SERVING A GOD OF SOVEREIGN PURPOSE

God is good!

I am not a “Calvinist”, but I may be leaning…:). Not really. But I do believe in the Sovereignty of God and in the purpose of God for all things. And I am rebuked for being among those to whom Jesus referred as “O ye of little faith!”.

When I discovered my journal missing after our family vacation, I grieved. I have ideas, prayers, private thoughts, etc. I called where we stayed and the company from whom we leased the van. No journal. I prayed. One day last week I learned to not trust “impressions”. I had a strong impression the journal was in my mail box. I rushed to the post office and there wasn’t even lint in it, much less a journal.

Thursday morning I got a text message from Greg Wells. Greg is a good friend from 121 Community Church. We meet every other week. Greg helped sponsor our SBTC Pastor’s Golf Retreat. His text simply said, “Did you lose a journal?” I was stunned and discovered he had my journal. We met for lunch. While waiting for him I told the story to the waitress whom I will call “Kelly”. Pray for “Kelly”.

Here is the story. Enterprise had no 15 passenger vans when I first tried to find one. But a few days before leaving, I got a call: “Mr. Elmore, we have located a van for you.” Apparently they got it from Capps (we paid $200 less than what Capps was going to charge me). Little did I know that the youth from 121 Community Church were going to New Orleans and were renting vans from Capps. When Capps cleaned the vans from the 121 trip, they found a journal in the console. They called the youth pastor and he picked it up. He saw my name, knows me, and knows Greg and I meet. He put it in Greg’s in-box.

I told this story to the “Kelly”. When Greg and I were finishing lunch, she brought the bill and brought up the story and said, “God works in mysterious ways.” The story on “Kelly”. She was not raised in a Christian home. She said she did not go to church until she was old enough to choose for herself. She began going to a church in the southern part of the metroplex but dropped out because some would “party on Saturday night and act holier-than-thou on Sunday”. In the conversation we discovered that she believes she is a Christian and she and her fiance are looking for a church. They want to begin their marriage right. Greg gave her his card.

I said to “Kelly”, “I don’t want to make more of this than it is and I really don’t know all that is going on. But if someday in heaven I discover the whole purpose for this was to encourage you to live for Jesus, I would jump up and down with joy.”

God is sovereign! Pray for “Kelly”. I thank those who knew and prayed I would find my journal. It is beside me.

EASTER AND THE GOSPEL

Pastor, what are you preaching as you approach Easter? What is the Gospel?

Ed Stetzer blogs each Monday on Missiology. You may read this past Monday’s post here. Ed points out that “With the rise of fundamentalism in the 1920s, the Social Gospel’s counteraction began with painting salvation, not just as transformation in individuals, but increasingly as the annihilation of distorted and prejudiced structures. This trend was evident until a new era of confidence was birthed in the 1960s, ushered in particularly via J.C. Hoekendijk.”

The Liberation Theology movement was fueled by such thought. I recall a D.Min. seminar at SWBTS in the early ’80′s in which the professor, a former missionary to a nation in S. America, extolled the virtues of Liberation Theology. I thought it interesting that because of the way in which the grading period fell, grades were issues prior to our one assignment being completed. We compared grades. Those who had agreed with this professor were given A’s and those who disagreed (myself among these) were given B’s. Later I witnessed the destruction of Liberation Theology in the nation of El Salvador.

Does the Gospel definition include changing the structures of society? Many of them need to be changed. They are oppressive at best.

Are justice issues included in the biblical definition of the Gospel? Is the Gospel more than what we call the plan of salvation (i.e, tracts, etc.)?

It is a question to those of us who preach. What is the Gospel? What are you preaching and how will you preach it on that one day of the year when more people attend public worship services than any other day of the year?

THE SBC IN 2010…A VIEW FROM THE CHEAP SEATS

This post is not intended at all to complain or to offend anyone but the Devil. And I pray I offend him every single day with every single action. Unfortunately, I do not. But I seek to do so.

This post’s intent is to challenge all who seek to be used to advance the purpose and intent of our Sovereign God. It is an observation with that challenge especially for younger pastors in chronological age and those who recognize they are aging, but refuse to get old.

There is a difference. Some of you young guys are already old and seeking how you may “climb the ladder of  success.” You are already on the road to irrelevance in the Kingdom of God.  And some of us who are aging are not as “old” as our appearance.

My observation throughout the years has been that of being close to some “insiders” and yet not close enough to influence decisions. In other words, I have been in the house but not at the table. At times I feel somewhat frustrated but then I review the ministry God has given and I am overwhelmed by the grace and mercy extended me.  I am very grateful some things I wanted early in my ministry were kept from me. And I look forward to the future although I do not know what that will be. Our all-seeing, all-knowing, all-present God is always faithful to us, even when we are failing in our faithfulness to Him.

Thus, my view is from the cheap seats. Here are some of my observations.

A Great Commission Resurgence is much-needed. But my question is why a denomination that believes Scripture is both inerrant and sufficient needs a Great Commission Resurgence? Please do not interpret that as critical of the concept or the committee. Hear the question: Why do we need? And if we do need this and it is biblical, why are we waiting for a committee report to obey God? How many times must Scripture speak before we obey?

There are churches that no longer visit prospects. I was actually told by one staff member that he typically waited until someone visited twice because the second visit indicated there might be serious interest about the church. I have had others, seminary trained, who simply do not visit. Some talk of “attractional” methods. Tell me what is attractive about a church that has lost its passion for Christ and those for whom he died?

Where does a local GCR begin? It begins with leadership in precept, principle, and example.

We have emphasized church growth, then church health, now we have a Great Commission Resurgence committee. God bless them. Those who initiated and suggested this were people of integrity and passion. The same is true for the committee. They seem to desire to be catalysts to move the SBC as a body toward incremental and necessary change.

But you, pastor, do not have to wait until Orlando to change. What is the Spirit saying to the churches? I submit the same things he has said all along recorded in Revelation 2-3 and other passages applicable to the subject.

Has “revival” become a cop-out for such things as passion, caring, obedience and hard work? We do not really know much about revival other than what we have read. We may have had what some call “mercy drops”, but a national or denominational revival/awakening has not been seen by anyone alive today. Biblically, those are mostly Old Testament passages. It is not the cry of the New Testament. The closest in the New is a call to a busy church to remember their first love, turn around, and return to that first love. And I believe that is a first love of loving Christ as well as loving others (Rev. 2:1-7). It seems consistent with the Great Commandment of Matthew 22:34-40.

There is an article here in the Southern Baptist Texan. It is well written and acknowledges that revival/spiritual awakening seems to be predicated upon prayer and the Sovereignty of God. There are those that reduce God’s Sovereignty to man’s formula. We would not do so in precept, but we often do in principle with our methods. Roy Fish, one of God’s greatest gifts to Southern Baptists and the world, is quoted in the article. One of the most crucial concepts is this: “Yet Fish added that awakening—a term he uses synonymously with revival—is not merely the result of believers meeting certain conditions in a formula. In fact, two churches could seek God identically but  only one congregation experience revival, he said.”

So my observation is this. We as leaders should lead our people to passionately pursue communion with God through prayer privately and corporately. I do not believe it offensive to lost people who are intelligent enough to know they have entered a place of worship called a church. They may even have expectation that we would pray.

Justice is big stuff these days. It is ”big stuff” and later blog posts will address the subject.

What is justice? This particular post will not go into theological definitions and nuances of the term. However, one has said that justice is righting past wrongs. This particular definition was given within the bounds of biblical truth. One could also say that in a great sense justice is cooperating with the mission of Christ to push back the darkness (see Isa. 61 and Luke 4). If that is true, then not only good works, but also prayer and evangelism become part of any biblical concept of justice.

I may give a cup of cold water and/or food in Jesus’ name, and I should. But if I do not give biblical hope, that person may perish on a full stomach and spend eternity apart from God’s grace but eternally present with His wrath. Good works should not at all be manipulative for the purpose of getting ”decisions”. But somewhere in the conversation, eternal hope through the Gospel of Christ must be clear.

Doing all the Great Commission indeed involves evangelism, discipleship (inclusive of prayer and justice), and bringing people into the local Body of Christ. Again the question: Why do we need a GCR committee?

If indeed there is need, and there appears to be, then is not our immediate and personal response that of heeding John’s call to the Ephesian church in Rev. 2:1-7?

Like I said – it is my view from the cheap seats. How many more churches could be started, mission trips taken, and people helped with the monies we spend trying to motivate professing Christians to simply obey the elementary commands of Christ? Think about it.

SHORT TERM WINS, LONG TERM LOSS

There is an expression, “win the battle, lose the war”, used to describe those who lose sight of the big picture and get short-term wins but the reality becomes a long-term loss. My question is, are we there?

My trek over the past years has brought me very close to the inside of several arenas. I have participated in and even spoken or facilitated group discussion at national and global conferences of Evangelicals (including Baptists) on evangelism and prayer. I know most of the early leaders in the Conservative Resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention and have seen some of the Moderate Baptist movement.

Some of these Evangelicals seem to want everyone to come together for the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission. But there are certain leaders that always have the “next big thing” and seem to pop in at just the right time to offer them. I left these kinds of gatherings because I felt used in the negative sense. These were para-church organizations needing money, data base, and volunteers to extend their ministries. Discretion keeps me from calling organizational names.

The Moderate Baptists of whom I am speaking have gone so far in a religious version of political correctness and tolerance that participation in worship events with various religions is practiced. One only has to roll back the calendar a few months to an interfaith (not inter-denominational, but inter-faith) meeting in a city in Texas that was held in a local Baptist church facility.

So what of us? How do we who have taken our stand for inerrancy as a descriptive of Scripture fare in all this? Are we known more for legalism and backward thinking or lovingly sharing the Gospel of Christ? I and most others who are conservative in theology would look at the Conservative Resurgence as necessary in the life of the Southern Baptist Convention. I will not re-visit all the reasons nor will I affirm everything and every word spoken through-out those years. Movements often produce what the military calls “collateral damage”. Some of us have been there, done that, but didn’t get the t-shirt.

I want to affirm that I am deeply committed to a conservative theological path and to the inerrancy of Scripture. I am a complementarian, and was before I knew that was the word to describe my beliefs. But what has happened in our neck of the woods over the past years?

The Barna Group gave results of a year-end survey here based upon thousands of interviews during the year. They summarized their findings around four themes. You can read their commentary and explanation, but the major points of that survey were the four themes copied below.

Theme 1: Increasingly, Americans are more interested in faith and spirituality than in Christianity.

Theme 2: Faith in the American context is now individual and customized. Americans are comfortable with an altered spiritual experience as long as they can participate in the shaping of that faith experience.

Theme 3: Biblical literacy is neither a current reality nor a goal in the U.S.

Theme 4: Effective and periodic measurement of spirituality – conducted personally or through a church – is not common at this time and it is not likely to become common in the near future.

It is a cop-out for us to say these do not reflect some of the values of the people in our pews. I would agree these likely do not show the belief of the average Baptist church member who involved in the life of the church. However, what of the community in which you serve? And do we really know that “average” church member? Are we a shrinking minority in a sea of population seeking hope and moving toward some form of Universalism?

A pastor friend of mine (SBTC) told me a story of when he first arrived as the new pastor. One of the fine upstanding deacons in the church was taking him on a tour of the city. They were on one side of the town square when the deacon pointed out a man on the other side. He said to the pastor, “That is ______. He’s one of the finest Christian men in this town. Funny thing though. He’s never made a profession of faith.” Is there a dis-connect there somewhere?

I sat in on a Senior Adult Sunday School opening exercise a few years ago and heard the Dept. Director say “I believe that God looks at all of us and sees what we do. If we just do the best we can, I believe God will accept that.”

Perhaps we need to refresh our passion and church ministries to show an intentional focus on sharing the Gospel. Romans 1:16-17 reminds us “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” (NKJV)

One resource offered you is the annual SBTC Evangelism Conference February 15-17 at the Arlington, TX Convention Center. You may access information and schedule here. I urge you to attend and bring several influential leaders from your church.

Pray daily for the Great Commission Resurgence task force of the Southern Baptist Convention and for NAMB’s  GPS emphasis. I hope you will take part in it. And, wherever you find yourself in the landscape of North American Christians, return to your first love (Rev. 2:1-7) and use all of your influence in home, church, community, and workplace to speak and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is not too late to encourage your congregation to join you in reading the Bible through in 2010. There are some very good web sites that give various plans. You can access the best ones I know here, here, and here. I am using the Chronological reading from Back to the Bible as listed on the ESV site. I looked at some other sites and could not find Bible reading plans.

May God grant you your best year in 2010.

Camelot, Camels, and Center

My first date with my wife was to see the movie Camelot. We sat in the balcony holding hands as Arthur and Guinevere romanced and sought to build the round table. Unfortunately Lancelot captured Guinevere’s affections and she and Lancelot betrayed Arthur. Mordred, the illegitimate son of Arthur exposed the affair with the intent of destroying Arthur and taking his throne. The end scene in the movie was on a battlefield on which Lancelot and Arthur would lead their Knights to fight to the death. Guinevere came out of the fog to reveal she had taken refuge in a convent. She wept out a movie version of repentance to Arthur, who forgave her.

Of course, the movie is fiction and most scholars regard the story as fiction as well. Arthurian scholar Norris J. Lacy commented that “Camelot, located no where in particular, can be anywhere”.

That has certainly been true in American politics with the Kennedy administration. It is often referred to as “Camelot”.

My question is this. Is that also true of some past history in denominational and church life? And if so, was it ever as good as some remember? I hear people talk about the “old days”. In my own mind I have mostly been an outsider. But I have listened. And I have come to believe that much of what some talk about is Lacy’s definition of “Camelot” – located no where in particular, can be anywhere.”

Which leads to the question, ‘Is this why some insist upon swallowing camels’? Jesus refers to some in his day as “blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel” (Matthew 23:24). What was the problem in Matthew 23? Seven woes are pronounced upon those who preach but do not practice (23:3).

You see, Camelot exists only in the imagination. No doubt there have been good times and bad times in history, but we do not live in history. We are informed and somewhat shaped by it, but we live in the present and prepare for the future. The Scriptures speak of David as serving the purpose of God in his own generation, then dying (Acts 13:36).

And I remind you – Camelot did not end well and camels are very difficult to swallow!

May I offer a suggestion in the form of a question for 2010? Whether it be the local church in which we serve, the denomination, or the Great Commission Resurgence – can we find our center in Christ?

I have never doubted the inerrancy of Scripture. I learned that at my father’s knee as a child. My parents could not give theological reasons nor did they use the term “inerrancy”. But they did understand and teach that the Bible was God’s word and there was no error in Scripture. We have what God wants us to have. So, the sufficiency of Scripture was learned as a child. But as an adult I have also learned the superiority of Scripture.

If ministry methods, traditions of men, and social mores not taught in Scripture become equivalent to Scripture in our processing of discipleship and community, then are we perhaps swallowing a camel in search of a non-existent Camelot?

The revival we seek will only come when the Christ of the Bible is at the center. We can be described by boundaries we create, but we cannot be defined by them. A follower of Christ can only be defined by radical commitment to Him and the extension of His Kingdom.

The Christian life is one that requires an empowerment not from ourselves. We can only be empowered from Christ the center, not the boundaries. Thus, to live life together from the center is to live centered in Christ and focused on Christ.

Jesus taught us that the only thing attractive to humanity is the uplifted Christ (John 12:32). In the cross-resurrection event is both judgment upon sin and grace for the sinner. It is Christ the center that enables life for the sinner.

Historically, one generation does not pass down their vision to another. God is fully capable of calling, gifting, and giving vision to each generation. The question becomes “How may we flow together in a multi-generational world and church to the glory of God without segmentation that dismisses those not like us?”

I offer that we all submit to Christ as the center and one generation resources the next – not just in terms of money, but in terms of all we have. We resource with people, money, creativity, respect, honor of others, etc.

In other words, recognize that Christ dwells in the hearts by faith of all who have been born again. He has gifted each one. Now in your congregation and sphere of influence, how can that gifting be utilized for the glory of God and the extension of His kingdom? What resources do you and your congregation bring to the table?

We might begin by with taking the camel off the menu and understanding that Camelot is fiction. Christ alone is reality (Col. 2:8-17).

May 2010 be a year for you in which you and your congregation see the abundant blessings of God and His favor.