DownshoreDrift

Why It Hard for the World to Listen to Christians

I am a firm believer that we must contextualize the gospel to our current culture. That is the work of a missionary. Every culture speaks a certain language and thinks a certain way. The Missionary Christian must exegete his/her culture and find ways to declare who God is so that people can understand. Every culture also has built in barriers and bridges to the gospel and the wise missionary (I use this term to refer to every Christian) understands this and travels over those bridges that are present.

However . . .

No matter how much to seek to contextualize the gospel and explain it in ways that people understand and seek to meet felt needs and minister to people on their own turf, you are still in a situation where people who do not know God are actually incapable of knowing Him unless the Lord enlightens them. That is humbling for those of us who seek to spread abroad the knowledge of God.  It causes us to depend upon the power of the Holy Spirit to convict people and draw people to Christ. This is a spiritual work and no matter how much we seek to relate to people, we have no ability whatsoever to cause people to come too faith in Christ. Yes, we are responsible to preach the gospel, love people, build friendships, serve people, and represent Christ everywhere we go. But, we cannot convert anyone.  Only God can do that.

When we were in India back in April, I had a conversation with a woman in the holy city of Rishikesh on the Ganges River. She said that all roads led to heaven and that Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not the only way to God.  I kept talking with her about this and at one point, she asked if I was trying to convert her. I told her that I was not and that I could not.  Relieved, we kept talking about God, Jesus, and salvation. I told her that not to mislead her, but because it is impossible for me to convert anyone. All that I can do is give witness to who God is and to the power of His gospel revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. We can tell people what we have seen and what the Bible says, but we cannot save anyone. Only God can.  Yes, He does it through the foolishness of preaching the gospel, but He is still the one who does it.

No matter how much we try to relate to non-Christians (and we should try as we are neighbors together with all people on this planet), at some point we have to recognize that their relationship with God, or lack of one, is something that God must work in. Hopefully, He will work through us, but recognizing that it is His work should not make us passive. Rather, it should remove the pressure of having to perform and should enable us to freely love people who cannot know God unless God draws them.

Should it be a surprise to us when they do not listen to Christians or when they reject our witness?  No. 1 John 4:4-6 says,

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them (spirits who deny Christ), because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. 

This is interesting. It is saying that there are Christ-denying spirits who engage in falsehood and they are rampant throughout the world. The "world" represents the domain that is set up against the knowledge of God. It consists of the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does (1 John 2:16).  The things that belong to the world are perpetuated by demonic spirits that also deceive people through an unending array of messages that contradict who God is and how He wants us to live. Then, it says that the world listens to these spirits and it buys in to these messages. Since people who do not know God are from the world and belong to the world, they listen to the voices that follow the viewpoint of the world. They are not from God and do not belong to God and therefore do not listen to God's words or viewpoint or to His people. Whenever we speak from God's perspective, those who are from the world will not listen to us because it comes into conflict with the world's perspective, the view that they belong to. So, we really are talking about a form of spiritual warfare here.

No matter how much we try to appeal to the world, the only way that the world will listen to us (in the natural) is when we begin to speak from their viewpoint - according to the wisdom of the world. Unfortunately, many Christians care more about drawing a crowd than they do about true life transformation in Christ and they are ignorant of what it means to operate in the spiritual power that only comes from God. Because they think that they are called to be successful (the world's view), they partake in the ways of the world to appeal to the people of the world. They speak the world's language and take on the ways of the world so that they can draw adherents to their cause. Then, they call it Christianity when it is actually just a baptized form of the world with some Jesus sprinkled in. Most don't see the problem because they are so focused on numbers and size as a sign of God's blessing. If people are coming, then it must be pleasing to God.

This has nothing to do with styles of dress, music, church forms, etc. I am not saying that. I am saying that there is a way that seems right to the world, and you can find it in our most traditional churches as well as in contemporary churches. It is not about forms and styles. It is about dependence upon God and an understanding that He must work in our lives for us to be born again. We must see life transformation. We cannot just reform the flesh and try and live a better life. We must come to know God. This requires the work of God in our life through the drawing and regeneration of the Spirit that accompanies the preaching of the gospel. Our response must be faith in Christ and repentance from trusting in our own way to make a life for ourselves. We must trust in God. 

Only when we look to God first do we have a real message for the world. Many in the world will reject us. There will be conflict. But, when the gospel is spoken and lived with love and power, God will use that to draw many people to Himself.

Seeing God Work in India

The last few days have been a whirlwind. We have been in villages, meeting with ministry leaders, and have taught in a holistic ministry conference. We have been sick and have been very tired. But, God has moved. My previous nervousness in sharing the gospel on the train did serve as motivation for me to not miss anymore opportunities and I have seen God work and answer my prayers for boldness. Thank you for praying if you happened to see the last post. God works through weak vessels, of which I am one.

The needs here are so great. Children are everywhere. The ministries are trying to care for and teach as many as they can, but they are limited by a lack of funds. That is why we try to raise money for the work here. Children, children, children. There is such an opportunity to invest in the future of India and to see lives transformed. Why do we in America sit on so much wealth while thousands of children could be helped and exposed to God's love here in India?

Today, I heard a man's testimony about how he came to Christ. He is a doctor and was an unbeliever. A man brought his wife to him for him to help her. She was basically dead with very little pulse. The doctor tried to help her and he could not and had to tell the woman's husband that he could do nothing for her. She was going to die. The husband was very upset and asked again if anything could be done. At that point, the doctor remembered that he had heard about the power of God and how Jesus raised the dead. So, he cried out to a God that he didn't know and asked Him to heal this woman. Within two hours, the woman recovered and was better. The doctor then rejoiced in the Lord and gave His life to Jesus. I heard this story just today. What a powerful God we serve!

I will be teaching in the conference again tomorrow and we will meet with ministry leaders tomorrow night. Then, we return home via Delhi and a very long train ride on Friday and Saturday. Thank you for your prayers. They have been very much needed.

How To Have a Real #GCR

So, what about the local church? The Great Commission Resurgence Task Force has given us recommendations for how we are to live Christlike lives and for how some of our entities can be restructured to increased efficiency, but we have not heard very much about what the local church can do to bring about a GCR. Southern Baptists say a lot about how the local church is at the center of God's activity in the world and how the SBC exists to assist the local church in their mission, but we don't see a lot of that. Instead, we see cooperation defined as the local church sending money and people up the line to the state conventions and national entities, effectively farming out to parachurch organizations the mission that God primarily gave to the local church. No wonder we have lost our vision! We are not working according to the design that God intiated. But, what if we did? Here are some concrete proposals that the GCRTF could put forward that would encourage us all and could possibly lead to a real Great Commission Resurgence:

1. Start their thinking with the local church in mind. The GCRTF started with a top-down approach. They got things backwards. If they had started with the local church and worked their way up, they would be in a much better spot right now. But, they went the way that the SBC has been going for the last 60 years and they took a top-down approach.
2. Through state conventions and local associations, identify churches that are already carrying out the axioms for a Great Commission Resurgence found HERE.  Who is already doing the work correctly? Where is God moving? What examples can we hold up to the rest of the SBC locally and nationally? I asked a DOM friend of mine about this and he said that he could think of 10-12 churches in his association that were doing really well in this regard. Let them lead us. Instead of trying to get something going from scratch, we accurately recognize that God is at work in a powerful way in many SBC churches across America. Why can't they lead the denomination?
3. Encourage those churches to partner with a couple of other churches that might be struggling, but who are willing. Again, the state conventions and local assocations are critical in identifying these churches and pastors and in helping to facilitate the connections. Have pastoral and lay leadership meet together in prayer and mutual submission and ask what they could do together locally and globally to impact lostness. How could they help one another? How could they pray for each other? What encouragement could the thriving church share with the churches that are struggling and vice versa?
4. In these clusters of 3-5 churches, introduce the concepts of partnering for global missions involvement. Bring in someone from the IMB that would meet with them and help facilitate engagement with an area overseas that could use their prayer and support. Plan a joint mission trip and connect them with a missionary overseas.
5. Also, introduce the concept of church planting. Have someone from the state convention or NAMB talk with them about helping to support a church plant in an area of need. Prayer, finances, people, and support could be brought out to engage in this work.  Perhaps several clusters could work together. NAMB, state convention personnel, and church planter strategists could help facilitate this, but you still have primary local church involvement.
6. In these clusters of churches, introduce the concept of local community transformation. The state convention and primarily the local association can play a vital role in this. What if 3-5 local churches addressed areas of a community that were struggling? What if they identified the darkest problems in their community and they let their light shine tangibly in some kind of way? I know that God would lead them.
7. As these clusters of 3-5 local churches work together on global missions in some way, domestic church planting, and community transformation, they will have to be praying and seeking God. They will have to be thinking about others.  This will bring renewal to the local congregation as they personally engage in the mission that God has called them to. Pastors will be encouraging other pastors. Lay people will be meeting together to plan, work, and encourage one another. Churches will not compete with one another, but rather, they will truly cooperate. Call in the state conventions, local association, and NAMB and the IMB to help resource all of this. Then, you truly have SBC entities resourcing the local church.
8. Use the best aspects of SBC initiatives like the Acts 1:8 Challenge and GPS in these clusters of churches for training and goal setting. The IMB has some really good initiatives for local church involvement that are not widely known. We don't have to reinvent the wheel. The SBC has been tinkering with these ideas for many years now. Let's bring them out convention-wide and really apply them to local church life.
9. As these clusters become effective in engaging in God's mission both locally and globally, begin to bring more churches into new clusters. As churches that were once struggling begin to strengthen, bring in other churches that are willing to engage. Keep starting the process over again. Create church partnership clusters in pioneer regions on the West Coast and in the Northeast and connect them with clusters in the Southeast. Work to get every missionary adopted by a cluster. Identify 100 target areas for church planting and get clusters to partner with church planter strategists in those areas to fund church plants. Connect with our seminaries to train church planters that are ready to partner with a cluster to plant a church in the target area. Keep encouraging the spread of this like a virus until every SBC church that is willing to engage in this does.
10. Call on our seminaries and Lifeway to project theological education by extension into local associtation and cluster groups all over the U.S. via the internet. Decentralize seminary training so that it is more effectively serving the misson of the local church as they engage in this mission.

Of course, you start with the willing and those who are already working effectively. The GCRTF will say that they cannot mandate anything to the local church. That is true. But, NAMB is autonomous as well, and that hasn't stopped them from completely reorganizing NAMB in their recommendations. If the GCRTF used their SBC-given platform to put forward a plan like this, many local associations and state conventions would pick it up and begin to do it. If you had even 100 clusters of 3-5 churches form and carryout this plan together, that is 300-500 SBC church engaging in this local and global mission in an exponential way because they would be working together and sharing resources. You don't destroy the current structure of the SBC, but rather, you use it help initiate a movement of churches engaging in the Mission of God. As more and more churches engage in this, the things that do not facilitate the movement begin to lose importance and also lose funding. Churches continue to give to the CP because money is needed for church planters and consultants from the state conventions, local associations, NAMB, and the IMB, along with the missionaries/church planters needed to carry out the plans directly. So, you are not destroying the structure, but rather, you are repositioning it and maximizing its effectiveness by creating exponential engagement.

The argument will be that churches won't do this. I think that mine would. I could probably come up with a list of large and small churches in Alabama who would do something like this. What if cooperation actually meant more than sending a check to the CP, but we really did cooperate on a church-to-church basis? What if the church acted as the missionary and initated global and local work in cooperation with a few other churches doing the same thing? Does anyone think that excitement, spiritual life and passion, and the power of God would not spread? Does anyone think that the nations would not be impacted?

The problem in the SBC is not primarily a funding crisis. It is a vision crisis. Every local church has to go it alone. What if we partnered and networked a bit? What if the entities of the SBC lined up BEHIND the local church and helped us? What if the church really did become the frontlines of SBC mission work and every member of every SBC church was considered a missionary because they were directly engaging in the mission of God? What if we flipped everything around?

We might end up with a real GCR afterall. 

Still Grieving Over Haiti - What Do We Do Now?

Someone asked me today if I had recovered from my trip to Haiti yet. I told them that I had recovered physically, but emotionally and spiritually, I was still very affected. I cannot get the vision of the Haitian people out of my minds. The children, the men and women, the injured, the sick, the hungry, the scared. So many have lost family members and loved ones. Homes destroyed. Futures wrecked. They were a poor people to begin with, but they are a beautiful people. The worth of a person or a nation is not found in how much money they have, but rather in what God thinks of them. God loves them, I know that to be true. Do we love them, or have we moved on?

I am trying to figure out what I am supposed to do next. What are any of us supposed to do? The big organizations and the media tell us to give money. But, then you find out that what has been given has not made it to Haiti yet. It is on its way, but there is so much that has to be done to move the massive amounts of supplies that are needed in an organized way. There are so many obstacles in the way. I get that. But, it does not change the fact that people are suffering right now. Rainy season starts in March. Do you realize how many people are sleeping outside? How many children? No, just giving more money is not the answer. That is the easy thing to do. Cut a check for $100 and send it to one of the big disaster relief organizations and then go on with your life. That soothes the conscience, but the reality is that it is not filling the bellies of the children who are going to bed hungry again tonight - a bed that consists of some blankets piled on concrete in the open, or maybe under a sheet that is stretched out like a tent. The truth is that we do need to give money - but we also need teams of people to go and distribute the food and medicine and help with providing supplies to put up some temporary structures to keep people out of the rain and sun. We can't just feel good about giving some money. We also need people to go in teams and do the work of helping people and proclaiming Jesus.

I got to be on a team like that at the end of last month when I went to Haiti. They are Helping Hands Foreign Missions. They are not very large, but they are being the hands and feet of Jesus. They are bringing the Kingdom of God and Jesus said that the Kingdom was like a mustard seed, or yeast, or a treasure hidden in a field. Little children find it. I am finding that bigger is not always better in this type of thing. We just need to help people. Helping Hands is doing exactly that. If you want to invest in an organization that is truly impacting people in Haiti right now, I highly encourage you to support what they are doing. They are going back on March 8 and need people to join them either then or in the subsequent weeks. If you can go to Haiti, you should, and you should do it through this group.

Here is their blog from the weeks that they spent in Haiti. Read about how they ministered Christ and stepped into places of suffering. The blog is really full of some incredible stories of God working by putting this team exactly where they needed to be to minister to and feed and care for hundreds and hundreds of people. Watch this video that aired on CBS News in Atlanta about the work of Helping Hands in Haiti. Pray about what you can do and be the hands and feet of Jesus in a country that is suffering greatly.

  

Miracles in Haiti: Multiplying Food and Supplies Among Baptist Medical Teams

The following story from Baptist Press perfectly illustrates the point that I was making in my post earlier today. If we follow the Lord into hard places and show up, we can trust Him to multiply our provision and do miracles that astound us. If we try to work everything out in our own strength ahead of time, then we only have our own strength to depend on. We need to depend on God way more in the area of disaster relief. There is a way of Jesus here. Read my post from this morning and then read this report of God's miracle working power among a Baptist medical team that arrived a week after the earthquake:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (BP)--Six state Southern Baptist Disaster Relief medical teams are among the first Baptists to minister in Haiti since the deadly 7.0 earthquake on Jan. 12.

SBDR medical volunteers from Arkansas and North Carolina have already come and gone, and Kentucky and Mississippi teams arrived on Monday, Feb. 1. Florida and South Carolina medical volunteers are due to arrive in Port-Au-Prince on Wednesday, Feb. 3.

The Mississippi and Kentucky teams wasted no time after arriving on Monday, turning a small library into a pharmacy and treating 550 patients. The Mississippi team is operating a small hospital out of a Haitian Baptist church located on the edge of one of Port-Au-Prince's larger tent cities directly across from the national capitol building. The Kentucky team is working at a clinic near the presidential palace.

North American Mission Board disaster relief consultant Terry Henderson and a team of six will leave Atlanta on Thursday, Feb. 4, to serve as an incident command team in Haiti. They will link up with Fritz Wilson and Dennis Wilbanks of the Florida Baptist Convention, who are on the ground in Haiti for the second time since the earthquake.

Henderson and his team will be busy planning logistics, lodging, transportation, feeding and communications for SBDR's eventual "D Day" -- the day dozens of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams from the state conventions begin to be deployed to Haiti, a process that will extend over many months.

The Arkansas medical team was the first to land in Point-Au-Prince, ministering from Jan. 19-22.

Veteran disaster relief workers Tamara Gore and Jerry Gay were two of the 10 members of the Arkansas unit. Nothing prepared them for their first drive through downtown Port-Au-Prince, they reported. The unmistakable smell of death was pungent and everywhere.

Haiti was in only its seventh day following the devastating earthquake. More than 100,000 bodies had already been recovered, and most had been buried in mass graves to stave off disease. The temperature was in the mid-80s.

"I was in the first car," said Gore, a law enforcement chaplain from Benton, Ark. "You could see the bodies. We would pass a collapsed building and you would smell the bodies. Everybody knew what it was without talking about it."

Gay, associate missionary for the North Pulaski Baptist Association in Sherwood, Ark., thought he had seen it all after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"I've never seen anything even close to this disaster, even Katrina," Gay said. "My wife and I both worked after Katrina. It was bad but this was a different kind of bad. This was sudden with no warning. At least there was some warning for Katrina."

Gay said his worst memory came while riding in downtown Port-Au-Prince one afternoon. Spotting the rubble of a flattened building and trying to stomach the accompanying stench, Gay asked his driver what the structure had been. The driver told him the building had been a school.

"Immediately, I thought of my little granddaughter back in Arkansas," Gay recounted. "I thought I was ready for what I would see, but my mind raced to my granddaughter.... That's the kind of thing people who come down here need to be prepared for."

As the additional SBDR teams arrive in the Haitian capital in the days and weeks to come, Gay advises them to know why they're going before they get there.

"The mission ought to be clear," Gay said. "Folks need to be mentally, emotionally and spiritually prepared."

Gore said it another way: "I would tell disaster relief people that they need to be prayed up before they get there, because they don't know what they're going into and what they're going to be dealing with," said the 51-year-old chaplain with 28 years of experience.

Gore said the Arkansas medical team -- two medical doctors, four nurses, a nurse practitioner, a physical therapist, an emergency medical technician, a crisis counselor and Gay, the unit's communications expert -- flew directly into Port-Au-Prince via Mission Flights International (MFI) on Jan. 19. They set up a clinic at El Shaddai Baptist Church on the northern outskirts of Port-Au-Prince, near the airport and across from the U.N. compound.

During their four-day stint, the team saw around 70 patients a day at the makeshift clinic, including children from the El Shaddai Orphanage where they stayed at night.

The two physicians -- one a pediatrician, the other a surgeon and pediatric urologist –- treated patients for broken bones, cuts, abrasions, depression and stress-induced gastro-intestinal problems. They also saw patients who had to be transported to other medical sites because of the more serious nature of their injuries.

The clinic had no electricity. Team members slept on air mattresses on the floor. Gore said sleep was difficult at best because of the tropical heat and the nightly crowing roosters and bleating goats and sheep. Gay had the only cell phone that worked. Otherwise, communications was possible only by satellite phones.

Until the Arkansas team departed Haiti on Jan. 23, its biggest concern was running out of the precious antibiotics, pain medicines, bandages, snacks and other supplies they needed to treat the Haitians. Because of weight restrictions on the MFI plane, the team had brought only two large black bags of medical supplies.

But here's where both Gore and Gay tell a remarkably consistent story -- the story of just one of the miracles in Haiti so far.

"The first night there, we were afraid of running out of supplies," Gore recounted. "So when I gave the devotional that night, I talked about the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with the loaves and fishes. I talked about how we needed to pray for God to bless what we had, show us how to distribute what we had, and that God would give us what we needed."

Unbeknownst to the rest of the team, the two physicians and the physical therapist circled the two medical bags of supplies that same night and also prayed that the supplies would be sufficient, Gay said.

After two days and seeing 180 Haitian patients, Gore and Gay both insist that the two bags -- neither of them cram-packed even upon arrival -– were still full at the end of the second day. They said the same was true of a large sack of peanuts, cheese snacks and pretzels donated to the team by Southwest Airlines. Two days later, the bag had more snacks than they started with.

"People can draw their own conclusions," Gay said. "We're not crazy people, we're professional people. We carried in two bags of supplies. The bags were full but not bulging. When we got ready to leave, it was all a couple of us men could do to zip up the bags. Nobody came in and gave us any additional supplies or snacks. We left two full bags for the next medical team coming in.

"All we could do is look at each other and laugh -- knowing that it had to have been God who had multiplied that stuff," Gay said.

Gay and Gore both said they are already making plans to return to Haiti. In addition to the two men, the other eight members of the Arkansas medical team were Deborah Quade, Angela Titus, Emily Magnusson, Rebecca Brown, Carl Garvin, Larry Gore, John Redman and Katherine Durham.
--30--
Mickey Noah is a writer for the North American Mission Board.

What if we had had 60 teams in Haiti within the first 3 weeks instead of 6? What if we were feeding people who are starving?  Could God protect and supply those teams as well? I don't want to presume upon God or tempt Him. We need to make sure that we are being led by the Holy Spirit. But, sometimes I think that we don't hear from God because we think that we already know what we can and can't do and we make decisions based off of our ability instead of God's supernatural power. I am so thankful for the team from Arkansas and I praise God for the miracle of multiplication that He provided.

Haitian Orphans and UNICEF's War Against International Adoption

On Wednesday of last week, I found myself traveling through the rubble strewn streets of Port-au-Prince on my way to the US Embassy. We went there to inquire about bringing 50 Haitian orphans to the United States. A ministry that I am familiar with called Bridges of Faith in Alabama has the facilities and the desire to take care of up to 50 Haitian orphans on something that the State Department calls a Humanitarian Waiver. When we got to the embassy we were told that the Haitian government was allowing orphans to leave the country last week. But, then things changed. Inexplicably, they changed direction and now no orphans were leaving Haiti. The 10 Americans who are now being detained in Haiti got caught up in this confusion, it appears. Some reports state that they had permission but they needed one more piece of paperwork to leave the country. What they did was not wise, but the rules have kept changing in Haiti regarding the orphan situation. Apparently, UNICEF (United Nations Childrens Fund) is playing a huge role here.

According to reports, UNICEF has a standing policy against international adoption (see HERE).  According to missionaries in Haiti and other reports from those trying to adopt, UNICEF has pressured the Haitian government to adhere to their policies on international adoption and cease releasing children to adoptive parents that have already been approved. The U.S. government is trying to get the children released and a stalemate has ensued. This is what we were caught up in at the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince and it is why the policies changed. The UNICEF perspective is that children in poverty-stricken condiitions are better off if they stay in orphanages in their native culture than if they leave their native culture and go to families in other countries. You can debate this all you want, but that is what is behind the fact that Haitan orphans are not being allowed to leave right now. UNICEF saw an opportunity to spread their philosophy to Haiti and they have a lot of money that the Haitian government needs. At least that is the story that is being reported by people in Haiti who are in the know.

As for the 10 missionaries from Idaho, the media is presenting this like they are bunch of sex traffickers that got caught. Did they make a mistake? Yes. Were they foolish and ill-informed? It appears that they were. However, it is easy to speculate that an example is being made of them to send a message that children are staying put, despite the best intentions. One report stated that they had full approval from the orphanage and the parents of the children that they were taking. 21 of the 33 children had parents and those parents actually put them on the bus to get them out of Haiti and to the Dominican Republic. I don't know the full story. It is doubtful that anyone does at this point. I fully understand the need to have things documented and for the proper paper work to be done. Actually, I fiercely support things being done the right way when it comes to children. There are many ill-intentioned people out there that would take advantage of a situation like this and it is possibly that the group from Idaho was in that number. But, when international power plays begin to get involved in things like this, then the story is not always as it appears. 

The role of the church is to be an advocate for justice and righteousness all over the world. The Haitian children should be protected from predators that would seek to exploit them in this time of disaster. At the same time, children that can be taken care of and provided for in these types of situations should be. If they cannot leave Haiti, then we should go to them and help care for them there. The 11 year old orphaned girl that we rescued from sex slavery last week is burned into my mind. Fortunately, she is in an orphanage that we are working with and is not being prostituted on the streets of Port-au-Prince. But, how many more are suffering? What else can we do?

My heart aches. 

Hinduism, India, Jesus, and Thanksgiving Prayers

The Hindus just began a sacrifice of 250,000 animals in Nepal.  As you know, there are about 1 BILLION or so Hindus in India, the country where our church does the majority of its mission work. They are sacrificinng animals for a Hindu festival honoring the goddess Gadhimai.

The world's biggest animal sacrifice began in Nepal today with the killing of the first of more than 250,000 animals as part of a Hindu festival in the village of Bariyapur, near the border with India.

The event, which happens every five years, began with the decapitation of thousands of buffalo, killed in honour of Gadhimai, a Hindu goddess of power.

With up to a million worshippers on the roads near the festival grounds, this year's fair seems more popular than ever, despite vocal protests from animals rights groups who have called for it to be banned. "It is the traditional way, " explained 45-year old Manoj Shah, a Nepali driver who has been attending the event since he was six, "If we want anything, and we come here with an offering to the goddess, within five years all our dreams will be fulfilled."

Crowds thronged the roads and camped out in the open, wrapped in blankets against the cool mist. The festivities included a ferris wheel, fortune-telling robots and stalls broadcasting music and offering tea and sugary snacks.

As dawn broke, the fair officially opened with the sacrifice of two rats, two pigeons, a pig, a lamb and a rooster in the main temple, to cheers of "Long live Gadhimai" from spectators pushing against each other for a better view.

The article goes on to say,

Chandan Dev Chaudhary, a Hindu priest, said he was pleased with the festival's high turnout and insisted tradition had to be kept. "The goddess needs blood," he said. "Then that person can make his wishes come true."

Every time we visit, we go to the Hindu holy city of Rishikesh on the Ganges River. This city is full of temples, idols, holy men, ashrams, yoga centers, and pilgrimage sites. It reeks with incense and sacrificial prayers. Bells are constantly ringing to awaken the deities from their slumber in the thirteen story high Kailashananda Ashram on the banks of the Ganges. Westerners flock to this place to study yoga and fulfill their search for enlightenment. But, darkness is all they find.

"The goddess needs blood."  This is true about every religion. Blood, sacrifice, and our offerings are required to awakent the gods and goddesses to our plight and give us good fortune. Religion tells us that we can get to God through what we do. This is the spell that the Hindus are under. But, the Bible declares this perspective to be patently false. We can never get to God, no matter what we do.  Yes, blood is required because our sins are great and they require punishment. But, we are incapable of paying the punishment of our sins. A sacrifice is needed, but the blood of bulls and goats is not sufficient. We need a Perfect Sacrifice. This is who Jesus is. He was the atoning sacrifice for our sins. The full wrath of God was satisfied by the punishment that was laid upon Christ. We do not have to continue to offer sacrifices for our sins to to gain good fortune. We must only look to Christ in faith in what He did for us. His death and resurrection is sufficient.

Hebrews 9:11-15 says,

¹¹When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. ¹²He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. ¹³The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. ¹⁴How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

 ¹⁵For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

Religion tells us how we can climb to God. True Christianity tells us that God has come to us to rescue us and make things right. We must only respond to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ in faith and repentance. We must look to Jesus. Hinduism only keeps people in perpetual bondage. Christianity sets people free. People who say that all religions are basically the same know nothing of what world religions teach. They are as fundamentally different as night is from day. As Christians, we no longer have to make sacrifices or perform rituals for salvation, but rather, we must only believe in Jesus Christ, the One that God has sent.

And for that I am truly thankful.

 

 

Coming Shakeup at NAMB and What It Says About the Future of the SBC

The Associated Baptist Press is reporting that the president of Southern Baptist's North American Mission Board (NAMB), Geoffery Hammond, appears to be on the way out over leadership issues and conflict.  Hammond replaced Bob Reccord in 2007 who was removed for mismanaging the agency. What exactly is NAMB doing? Why does it exist? What is its role? How is it to interact with state conventions? How does it serve the local church? I don't really know if anyone knows the answer to those questions. I really don't know if anyone is even asking the right questions. I do know that we keep seeing failure across the board and we keep looking for scapegoats. Maybe Hammond is horrible as a leader and there are better leaders available. Maybe he isn't and the culture is just broken and no one knows why they exist. I don't know. But, this makes two presidents in a row that have been removed (if it does happen) and that points to some larger problems, I would think.

I write this post because reading the article made me think of the seminar yesterday at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit with Gary Hamel.   I put my notes up in a post yesterday (follow the preceding link) and I want to say that Hamel has gotten me thinking about developing bottom up, organic, leadership structures for the 21st century. Marty Duren and I have been working on a concept called "ChurchAsMissionary" where we are saying that the local church is to function as the missionary. Our new collaborative website (along with Todd and Paul Littleton, Art Rogers, and David Phillips) is called missioscapes.com. We will be exploring how churches can reposition themselves for mission in a rapidly changing world as they launch out from older structures. I don't know what kind of future denominational bureaucracies like NAMB have in this world where the only constant is change, but I do know that they ought to talk with Gary Hamel and see what he thinks about which way they should go. That guy is brilliant. Of course, he must be, because he is saying the same stuff that I've been saying since about 2003 about network theory!  :-)  Um, plus he teaches for the London School of Business or something and has written books and speaks all over and stuff. In other words, he's really smart. And right.  Southern Baptists ought to start paying attention to what is actually happening in our world instead of continuing to lead organizations as though we are living in the Industrial Age.

Marty Duren on the GCR: If We Were the GCR Task Force

A new series begins today at http://missioscapes.com entitled, "If We Were the GCR Task Force." Marty Duren writes the first of seven scheduled posts by the editors during the month of August addressing the GCR and offering our thoughts on what we would do if we were them. It should be a profitable discussion and I hope that you take a look at it. Leave a comment and give us your thoughts. By the way, I'll be writing quite a few posts like this announcing new articles for missioscapes.com since it is a new site and we are trying to let people know about it.

Marty Duren, Todd & Paul Littleton, Art Rogers, David Phillips and . . .

Me.  What do all of us have in common? Apart from being friends, we have blogged on ministry and missional living over the past few years as pastors and leaders. We also found common ground in some of our views on the SBC and found ourselves blogging together on the now defunct SBCOutpost. Perhaps you remember it. It created something of a stir.

Well, we are giving it another go at Missioscapes.com and plan to begin by giving our views on the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) that is being proposed in the SBC. We are going to be bringing in other writers as well from a wide array of backgrounds. From there, we will engage in an ongoing missional conversation that will sometimes touch on ministry in an SBC context and will sometimes go beyond that. It promises to be quite provocative and it starts today.  Check it out and pass it along. 

Look Not Only To Your Own Interests . . .

Philippians 2:4 says that. We are to look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others. Do Christians take that seriously? I mean, I know that we are often kind and generous and we help people, but do we really go around looking after the interests of others?

What would happen if we did that?

What would happen if when we went to church, we didn't think about ourselves, but instead, we thought about how we could look after the interests of others?

What if we saw our neighborhoods and cities that way?

What if we saw those different from us that way? How can we look after the interests of those who are not just like us and don't make us feel comfortable?

Is Jesus serious about the whole sacrificial love thing? I mean, surely he just meant that He would love us that way and we would just get to be happy, right? No, He actually does call us to love extravagantly, not getting anything in return, laying our very lives down.

How does this view of looking after the interests of others apply to the public school kids in your community? The poor? Those without fathers? Those who cannot find work? Those who have quit trying? The rejected? The sinners? The cast-out?  What does it mean to look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others when we decide to move to a "better" neighborhood because our old neighborhood is "transitioning?"

I could keep going, I guess.

I am just coming to the point where I am amazed at how much of the Bible's teaching I just never thought much about or took that seriously. I mean, I see words on a page and I believe them, but I often fail to think about their implications for all of life. These words in Phil. 2:4 have massive implications for ALL of life if we will believe them and obey them.

How would the world be changed if Christians just started obeying Phil. 2:4? 

Middle Class Flight Instead of White Flight?

On Saturday night, I wrote a post about the city of Montgomery, AL (my city) and the white flight that the newspaper says is happening here. I got a few responses on my Facebook page (http://facebook.com/alcross)  that said that what was happening was not white flight, but rather, it was middle class flight. In other words, both white and black middle class people do not want to be in living situations with lower class people and the issues that are connected to poverty, such as crime, family breakdown, drug abuse, poor schools, gangs, etc. I understand the desire to say that leaving a city with problems is not a racial response, but rather, it is a lifestyle and safety response that all people are making no matter their race. Maybe that is true. I'm not saying that it is not. A big problem in the black community for many years has been that when people make it out of urban areas, they tend not to come back or give back to the communities that they came from. Black leaders have been bemoaning this fact for some time. So, whether people are white, black, or other, the issue of people leaving the city has more to do with socio-economic issues than it has to do with race. Culture and economics trumps race, in other words. Okay, I'll give you that and I don't deny it.

Southern Baptist Myopia Reflected in Our Response to the Great Commission Resurgence?

A myopia is a condition of nearsightedness where you can see clearly the things that are right in front of you, but things at a distance are blurry. Southern Baptists struggle with this in regard to our spiritual future and I believe that some of this could be reflected in the response to the new document, the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR).

We tend to look backwards well enough, and we also find ways to look at the present critically, but looking forward seems to be a struggle. While the GCR is good and I signed it as a supporter, it seems that Southern Baptists are failing to address the cultural realities that we find ourselves entering and how those realities are presently affecting us now and in the future.

For SB's, The Great Commission Is NOT Affected By A Drop In CP Giving

IMB Missionary Appointments are being cut because of a drop in Cooperative Program giving.

IMB Trustee Chariman, Paul Chitwood wants to change the CP formula to get more money to the IMB.

Southern Baptist Cooperative Program giving has dropped and IMB Trustee Chairman, Paul Chitwood, SBC President Johnny Hunt and others are acting like people are not being reached with the gospel around the world because we are being selfish.  Well, we are selfish and I understand their sentiment and desire for Southern Baptists to be doing our part, but the truth is, God is working through believers all over the world. The indigenous church of the global South and 2/3's world is taking the gospel everywhere. Chinese are evangelizing Chinese and Muslims. Koreans are going everywhere with the Gospel. There is a huge movement in South America. More and more people are coming to Christ in Africa. Indians are evangelizing Indians. The Holy Spirit is working and the world is seeing the greatest influx of people into the Kingdom that it has ever seen. Yes, there is a vital role for Westerners, Americans, and Southern Baptists, but I think that we should stop with the stories that manipulate money out of people by claiming that missionaries will stay home and the lost will never hear the gospel if Southern Baptists don't do it through the CP and IMB.

Here's the truth: Sob stories and appeals to emotion will do little to make us more evangelistic or generous. The problem with the SBC is a problem with the heart. Threatening to "take the gloves off" as Johnny Hunt is doing over this issue will hardly make a difference. Our priorities are wrong. We think first about ourselves and our own needs. This is a heart issue. I know that that is what they are saying. But, here is what I believe. If you think that you are called to go overseas in missions and you are told by the IMB that they can't send you because of lack of funds and you subsequently stay home, then you are not called to missions - at least not in a way that will be effective in the long term. We are far too depenedent on the institution of the SBC to do the work that GOD has called us to do. If SBC churches are waiting on the 5,600 IMB missionaries to reach the world for Christ and we are putting all of our eggs in that basket, then we are going to be very disappointed. Until individuals and churches take this upon themselves to get involved and begin to engage with unreached people groups and the lost in their own neighborhoods and cities, we are going to continue down the road to irrelevance and death.

I love the IMB. I have been a huge supporter of it for many years now. But, we have to face facts. The Great Commission was given to the local church and when we farm it out to a denominational missions sending agency through giving money, we are going to be very disappointed. Why doesn't the IMB contact SBC megachurches and ask them to support missionaries that are qualified but cannot go through special offerings? They can be overseen by the IMB but supported by the megachurches? 

Read what Dr. Rankin, president of the IMB said about where the money comes from:

 "God is using global events to provide unprecedented opportunities for global advance," Rankin said. "The harvest is accelerating, unreached people groups are being engaged as never before, but we are on the verge of forfeiting the opportunity to fulfill the Great Commission."

If the IMB doesn't send those who have a passion for missions, Rankin said many of them will find other channels for service; many of them will be forced to raise their own support and churches will begin diverting resources to support those called from their congregations.

"They will be forced to be obedient to God's call by going independently," Rankin said. "The Cooperative Program will suffer as a result.

"We need to recognize that we must get on board with God's agenda of going into all the world and making disciples of all nations."

I love Dr. Rankin and I have loved his leadership. I have spoken with him several times at events and I am a supporter of his. But, the issue here does not seem to be getting missionaries to the field. He admits that if the IMB does not send them, they will find other channels for service. The issue is that "the Cooperative Program will suffer as a result."  So, is this about sending missionaries or about the Cooperative Program?  The two are not necessarily synonymous.

From the same address reported inthe Baptist Press article, 

Rankin also challenged Southern Baptists to retool "outdated" denominational formulas to reach a lost world for Christ.

"God has blessed Southern Baptists in numbers and resources, and we will stand accountable before God for whether we use those resources to serve our own needs, church programs and denominational entities or fulfill our mission task to reach a lost world," Rankin said.

Could it be that it is time to take a look at how we send missionaries through the IMB? If the IMB exists to help churches do missions, then why can't we ask churches that are able to spend the $50,000 or so a year that it takes to put a missionary couple on the field? How many churches who had the funds would say no to that?

If we are really serious about being a part of the greatest Christian movement that the world has ever seen, it is time that we put aside outdated means of denominational work. There is a better way to do things than we have been doing them. If the local church would engage mission both locally and globally in a front lines way, and if all of that work could be celebrated as Baptist work, then we would not have any issues. But, if everything has to go through the CP to the State Conventions to the IMB and then they appoint people who have left their churches to go through them, I think that things are just going to get worse - no matter how many tough speeches are given by our leaders.

If we are talking about missions involvement, funding, and sending, as well as supporting the work of indigenous believers, then there are many funding approaches. If we are talking about control (we often think that if we hold the funds then we have control), then I can see where the CP is the preferred route for those in charge. But, it doesn't have to be that way. Denominational entities can serve the local church through direction and expertise while the local church can provide funding and support in many ways. I don't have all of this worked out, but it seems that it is time to look at new approaches.

Final Question: What keeps the IMB from contacting Johnny Hunt's church, First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Georgia (a HUGE church, by the way), and asking them to support a few of the missionaries that cannot be appointed? If it is over fear of a diminishing of the CP, then that might show where our priorities really are, even if we don't realize it ourselves.

Leaving for India Today

3 days of travel.

11 time zones away.

7 days on the ground in India.

3 team members from 2 churches.

6 cities.

7 indigenous ministries.

1 holistic ministry conference.

100s of children.

Clean water tanks, children's homes, business start-ups, Christian hospital, church planters, future ministry projects.

One God reconciling North India to Himself through the work of His people as they proclaim the Gospel day after day.

Would you please remember to pray for us?  Prayer makes a huge difference and I can literally tell when people are praying for us. I'll try to post updates, but internet access is sketchy and even when we have it, I'm normally too exhausted to write anything of substance. We're looking forward to God moving in a powerful way once again.

Blogging as Mission: Having a Conversation With the World

I often have people question the validity of blogging and wonder if I am wasting my time with my constant writing. Granted, I have to carve out time to write, whether it be in the morning or late at night. It helps that I type very fast. Tonight, I decided to go to my Statcounter just to see if anyone was paying attention. I didn't really even want to check because I had a feeling that my traffic had dropped a good deal. It has dropped, but I was still encouraged by seeing this:

In the past few hours, I have had visitors from

• 17 states in the United States and the District of Columbia
• Australia
• Peru
• Canada
• India
• France
• Poland
• Malaysia

I also was encouraged about what people were looking for and finding by doing the following Google search (corresponding Google rank for Downshoredrift's post on each subject included)

• "Identity in Christ verses" (#6 on Google)
• "African Child Soldiers" (#8 on Google)
• "Invisible Children - The Rescue" (#14 on Google)
• "Causes of the Current Housing Crisis in the U.S." (#5 on Google)
• "American wealth disappeared" (#2 on Google)

I think that is pretty cool and just motivates me to write that much more.  Many of you with blogs have the same experience. Getting the word out concerning where God is working in the world can make a huge difference. Let's keep it up.

By the way, if you read Downshoredrift regularly and have a blog, I'd love for you to link to me. It drives up visibility and traffic for the issues that I think are important and possibly overlooked in the world regarding where God is working. I'd appreciate it! 

Inoculated Against the Gospel: Toward a Southern (Bible Belt) Missiology, Pt. 4

One of the major issues in faithfully proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in the South is that so many people think that they know all about it when the really don't have a clue. They've prayed the prayer and gotten the T-shirt.  Last year, I was volunteering at a big ministry event in our city that was giving out food, health care, and other types of services. I was working in the prayer tent and was asking people if I could pray with them before they got their groceries and went home. There was one lady that I started speaking with and she immediately began to show me disdain. She was looking away, rolling her eyes, and making it obvious that she didn't want to talk with me. I was trying to talk with her some about Christ and she would have none of it. Then, I asked her if I could pray for her and she did not want to. I said, "Well, it is obvious that you do not believe in Jesus, but I will be praying for you."  At that point, she perked up, looked at me, and said, "Oh no, I'm a Christian. I go to so-and-so church."  Excuse me?  She had no interest whatsoever in the things of God, thought praying with me was ridiculous, and wanted to get away from me as fast as possible. I would think that it was me, but I had bathed and was being pretty nice to her. Other people had responded much better throughout the day.

It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to me. I didn't have a problem with that. I do not expect unbelievers to always want to engage in discussion about God. But, what shocked me was that she was fine with her behavior until I assumed that she was not a Christian. Of course she was a Christian, she told me!  She attended church. She prayed a prayer. She believed in Jesus (what she believed, I don't know). Isn't that what being a Christian was all about?  Why does behavior need to change? Why do I need to love Jesus? Why do I need to obey God?  If I am forgiven and all is well, then what difference does anything that I think or do make?

I would submit that instead of really giving people Jesus for who He is, we have actually inoculated people against the power of the gospel. We have given them a little of Jesus - just enough to make them think that they have the real thing, but not enough to bring them to repentance. The gospel that we preach is often a means to the end of our personal happiness and a trip to heaven. Jesus is more than that, but we have reduced Him to a religious afterthought. 

The conversation with that woman frightens me. She wasn't just having a bad day. She actually had disdain for any talk about Christ until it appeared to me that she was not a Christian. Being a Christian and going to heaven was far more important to her than following Christ and loving Him. There is something wrong when that happens again and again. What gospel are we preaching? Are we just inoculating people against the real thing?  How do we break through this in people's lives? 

Matt Chandler, a pastor from Dallas, TX speaks about this at this years Desiring God conference. He makes some great points about the need to separate the gospel from the religion that we so often proclaim and believe. Check it out.

  

The Full Meaning of Holiness - It Might Be Different From What You Think

What do you think about when you hear the word, holiness? Obviously, it means to be separate; to be set apart. But, when I think about holiness, invariably, I think about it from a religious perspective. In other words, I think about holiness as the characteristic that I am to achieve if God is going to be pleased with me. I think about what I need to put on if I am to enter into God’s presence, since God is holy. My religious upbringing has taught me to think about what I am to abstain from and what my life is supposed to look like. The whole, “don’t drink, chew, or go with girls that do,” perspective creeps in.  Often, when I hear about holiness, I look for a rock to crawl under because my first thoughts, if I am honest, point out how I am not holy.  The word itself condemns me and I am undone. Attempts at holiness, however successful I might be in overcoming sin, putting off old behavior, or acting a certain way, always fall short because there is always a new definition of holiness that I am not living up to. I am always falling short of what someone proclaims as “holy.”

                                                       

I think that we have done the word a great disservice, however. We know that God is holy and we declare Him as such. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty” we sing along with the angels and the multitude from Revelation. God is holy. We know that much. But, what does it mean?  Then, you add in that we are to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:47) and without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14), and we are all undone.

                                                       

So, what do we do to reconcile all of this?  How are we to be holy?  Some, have retreated to the monastery.  They have built walls around themselves and have completely withdrawn from the world. Their view of holiness is shown by what they are against and by what they disagree with. They focus on the “putting off” of Ephesians 4:22-24 and show their holiness through outward things. Others, focus on justification and God’s grace and the imputed righteousness that comes from faith in Christ.  They often do not make it around to actually living like Christ, but that is okay. They aren’t perfect, just forgiven. Both of these views miss the bigger picture of what God’s holiness really is.

                                                                     

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship tells Martin Luther’s journey to true holiness, and I think that it is a story that bears repeating.  He says,

                                                       

When the Reformation came, the providence of God raised Martin Luther to restore the gospel of pure, costly grace. Luther passed through the cloister; he was a monk, and all this was part of the divine plan. Luther had left all to follow Christ on the path of absolute obedience. He had renounced the world in order to live the Christian life. He had learnt obedience to Christ and to his Church, because only he who is obedient can believe. The call to the cloister demanded of Luther the complete surrender of his life. But God shattered all his hopes. He showed him through the Scriptures that the following of Christ is not the achievement or merit of a select few, but the divine command to all Christians without distinction. Monasticism had transformed the humble work of discipleship into the meritorious activity of the saints, and the self-renunciation of discipleship into the flagrant spiritual self-assertion of the “religious.”  The world had crept into the very heart of the monastic life, and was once more making havoc. The monk’s attempt to flee from the world turned out to be a subtle form of love for the world. The bottom having thus been knocked out of the religious life, Luther laid hold upon grace. Just as the whole world of monasticism was crashing about him in ruins, he saw God in Christ stretching forth his hand to save. He grasped that hand in faith, believing that “after all, nothing we can do is of any avail, however good a life we live.” The grace which gave itself to him was a costly grace, and it shattered his whole existence. Once more he must leave his nets and follow. The first time was when he entered the monastery, when he had left everything behind except his pious self. This time even that was taken from him. He obeyed the call, not through any merit of his own, but simply through the grace of God. Luther did not hear the word: “Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness.” No, Luther had to leave the cloister and go back to the world, not because the world in itself was good and holy, but because even the cloister was only a part of the world.

                                                                              

Luther’s return from the cloister to the world was the worst blow the world had suffered since the days of early Christianity. The renunciation he made when he became a monk was child’s play compared with that which he had to make when he returned to the world. Now came the frontal assault. The only way to follow Jesus was by living in the world. Hitherto the Christian life had been the achievement of a few choice spirits under the exceptionally favourable conditions of monasticism; now it is a duty laid on every Christian living in the world. The commandment of Jesus must be accorded perfect obedience in one’s daily vocation of life. The conflict between the life of the Christian and the life of the world was thus thrown into the sharpest possible relief. It was a hand-to-hand conflict between the Christian and the world.

                                                                    

Because the monastery was a place that Luther had retreated to justify himself and protect himself from the contaminating evils of the world, it actually became a part of the world system. Everything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God is a part of the world system, even if it looks really good on the outside. Luther could only be justified through faith in what Christ had already done for him and he only came to a point of faith in Christ when he quit believing in himself.

                                                                                  

But, here is what really strikes me about all of this:  For Luther, and for us as well, holiness was not found in the monastery. It was found in engaging the world as an emissary of Christ. When he tried to separate himself from the world through withdrawing, he just demonstrated the world’s ways of self-justification. But, when he died to himself, renounced the world’s ways, and engaged the world for the sake of Christ, he was acting in accordance with holiness. It is all upside down from what we thought, isn’t it?  The reason for this is because Christ is holy.  Only Christ makes us holy and we are declared righteous only by faith in Jesus. But, that righteousness plays out in and transforms our lives when we are conformed to the image of Christ in our thinking and our behavior. We reflect the image of Christ when we become like Him.  What did Jesus do?  How did he act?  Who did he care about? What moved him with compassion?  Holiness is not just a state of declared righteousness that comes from faith, but the outworking of that holiness involves doing what Jesus did.  Caring for the sick, the leper, the persecuted, and the downtrodden is holy. Rescuing the sinner is holy.  Proclaiming justice to the nations is holy. Dining with tax collectors and prostitutes to show them the Kingdom of God is holy. Forgiving others is holy. Loving your enemies is holy.  Everything that looks like Jesus is holy.  Holiness is not just putting off certain behaviors.  It is that, depending on what those behaviors are, but more than that, it is thinking about things differently and putting on the character of Christ. Humbling yourself before others and serving them is a holy act.  We could go on and on. Holiness is not just a state of denial of certain things, it is action that demonstrates the in-breaking Kingdom of God.  Holiness means that we live according to the "Otherness" of God apart and separate from this world system.  It is a positive action, not just a negative renunciation.

                                                                                                                               

We need more holiness in our churches.  We need to put off the old life and see the world differently.  Correspondingly, we need to put on the new life, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:22-24).  Our evangelicalism became destructive when it promoted a life that affirmed withdrawal from the world for the sake of its truncated conception of holiness. Jesus did not withdraw from the world. He engaged the world and brought healing and redemption as He did the will of the Father in all respects. THAT is holiness and that is what God wants from us.

                                                                                   

Instead of feeling condemned by the concept of holiness because I know that I do not measure up to someone’s artificial standard, I now see holiness as being the outworking of God’s character and life in every area.  To see the beauty of holiness in a primarily negative (i.e. what we put off) sense is surely an abomination and it is entirely incomplete.  But, to see holiness the way that Jesus demonstrates and to know that we have been called to be like Him is amazing, creative, beautiful, and life affirming!  It is something that causes me to want to be holy and to violently pursue Christ and lose myself in obedience to Him as He brings restoration to the world!

Has the SBC Reached a Tipping Point? Toward a Southern Missiology, Part 3

Parts one and two are HERE and HERE.

Has the SBC now reached a tipping point for change and reform from which there is no return?

Alvin Reid, professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary seems to think so.  He thinks that we have reached a point of no return when it comes to being aware of the struggles of the SBC and developing a consensus that change is needed. Although my observations are much more limited than his, I am sensing the same thing. Everyone that I talk to in SBC life is finally recognizing that we are facing a catastrophe when it comes to our churches and our future. The population is becoming less and less Christian. Our churches are aging and shrinking. Evangelism is decreasing. Baptisms are declining. The consensus that kept Southern Baptists together has been shredded and churches are trying to figure out what the Convention is really for. 

Reid points out a couple of key issues of concern. One is the Cooperative Program. It is not that churches do not want to cooperate, it is that we are all becoming aware of how much money is wasted on non-gospel issues. When I researched a couple of years ago how our CP money was spent, I was shocked. It is all called missions, but much of it has no resemblance to missions whatsoever. Concurrent with the CP travesty is the redundancy in our ministries. How do we justify spending money on local churches, associations, state conventions, and national structures that are all turning out the same things over and over again - in the South, no less?  I have no doubt that through some simple restructuring and alignment of ministry focus, we could save tens of millions of dollars a year. It is very difficult for me to heed fundraising appeals when the people asking for money do nothing to make sure that it is spent wisely. I find it ironic that a Convention that is conservative politically and is generally for small government allows itself to be organized for mission by a bloated bureaucracy. 

The other issue that Dr. Reid brings up is the future. He says that while those he talks to love the SBC and its gospel heritage, they are way more skeptical about the future. Where are we going? What are we going to be about? How do we engage a culture that is running from Christianity as fast as it can? How do we revitalize our churches? I think that one reason that we are concerned about the future is because we became captive to a larger culture that is also fading into the past and we feel ourselves being carried with it. Southern Baptists after WWII became thoroughly modern. We adapted to assembly line technology and we thought that through systematic programs and management techniques we could build churches that would turn out a consistent product, er, disciple. We expected this culture of efficiency and technology to continue forever. Then, when the full-blown, narcissitic individualism of the 70's, 80's, and 90's hit us, we realized that we must adapt, so we began to cater to a consumer, me-centered culture based on felt needs. We built megachurches and more programs to appeal to a culture that saw the individual and his self-actualization as the focus.  As people moved to the cities, churches grew primarily from transfer growth from smaller, more rural churches and became large suburban enterprises.   The factors guaranteeing our decline had already set in, but because we had large churches emerging, we didn't notice.  In reality, our culture has changed yet again and we are unaware. Time Magazine has a very insightful article this week (The End of Excess) detailing the change from the "bigger is better" mentality to more frugality, conservation, and community. I highly recommend it and I think that the implications of this kind of talk are huge for the future of the church in America and also in the South.  In chasing our culture and growing bigger churches, we could not see the decline that was coming because we didn't see that culture was changing and people's desires were changing with it. The churches that we were building in the 80's and 90's would become distasteful to postmoderns and we would never see it coming.  

Now, however, the decline is evident for all to see. In 2006, I joined a group of blogging pastors who were calling for reform of the SBC. We could see all of these things happening. The movement gained steam and people began to take notice. The policies on baptism and private prayer language with the IMB catalyzed the movement, but the issues were much deeper than that. Our churches were missionally ineffective and we knew it and we wanted to see change. Then, I watched as the reform movement was hijacked by those who had a vendetta against Dr. Paige Patterson of SWBTS, believing that he was responsible for what ailed the SBC. I was never interested in that and did not participate in the attacks against him. He was not the main problem, no matter how much power he seemed to wield. The problem existed in our own hearts and in the pews of our churches. We were rotting from the ground up and any problems at the top only reflected what had been going on for a long time in our churches. We had stopped following Christ in a missional sense and we were pursuing our own comfort and prosperity just like the larger culture. Replacing Dr. Patterson without addressing the real issues of discipleship only guaranteed a continuance of our problems.  Over time, I grew so weary of the political machinations that obscured the real issues of missional ineffectiveness that I withdrew from meaningful discussions about the SBC.

But, articles like the one by Dr. Reid give me hope. I think that we are going to see a much greater decline over the next decade as the dross is removed and lifeless branches are pruned. But, I do believe that a great number of those that are left will turn their eyes to Jesus. If we would focus on Christ, root ourselves in the Word of God, and follow the Spirit, we would not allow ourselves to be captivated by the larger culture. We would heed the prophetic call to return to God and hold out life to a dying world. This can happen and it is happening. We need more Alvin Reid's to speak the truth and point the way. There is hope for the SBC but it will not be found in our strength or our institutions or our plans. It will only be found in abandoning all and following hard after Jesus.    

The Weakness of a Privatized, Individualistic Gospel: Moving Toward a Southern Missiology , Part 2

In my last post, I asked readers what they thought a missiology for the South might look like.  I appreciate the comments, Mike, Bob, Les, and Rick. I was hoping for a little more discussion, but, let's face it, I'm not talking about the latest political brouhaha amongst Southern Baptists or anything exciting like that. I'm just talking about the future of the church in the South over the next generation. Relatively meaningless, I know.  :)

At any rate, as I have been researching the theological weaknesses behind the evils of racism and segregation in the Southern Baptist South of the 1950's and 60's and how those weaknesses continue to affect us today (all for a book that I am trying to write), I have stumbled across an unexpected culprit that has caused me to raise my eyebrows a bit. In my reading, interviewing, studying, and praying, I have come to believe that a major reason that people could fill churches all across the South on Sunday and then treat others horribly just because of the color of their skin without feeling conviction was because of the gospel that was preached and believed. If your view of the "gospel" is that it is mostly a set of propositions that you agree with so that you can go to heaven when you die (i.e., eternal life) and salvation cannot be lost no matter what you do, then the commands of Scripture about loving others will be ignored when they bump up against a culture that ultimately gives you your identity, especially when that culture tells you that the "other" is inferior to you. What is there to fear? You're going to heaven. Of course, fear came in when you committed really bad sins like drinking alcohol, dancing, or broke any sexual taboos. So, belief and lifestyle were connected on some issues but not others, even though those other issues were just as biblical, if not moreso in some cases. This hypocrisy became a major theological problem and it is still embedded in the "gospel" we preach and the theology that we believe. We've never dealt with it adequately. We still face a theological separation between belief and behavior because we desire and offer heaven without the cross. Unfortunately, this separation has weakened our churches to the point of impotence when it comes to standing against the world. This weak, cheap gospel of personal, individualistic salvation without discipleship is what allowed Southerners to be racists while they filled Southern Baptist churches.  It is what allowed the Lutheran church in Germany to turn away from the Nazi brutalities toward the Jews and even accept them as necessary. It is also what allows us today to say that we believe one thing and live a completely different way and feel no shame or conviction.  Isn't hypocrisy a great part of what the baby boomers rebelled against in the 60's? Didn't the church have a stake in that regarding how we treated others while claiming to follow Christ?  

David Fitch in The Great Giveaway says, 

In our doctrine of salvation then, evangelicals must avoid commoditizing salvation into an individualist consumerist transaction, something we have been prone to. There is a reason why it sounds intrusive to ask a stranger the question "Do you know Jesus as personal savior?" We have privatized the relationship with Jesus so as to make him into a gnosticized faith that seems isolated from everyday life. We must un-privatize our faith in Christ and reconnect our relationship with God through Christ to a way of life that we can invite people into and a movement of God in history. Then we can ask, "Do you have a place where you can ask questions about life?" "Do you know a story that can make sense of your life?" When we do this, we focus away from scaring people out of hell to inviting people into a compelling way of life. We realize that making salvation about being saved from hell irrespective of being saved to new life cheapens it into a piece of individualist knowledge, bordering on Gnositicism, that does not take root in embodied lives.

In postmodernity, truth is about character. Religious truth can no longer be relegated to the realm of private feeling or preference. This is because modern science, which pushed it there originally, no longer reigns supreme. Truth is in the living. Any evangelism therefore that separates one's renewed legal status before God from the new life we have in Christ strips the gospel of its power for a postmodern evangelism. For the postmodern world, justification cannot be separated from sanctification and sanctification cannot be separated from a living people of God. The basis for a compelling Christian account of salvation in postmodernity is a changed life among a living community of Christ. (58-59).