The Coalition To Ban Coalitions...

Hank Williams, Jr. once sang a song entitled, "The Coalition To Ban Coalitions."  Although recently ol' Bocephus and I parted ways over differing political ideologies and a few terrible songs, I do agree that we have too many groups "ag'in" things.  This is especially true for churches.  A Facebook friend posted the other day, "Wouldn't it be nice to be known for what we are for, rather than what we are against?"  I couldn't agree more.  We spend hours in the pulpit condemning sexual immorality, gambling, abortion, drug abuse, divorce, etc, yet we hardly reach out to those suffering from the effects of those very sins.

Recently, a well known baptist pastor headed up the opposition to expanded gambling legislation in Kentucky.  In one of his Facebook posts he said, "Everyone who comes to _____ ______ Church for help with gambling addiction will receive the cell phone number to every senator that voted for it."  Call me liberal, but that's a little too far right for me.  Call me a realist, but gambling exists, legally or illegally.  The message I infer is they would rather insult legislators than help people with inevitable addictions.

Do we need to stand up for what we believe in? Absolutely, but I have never believed blowing up an abortion clinic or threatening an abortion doctor was the answer to the question:  WWJD?  Nor is name-calling or saying you will "reveal that senator's sins to the world."  Last I checked, that is Jesus' job, not ours.  I'm sorry, Pastor York, but this pastor here doesn't see opposing expanded gambling as "spiritual warfare."  To me, "spiritual warfare" is battling Satan over the souls of God's creation, not battling the legislature over public policy.

One More Day...

"I just want one more day."  I remember my grandfather, J.B. Morris, speaking those words after my grandmother, Pauline, moved into the advanced stages of Alzheimer's and was experiencing mini-strokes that left her barely responsive and clueless to her surroundings.  This was not the woman I grew up calling "Granny." For years, I had watched my grandmother hustle and bustle around the house answering his beckon call.  His sweet tea glass was never empty and he never missed a meal. Life had been busy.  As a farmer, he was up at dawn and down at dark, but now things where different. He had stopped farming after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and over the past few years I had watched him pay back every favor she had ever performed for him.  It wasn't until he found her in the yard at 3 am one morning that he was convinced she had to be placed in a nursing home, but there was a catch, "If she's going, I'm going with her,"  I remember him saying. Granddaddy would often tell us that he prayed that God would let him live one day longer than Granny so he could take care of her until He called her home.  The final years of their life together was the closing scene in one of the greatest love stories ever told.  During WWII, J.B. wanted to serve his country like many young American men his age.  When he went to enlist at the recruiter's office, he was turned away due to an issue with his eyes.  Searching for work, he headed to Evansville, IN where he found a job with Servel, Inc, an appliance company turned government manufacturer during WWII.  J.B.'s duties at Servel consisted of delivering parts to the lines that built the American fighter planes the dominated that European and Asian skies.  It was on a delivery that he met a young woman named Pauline Hagan from Hancock County, KY, dubbed a "Rosie the Riveter," she riveted wings to fighter planes.  Later in life J.B. would tell friends and family how his parts inventory was low because Pauline kept asking for extra rivets just to see him coming on his delivery scooter.  After several weeks of carpooling to work with 4 co-workers, Granddaddy said it was a dark night as he pulled away from the local burger joint that he realized how beautiful Pauline was as she waved goodbye to him in the window.  They began spending more time together after work, and in August 1944, they were married in a little baptist church in Evansville.  After the war, he brought her back home to Hickman County farm life where they raised three children and six grandchildren, instilling in them the Christian morals and values that kept them together for nearly 64 years.  Granddaddy's prayer of "one more day" was never answered, but God knows best.  He passed away on January 22, 2008 after complications from a heart attack.  I can suspect that it only took him three months of harassing and begging the Lord in heaven to hurry up and bring his wife home too.  On April 28, 2008, I received the call that Granny had left this temporary world for her permanent home.  Most people would cry, but I didn't.  I just smiled because I knew where she was and that my Granddaddy was at the gates waiting for her.

Transgressing Traditions...

A group of Pharisees once asked Jesus, "Why do your disciples transgress the traditions of the elders?"  After reading this verse, we can see where the "religious" folks' priorities were -basically in the same place the church's are today.  We place so much emphasis on "tradition" that sometimes we forget our central mission -to reach a lost and dying world.  We place a lot of importance (and money) in stained glass windows, massive oaken pulpits, and fancy altar tables while our mission funds are nearly exhausted.  Jesus' disciples were in the business of breaking traditions and bringing about change.  We never read of a church "building" in the Scriptures.  The disciples worshipped, fellowshipped, and ministered in homes weekly.  Somewhere in the past 2,000 years, Baptists decided to follow our Catholic friends (Oh no!) in building miniature cathedrals.  I have read a study recently that the fastest growing churches are those that follow the apostles' pattern of worship in members' homes.  Am I saying that we should tear down our buildings, sell everything, and have all things in common? No.  But we should start placing our focus back where it needs to be -bringing others to Christ, regardless of race, social class, or age -and less on having more elegant facilities than the church across town.  The message never changes, only the way we present it...

NUMB3RS

For some reason, Christians (especially we Baptists) are obsessed with NUMBERS.  No, I’m not talking about 4^th book penned by Moses in the Bible.  I’m referring to our obsession with numerical data.  Obviously, it’s a matter of Baptist life and death that our Annual Church Profiles are as infallible and inerrant as the Word of God.  Most of all, I’m referring to the numbers plastered on the wall.  You know, the oaken board with the little changeable tiles that are on the wall just beyond that guy screaming about empty pews and declining Sunday school attendance.  That board has been there in my home church since I can remember.  After I entered the ministry, I saw it everywhere I spoke.  Now, I’m in my eighth year of pastoring and it’s there –staring over my shoulder and telling my little church, “Ha Ha!  There are 78 of you on the church roll, but only 35 were in Sunday school today.  If you would’ve gotten your lazy rear out of bed this morning and brought your family, there would’ve been 39 here!”  It also says, “Your stewardship stinks!  You should be ashamed that 57 people only gave $600 this week…tsk tsk tsk.  ”  Suddenly, we despise that little board because it is taking on the role of the Holy Spirit and convicting us of our numerically evident shortfalls.  I was a guest speaker at a church with a whopping 27 in worship; however, the little board said that 345 were in Sunday school.  At first I thought, Wow, what does this say about me?  After I interrogated the pastor, I learned they held bible study at a local hospital and nursing homes.  Great ministry.  Bad advertising.  The numbers board was saying to the visitor, “We have a great Sunday school here, but only about 8% enjoy the worship service.”  Sadly, that little board has also determined the fate of many pastors.  “Preacher, our Sunday school attendance has been declining according to the numbers…and, well, our mission giving is down according to the numbers...maybe you should consider resigning.”  Maybe the numbers board is a tool of the devil…just maybe…

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel we should be more concerned with spiritual growth than numerical growth.  I know it’s sort of  integral that we know how many contacts were made, how many brought their Bibles, and how many faithful sheep attended Discipleship Training, but it seems as if “how many lives were touched” and “how many are closer to God today than yesterday” are more important data that cannot be counted. 

I say we rip that board off the wall, take it out behind the fellowship hall, offer it up as a sweet smelling sacrifice to God –if you get my gist, and focus on building the kingdom instead of building church statistics.

What do you think?  

Happy Holydays

Like the rest of my Christian brothers and sisters, I prefer "Merry Christmas" to any other greeting during this time of year; however, I don't let this issue get to me like the folks at AFA do (with all respect to James Dobson). Yes, I know the secularists are trying to destroy Christianity and take Jesus out of everything. No, I don't appreciate it either, but it's been going on for centuries and Jesus warned us about it. What burns my bottom is some people actually believe that the left-wing nuts are going to destroy what we believe. If Jesus stated that hell cannot prevail against His church, what makes us think that Target is going to shut heaven down? And, since when do we let "them" dictate what we believe? If Best Buy wants to say "Happy Holidays" so be it. Their job is to sell televisions, not preach the gospel. Last time I looked at my Criswell Study Bible, I'm sure Jesus was talking to his disciples (not Old Navy) when he said to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. As a matter of fact, Jesus would probably walk right through a boycott and into Bestbuy to tell them the Good News in a non-threatening way (after all, he did eat with tax collectors, prostitutes, and other rejected persons). Just the other day, I heard a group of believers on the radio upset that the Christmas tree was now being called a holiday tree at a local merchant. Funny, I can't find any kind of Christmas tree, holiday tree, or any other festive plant in the Scriptures. Let folks call it what they want, but if they don't celebrate the Savior's birth, they don't deserve the privilege of owning a "Christmas" tree, nor the privilege of celebrating the season! I said all of that to get to this point: Christians should use this opportune time of year to tell everyone we know about the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. If you know someone who has a "holiday tree," explain to them why you have a Christmas tree. Even a friendly "Merry Christmas" can brighten the day of a work-weary clerk at the store. Let's do "whatever it takes" to tell others why we celebrate December 25th. It's about the greatest gift of all -share it!