high ratings, or rather, because their messages are trivial, the shows have high ratings.

“I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether.” (Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death)

"I would never let my children even come close to this thing." Such are the musings of the late Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, Russian-born inventor of the television set who, evidently, had some misgivings about the whole project when reflecting on his life's work on his 92nd birthday.

Many, if not most of us, can resonate with the Zworykin attitude, although it might be uncomfortable to do so. For, says Jerry Mander, former advertising executive and author: "I'm learning that people can hate a lot of television, hate their own viewing habits, hate what it does to them and their families." Nonetheless, says Mander, we "still think it's bizarre that anybody wants to get rid of it."

I have done talk radio for twelve years in our city. Most of those years we have had a “Throw Out Your TV Set Day” when we have actually challenged people to do what I did to my set twenty years ago – get up on the catwalk of the nearest building and provide a “heave-ho” to the favorite of family addictions. People would call the program and tell how horrible television was. And then I would ask: “So – you’re throwing yours out?”

No. Never. No.

It is not just that your kids will be less intellectual, or have less of an attention span, or spend less time in conversation with you the parent, or impair logical thinking, or expose them to sexual and immoral images that can never be erased, etc.

It is worse than that.

It’s that your kids are exposed to religious programming from time to time that appeals to their base animal instincts – innocent as they might be - instead of to the “life of God in the soul of man.”

Tuesday morning evangelistic smack-down, ivxx

Quotables from H.C. Morrison (founder of Asbury Seminary): “The truest and best servants of the [human] race have had a profound knowledge of the saving power of the Lord Jesus; the love of Christ has constrained them to serve men. John Wesley, David Livingstone, General Booth, Dwight L. Moody and an army of saints who are now in glory, who uplifted and blessed the race, whose labors resulted in education, feeding, clothing, drainage, fresh air, hospitals, schools, health and every good thing, put Jesus Christ first; his death, his resurrection, his gospel, a genuine Christian experience first of all, then serve.”

“There are two ways of preserving fruit; one with vinegar, the other with sugar. There is a vast difference between pickles and preserves. In a long life and wide experience, some people claiming the blessing of entire sanctification seem to have gotten into the vinegar barrel and others in the sugar hogshead.”

Bullfrog or gecko? “Many current pastors and church leaders have invested a great deal of time and resources into a model of theological education that has trained them to serve as bull frogs rather than as gecko lizards in terms of how they engage the world.

“What is the dominant image of a bull frog? It is of a plump frog sitting on a lily pad in the middle of a pond waiting for its food to come to it. This is a fitting image for too many of our communities of faith. We are content simply to wait and hope for persons to visit our worship services. It must be acknowledged that this approach can still deliver attendance numbers if a church facility is located in a high growth region. The telling number however is the issue of how many in attendance are simply the result of transfer growth. I believe that our generation is the last one in North America that will be propped up by transfer growth. Ultimately, transfer growth does not translate into new growth for the Kingdom of God. Yet most seminaries still train pastors to serve as bull frogs. Most mainline denominations assume the bull frog paradigm in their long term strategic planning.

“Enter the gecko. A gecko does not hunt by waiting for its prey to come to it. No, the gecko goes hunting. It puts itself into position to encounter as many potential meals as possible. To thrive in the future our communities of faith must focus on going and sending rather than on waiting and hoping. The focus of ministry must be on reaching lost persons rather than on organizing a neighborhood club to serve the needs of saved people. Ultimately, the gecko reflects more closely the earthly ministry of Jesus and the missional focus of the early church as it engaged and flourished across Asia, Europe, and Africa in the earliest centuries of the Christ-following movement. Seminaries and denominational leaders struggle precisely at the point of how to reshape and retrain pastors and entire congregations to recapture this model.” (Said to be original to Steve Seamands, found on realmealministries.org)

The Jesus film. A total of 201,646,813 decisions for Christ have been made at viewings of the JESUS film since its release in 1979. - Source: the JESUS film Web site (as of 7/1/06)


Leadership. Others tell. Leaders sell.
Others impress. Leaders influence.
Others try to be heard. Leaders strive to be understood.
Others explain. Leaders energize.
Others inform. Leaders inspire.
Others relay only facts. Leaders tell stories. - Mark Sanborn, You Don't Need a Title to be a Leader (WaterBrook, 2006)

Another from Morrison – wow! “Why, Doctor," said I, “the power of God is all over this hill.” Throwing up my hands, I said, “the power of God is in this room; I feel it now.” Instantly, the Spirit fell on me and I feel backward on a divan, as helpless as a dead man. I was conscious of the mighty hand of God dealing with me. Dr. Young leaped up, caught me in his arms, and called me again and again, but I was powerless to answer.

Just as I came to myself and recovered the use of my limbs, a round ball of liquid fire seemed to strike me in the face, dissolve, and enter into me. I leaped up and shouted aloud, “Glory to God!” Dr. Young, who still had me in his arms, threw me back on the divan and said, “Morrison, what do you mean? You frighten me. I thought you were dying. Why did you act that way?” “I did not do anything, Doctor,” said I, “the Lord did it.” I arose and walked the floor, feeling as light as a feather. (All Morrison quotes taken from Dr. Ron Smith’s dissertation, “Old Path Methodism” In a Modern World, 2006.)

And what would "evangelism" say or do about this?

You tell me.

Mr. Rangel, help....

Prayer for the Persecuted Church Sunday

The VERY middle verse

Jason writes, all excited:

I found this in the Fall edition of the Wesley upper elementary curriculum Teacher's guide p. 4

"Consider that the shortest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 117, and the longest is Psalm 119. Psalm 118 is the center chapter in the Bible. So we have the middle chapter of the Bible wedged between the shortest and longest chapters. This"mild phenomenon" gets more compelling when you realize that there are 594 chapters through Psalm 118 and exactly 594 chapters after Psalm 118. When you add up all the chapters of the Bible, you end up with 1188. Did you know that the very center verse of the Bible is Psalm 118:8."

And Psalm 118:8 reads: "It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man."

Pastor's wives need encouragement?

Holly says try this site.

Stop stereotyping evangelicals

Great column in the WashPost:

Let's stop stereotyping evangelicals

By Joseph Loconte and Michael Cromartie

Yet it is dishonest to disparage the massive civic and democratic contribution of evangelicals by invoking the excesses of a tiny few. As we recall from the Gospels, even Jesus had a few disciples who, after encountering some critics, wanted to call down fire from heaven to dispose of them. Jesus disabused them of that impulse. The overwhelming majority of evangelicals have dispensed with it as well. Maybe it's time more of their critics did the same.

A good election, for the GOP

In general, this was a good election. The only way to make it great would be for Republicans to have lost another five seats in the Senate and another twenty in the House. The worse the loss, the quicker and more intensely the GOP searches for its wandering soul.

The party of Reagan is sick and has been for some time. It is not pleasant when the electorate finally recognizes it. And the situation will not improve significantly until the Republican party recognizes its ill health and begins to take corrective measures. The measures are these:

Remember that you once were, and should be again, the party of small government. That some in the GOP think there is such a thing as big government conservatism only shows how ailing it really is. Stick a thermometer in the mouth of the Bush crowd and their friends in the Senate and the House and watch the mercury climb to the letters GOS – short for Grand Old Spending.

· Bush has signed every spending bill that crossed his desk. His veto pen, apparently, was lost or stolen.

· His enormous education bill in 2001 was a loser, the big farm bill in 2002 was atrocious and the enormous Medicare prescription drug bill in 2003 could only cause the last remaining fiscal conservative in the White House to blush. Chalk the latter up as the largest entitlement expansion in the last four decades. For shame.

· As the deficit ballooned, all the President could talk about was cutting it in half. Faint-hearted, that.

· Reagan said, “Government is not the solution, it is the problem.” Our current president has said, "I am running with a compassionate conservative philosophy: that government should help people improve their lives, not try to run their lives."

Unfortunately, “help” has meant much more. And more means the government is running our lives more today than they did yesterday.

Do some real soul-searching, stat. No better time to do so. In the House, culturally and economically moderate Republicans took a serious hit. In the Senate it is a major loss that Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum was defeated, but it is a plus that Ohio’s Sen. Mike DeWine and Rhode Island's Sen. Lincoln Chaffee are walking out with him. The latter, always a particularly onerous liberal inclusion into the party, won’t be part of the revival discussions. In other words, there are fewer liberals and moderates today, and a number of good conservatives should ponder what could happen in 2008 if the passionate Contract with America days could be revived. That is, get an economic and culturally conservative plan and execute it.

Find that pen. My hunch is that today Karl Rove and others are beginning to remember where they left that veto pen. Mr. Bush will need it as Democrats try to thrust all manner of deviance, higher taxes, and more spending on the populace. With the Democrats’ big election night over, so is Bush’s ability to assert his will from the Oval Office. But the Dems aren’t going to rule the roost either; hence, gridlock.

Search for and find your morally conservative character. The Judeo-Christian ethic is nothing to be ashamed of in public policy or personal life. When you either act like you are ashamed of it or find yourself, for instance, reluctant to flush out a congressman making passes at pages, well, you should be backpedaling on election day. Run on a higher moral plane, and appreciate that the American people holds you to that standard.

Embrace gridlock. Not a bad word, gridlock. It means things stay pretty much the same and, given the domestic possibilities with liberals running the committees, that is not bad. Heretofore President Bush wasn’t exactly moving the cultural agenda forward. So, nothing has really changed. Also, remember that presidential wannabe Hillary Clinton will be part of a gridlock Senate, and she has had her feminine pedestal stolen from her by the new most-important-woman-on-the-Hill Nancy Pelosi. Hard to successfully run for president as a New York liberal in the first place, but especially difficult from this diminished position.

Clench your teeth and listen, real good. Which means the biggest challenge for the opposition for the next two years is having to listen to the shrill and not infrequently bitter Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Her San Francisco-style gavel nows rule the House. Keep your ears open to Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers, Jr., of Michigan; a Banking Committee (Financial Services) chair, Barney Frank of Massachusetts; the Ways and Means Committee led by Charles B. Rangel of New York; and the Energy and Commerce leadership of John D. Dingell of Michigan.

Tall order, this listening mandate, but nothing should more quickly encourage those on the cultural and economic right to invigorate themselves.

The loss of this election should be good for the GOP. If they change. Really, truly, change.

Tuesday morning evangelistic smack-down, xiii

Haggard letters:

To my New Life Church family:

I am so sorry. I am sorry for the disappointment, the betrayal, and the hurt. I am sorry for the horrible example I have set for you.

I have an overwhelming, all-consuming sadness in my heart for the pain that you and I and my family have experienced over the past few days. I am so sorry for the circumstances that have caused shame and embarrassment to all of you.

I asked that this note be read to you this morning so I could clarify

my heart's condition to you. The last four days have been so difficult for me, my family and all of you, and I have further confused the situation with some of the things I've said during interviews with reporters who would catch me coming or going from my home. But I alone am responsible for the confusion caused by my inconsistent statements. The fact is, I am guilty of sexual immorality, and I take responsibility for the entire problem.

I am a deceiver and a liar. There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life.

For extended periods of time, I would enjoy victory and rejoice in freedom. Then, from time to time, the dirt that I thought was gone would resurface, and I would find myself thinking thoughts and experiencing desires that were contrary to everything I believe and teach.

Through the years, I've sought assistance in a variety of ways, with none of them proving to be effective in me. Then, because of pride, I began deceiving those I love the most because I didn't want to hurt or disappoint them.

The public person I was wasn't a lie; it was just incomplete. When I stopped communicating about my problems, the darkness increased and finally dominated me. As a result, I did things that were contrary to everything I believe.

The accusations that have been leveled against me are not all true, but enough of them are true that I have been appropriately and lovingly removed from ministry. Our church's overseers have required me to submit to the oversight of Dr. James Dobson, Pastor Jack Hayford, and Pastor Tommy Barnett. Those men will perform a thorough analysis of my mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical life. They will guide me through a program with the goal of healing and restoration for my life, my marriage, and my family.

I created this entire situation. The things that I did opened the door for additional allegations . But I am responsible; I alone need to be disciplined and corrected. An example must be set.

It is important that you know how much I love and appreciate my wife, Gayle. What I did should never reflect in a negative way on her relationship with me. She has been and continues to be incredible. The problem is not with her, my children or any of you. It was created 100 percent by me.

I have been permanently removed from the office of Senior Pastor of New Life Church. Until a new senior pastor is chosen, our Associate Senior Pastor Ross Parsley will assume all of the the responsibilities of the office. On the day he accepted this new role, he and his wife, Aimee, had a new baby boy. A new life in the midst of this circumstance - I consider the confluence of events to be prophetic. Please commit to join with Pastor Ross and the others in church leadership to make their service to you easy and without burden. They are fine leaders. You are blessed.

I appreciate your loving and forgiving nature, and I humbly ask you to do a few things.

1.) Please stay faithful to God through service and giving.

2.) Please forgive me. I am so embarrassed and ashamed. I caused this and I have no excuse. I am a sinner. I have fallen. I desperately need to be forgiven and healed.

3.) Please forgive my accuser. He is revealing the deception and sensuality that was in my life. Those sins, and others, need to be dealt with harshly. So, forgive him and, actually, thank God for him. I am trusting that his action will make me, my wife and family, and ultimately all of you, stronger. He didn't violate you; I did.

4.) Please stay faithful to each other. Perform your functions well. Encourage each other and rejoice in God's faithfulness. Our church body is a beautiful body, and like every family, our strength is tested and proven in the midst of adversity. Because of the negative publicity I've created with my foolishness, we can now demonstrate to the world how our sick and wounded can be healed, and how even disappointed and betrayed church bodies can prosper and rejoice.

Gayle and I need to be gone for a while. We will never return to a leadership role at New Life Church. In our hearts, we will always be members of this body. We love you as our family. I know this situation will put you to the test. I'm sorry I've created the test, but please rise to this challenge and demonstate the incredible grace that is available to all of us.

Ted Haggard

Here is the letter from his wife, Gayle:

Dear Woman of New Life Church,

I am so sorry for the circumstances that have led me to write this letter to you today. I know your hearts are broken; mine is as well. Yet my hope rests steadfastly in the Lord who is forever faithful.

What I want you to know is that I love my husband, Ted Haggard, with all my heart. I am committed to him until death "do us part". We started this journey together and with the grace of God, we will finish together.

If I were standing before you today, I would not change one iota of what I have been teaching the women of our church. For those of you who have been concerned that my marriage was so perfect I could not possibly relate to the women who are facing great difficulties, know that this will never again be the case. My test has begun; watch me. I will try to prove myself faithful.

I love you all so much, especially you young women -- you were my delight.

To all the church family of New Life Church -- Ted and I are so proud of you. You are all we hoped you would be. In our minds, there is no greater church.

As you try to make sense of these past few days, know that Ted believes with all his heart and soul everything he has ever taught you, those things you are putting into practice. He is now the visible and public evidence that every man (woman and child) needs a Savior.

We are grateful for your prayers for our family.

I hold you forever in my heart.

Gayle Haggard

They need more books? “When there is nothing on my calendar, when I can do what I want to do, I readpray, studypray, workpray, thinkpray, because there is nothing I ore want to do. Then occasionally my old, pragmatic activist friends say to me, but why are you not out there on the street working to change the world? I answer, I am out there on the street in the most serious way be being here with my books, and if you see no connection there then you have not understood my vocation. I do not love the suffering poor less by offering them what they need more.” (Thomas C. Oden, Evangelical Theological Society, Nov. 16, 1990)

Matt: I doubt this perspective will suffice on the day of Matthew 25:31-46.

Juxtapose the last quote with this one: Wesley required all Methodists to regularly visit the sick. To the rich, who wanted to send a physician with their money instead Wesley writes:

…this would not excuse you: his going would not fulfil your duty. Neither would it excuse you, unless you saw them with your own eyes. If you do not, you lose a means of grace; you lose an excellent means of increasing your thankfulness to God, who saves you from this pain and sickness, and continues your health and strength; as well as of increasing your sympathy with the afflicted… (“On Visiting the Sick”, Sermon)

Or this one:

All therefore who desire to escape the everlasting fire and to inherit the everlasting kingdom are equally concerned…to practice this important duty. It is equally incumbent on young and old, rich and poor, men and women, according to their ability. None are so young, if they desire to save their own souls, as to be excused from assisting their neighbours. None are so poor (unless they want the necessaries of life) but they are called to do something…for the relief and comfort of their afflicted. (Ibid)

The triumphant Paul: “Paul had been imprisoned in Philippi, chased out of Thessalonica, smuggled out of Beroea, laughed at in Athens and in Corinth his message was foolishness to the Greeks and s stumbling-block to the Jews. Out of that background he declared that he was proud of the gospel. There was something in the gospel which made Paul triumphantly victorious over all that men could to him.” (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series, Romans)

Couple of articles worth checking into this week:

Five Moral Fences: protecting yourself from yourself

Succeeding Failure: pastoring after others' failures

Standards for staff moral integrity

From pastors.com

- Thou shalt not go to lunch alone with the opposite sex.*

- Thou shalt not have the opposite sex pick you up or drive you places when it is just the two of you.*

- Thou shalt not kiss any attender of the opposite sex or show affection that could be questioned.*

- Thou shalt not visit the opposite sex alone at home.

- Thou shalt not counsel the opposite sex alone at the office, and thou shalt not counsel the opposite sex more than once without that person’s mate. Refer them.

- Thou shalt not discuss detailed sexual problems with the opposite sex in counseling. Refer them.

- Thou shalt not discuss your marriage problems with an attender of the opposite sex.

- Thou shalt be careful in answering emails, instant messages, chatrooms, cards, or letters from the opposite sex.

- Thou shalt make your secretary your protective ally.

- Thou shalt pray for the integrity of other staff members.

* The first three do not apply to unmarried staff

Leader's Insight: When Leaders Implode

By Gordon MacDonald...who himself imploded twenty years ago.

Update: from my book The Accountability Connection:

Gordon MacDonald was interviewed in Christianity Today. He described, briefly, how an affair he had had come about, asked forgiveness and then reported why he felt the need to confess publicly and resign his presidency. CT quotes MacDonald in this revealing passage:

Satan's ability to distort the heart and the mind is beyond belief. I assume the responsibility for what I did; I made those decisions out of a distorted heart.

In addition, I now realize I was lacking in mutual accountability through personal relationships. We need friendships where one man regularly looks another man in the eye and asks questions about our moral life, our lust, our ambitions, our ego.[i]

The interview was refreshing because MacDonald admitted both his failure and his need for accountability, and noted that he and his wife had begun to cultivate friendships on a much deeper level than in the past. In particular, he began to relate to three trusted Christian leaders who had "pronounced him guilty of adultery, acknowledged his repentance, advised him to cut back on his speaking engagements, and required that he account to them spiritually on a regular basis."[ii]

---

[i]. "A Talk with the MacDonalds," Christianity Today (10 July 1987): 38.

[ii]. "Gordon MacDonald Leaves the Helm of Intervarsity" Ibid.

Hug evangelism (maybe?)

Woo-hoo! Baptism cannonball!

Holiness and 'Just Showing Up!'

Sometimes, just showing up makes a difference.

Dr. Carolyn Knight from Wesley College in Florence, Mississippi started showing up several years ago outside of strip clubs in our community to try to talk to those going in about the Lord. Feeling called thereafter to the mission fields of the world she and her husband spent several years serving as a missionary in various countries of Africa. But she has since returned to Mississippi and has started showing up again outside the three strip clubs in Jackson, MS.

Except now she is there with college students in tow to try and evangelize any who will engage with them in conversation.

In the couple of months they have been taking their stand one kid has been punched. Carolyn has been kicked. A couple of students had a dog unleashed on them.

But they keep showing up.

This columnist was enamored enough with their persistence that I joined them one evening to stand outside these “adult” establishments to hold up a sign promising prayer and to observe. This isn’t a ministry for the feint of heart.

In my short time there one of the managers came out to threaten harm, yell, call police and laughingly promise a law suit. Even so, wearing a dress shirt and tie and holding a sign that read “We are praying for you” it was interesting to see pricey vehicles drive up, see that respectable citizens were standing outside and decide to drive on and do something else with their evening.

Not long after my visit Dr. Knight sent an e-mail that certainly encouraged:

I just wanted to tell you some good news. Today in chapel one of the security guards from (one of the clubs) showed up. He cried during the service and wants to come again. He shared that he had quit his job and desired a new life. He also said that another security guard had quit and that an assistant manager had quit. He said it was all due to the fact that we had started coming down there. Praise the Lord!

The secret? No secret, really. There is so much about effective ministry that is easily understood. Prayerfully show up. Play it by ear. Be willing to stay kind, gentle, reasonable. Be courteous but also be able to challenge. Don’t back down. Meet bullying with a heart of love.

Last weekend I saw the movie Amistad for the second or third time. I was impressed again that director Steven Spielberg showed the “religious right” of that day outside of the ongoing events with the Africans off the slave ship in a persistent, kind, gentle, reasonable, courteous, challenging, don’t back-down kind of way. Dressed in black and with Bibles and a song on their lips they were just always there providing the contra mundum (against the world) perspective in a nearly impossible situation.

And against enormous odds the Amistad Africans were eventually sent back to their homeland.

There is something here we need to be inspired by. Do something momentous in the culture wars if you can. Show up at the dark places of your culture – the abortion clinics, the prisons, the nursing homes, the strip clubs, the hospices. We should have a heart for effectiveness in these places, but even if our persuasive tongues fail us and we wonder what good we might do it is still amazing what happens when you persistently show up.

Holiness and decency taking a stand still makes a difference.

A better job than God?

A 2001 poll of 931 self-designated Christians in Britain reveals deep confusion about how Jesus would live in the 21st century. NOP Research Group (company slogan: "Knowledge Is Power") conducted the poll for the religious division of British publisher Hodder & Stoughton. Sure the poll is a bit dated, but man oh man:

• 34 percent of evangelicals consider evangelism unspeakably intolerant;
• 29 percent of Trinitarians believe that Jesus might be a Wiccan today;
• 61 percent of theologians say that only Hitler and Stalin will go to hell (flit exists); and
• 37 percent of Christians believe they would do a better job than God of presiding over a just and righteous universe (in which, to quote C.S. Lewis, "It might truly be said at the end of each day, 'a good time was had by all'").

A better job than God? Would that be, uh, like...idolatry? Christianity Today, 00095753, 10/01/2001, Vol. 45, Issue 12

Half doubt God exists

Get this:

Nearly half of Americans are not sure God exists, according to a poll that also found divisions among the public on whether God is male or female or whether God has a human form and has control over events.

The survey conducted by Harris Poll found that 42 percent of US adults are not "absolutely certain" there is a God compared to 34 percent who felt that way when asked the same question three years ago.

More here.

Never been a better time, apparently, to take evangelism seriously. And, undoubtedly, never have so few in America been willing to do just that.