In Praise of Slow Growth

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” -Ferris Bueller

Life moves fast, and we like it that way. We, by nearly every measure, are a people who want things quickly and feel shortchanged if anything takes too long. Why won’t the traffic light change? The drive-thru isn’t moving fast enough, and where is my Amazon order already? If I need to know who that actor in that one movie was, I can take out a rectangle from my pocket and look it up, but it’s loading too slow. One of the big reasons why gym memberships surely drop after the spike that inevitably occurs on New Year’s Day is because results do not come quick enough. We are conditioned to be impatient and look for shortcuts to quick results. 

This posture is no different for Christians when it comes to personal growth and pastors when it comes to church growth, whether measured spiritually or numerically. 

Every Christian has wondered why they are not further along in their walk with Christ. Shouldn’t we be further down the road by now? It can be terribly frustrating. 

Every pastor has wondered why their faithfulness to ordinary means of grace has not yielded more mature Christians or larger attendance. Isn’t there something I can do to speed things up a bit? 

We ought to resist urges as pastors to bring about growth that may be quick, but is likely synthetic. We ought to resist the urge as Christians to get frustrated, discouraged, or give into the temptation to give up if our sanctification is not going the speed that we would prefer. In both cases, we must not chagrin ordinary, faithful plodding through ordinary means of grace given to us in Scripture. 

After healing a woman who had suffered from a lifetime of being doubled over, Jesus asked this question: “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it?” (Luke 13:18, NASB). His answer? 

The kingdom is like a mustard seed and like leaven. 

A mustard seed was one of the smallest seeds that His audience in first century Palestine would be familiar with and often saw. Even though it was small, it would grow to be a tree that could reach over ten feet in height and the birds of the air would make nests in it, finding shelter and comfort. It was a modest seed, and even became a modest tree. With tender care and persistent tending, it grows slowly in the soil, would break through even the toughest ground, and would grow overtime to become a place of comfort and shelter. 

A little bit of leaven would be put in the flour and with patient diligence, the leaven would spread throughout the whole lump. Eventually, it would permeate the whole thing, if only the woman would continue to work the dough. Like the mustard seed, it would start small, and its growth could be imperceptible through the process, but eventually, it would touch every part of the dough. 

The kingdom of God is like that. Christian growth is like that. Church maturation and multiplication is like that. 

My dear Christian brother and sister, pursue the ordinary means of grace that God has given you: prayer, Scripture reading, church membership, church attendance, accountability, confession, and the ordinances. Results will come, but they will be slow. That is a good thing. Patient endurance, faithful striving, keeping your eyes on Jesus, these are the ways in which we grow like a mustard seed. These are the ways the gospel and the beauty of Jesus begin to permeate our entire being until they touch every part of us like leaven in a lump of dough. Sometimes our hands will hurt, sometimes the change will be imperceptible, but we keep plodding in response to the gospel. 

Brother pastor, there will be a constant draw to attractionalism (what will people like?), pragmatism (what “works”?), and programs that will get people in the door and grow a church numerically. This can be done relatively easily and relatively quickly. The motivation may be good: if we get people to the church, they’ll hear the gospel, and isn’t that the goal? 

We must be careful, however, in our goal to reach people and grow the church, that we turn to methods that create synthetic growth wherein we make consumers rather than disciples. The old saying is true: what you win them with is what you win them to. If you win them with a circus, you better keep the circus going, lest the customers leave once the circus is withdrawn. 

The pressure may feel like it’s on, pastor, when you play the comparison game and see other churches seemingly growing at a faster clip. We ask, “How can I enjoy that same ‘success?’” But there’s the key: how do you measure success? If success is faithfulness, and not numbers, then ordinary means of grace will be much like a mustard seed. How you measure success will determine what you do and lead your church to do. 

Preaching the Word, singing the Word, praying the Word, loving the people, leading the church to biblical church membership, and equipping your members to be sent out to leverage their lives for the kingdom will be slow and often times frustrating. Often the difference it is making in your people and your community will be imperceptible, like leaven. Continued cultivating, watering, and (if I can mix metaphors) plodding, will yield results. Your church will be a place where people can find shelter and shade. Your church members will be kingdom-minded people where the lenses of the gospel will, more and more, be how they see all things in their lives. 

Christian friend, brother pastor, if it seems slow, that’s not a bad thing. God works through the small and the unimpressive. Keep going, keep trusting, keep Jesus as the hero of your life and church. If you do that, you will be a success. 

Church Idolatry?

Exodus 32 is undoubtedly one of the most disappointing chapters in the entire Bible. You know the story. While Moses is on Sinai receiving instructions concerning the new Eden, the tabernacle, Israel grows impatient. “Where is Moses? What’s taking him so long? We don’t know if he is dead or alive.” So they panic, and they look to Aaron, and they say, “Make us a god who will go before us” (Ex 32:1). Aaron obliges.

We read that and we see gross idolatry at unbelievable levels. And, indeed, it is that. However, we would be remiss if we didn’t see that we are suspectable to the very same things. We are drawn to idols, too. We are also prone to cloak our idols in the language of religion or piety. 

Look what Aaron says after he builds the calf out of the plunder that was to be used in construction of the tabernacle. And observe what the people do after it is built:

Aaron: This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt (Ex 32:4, emphasis added). 

Aaron: Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD (Ex 32:5).             

Israel: the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings… (Ex 32:6). 

Notice that the language and actions are cloaked in the religion of Yahweh. Aaron goes so far as ascribing the actions of Yahweh to the idol and even says that they will feast to Yahweh. The people use the forms of worship that God gave them and used them to worship the idol. In other words, Aaron and the Israelites seem to think that they are honoring Yahweh in the midst of idol worship. They marry worship of Yahweh with worship of the calf. 

It is important to see that the making of the calf, while from one perspective an act of gross apostasy and rebellion, was from another perspective an act driven by a need for reassurance and even by a misguided piety…Aaron does refer to the consecration ceremony as a sacrifice to YHWH, showing that in his mind the making of the idol did not imply turning from YHWH.[1] -Duane Garret

This is how insidious idolatry is: we can worship idols and think, not only is it not wrong, but that we are actually honoring the Lord in our idolatry! 

Anyone who believes themselves not tempted toward idolatry is lying to themselves. “Idols are always a temptation for us as human beings. We want to make God manageable. We want to see him. We want to manage him. We want him in a box. We want a god who will do what we want him to do.”[2] – Trevin Wax

The pull to a golden calf rather than the God who is a consuming fire, and appears in thunder and lightning in Exodus 20, is that a golden calf is manageable. You can turn its head this way and that. You can turn it to look west while you sin in the east, and it won’t see you and be disappointed (plus, it’s fake so… it won’t see you anyway). Manageable is good, and we like it. 

So here’s the thing: idolatry and sin are so insidious that we can worship things in the church and not think twice because, well, they’re in the church. Surely we can’t worship idols while we use the language of Yahweh worship, right? We may be tempted to think that idolatry is not possible while we are doing things we believe to be for the Lord. But not so fast. Israel shows that it is possible to worship idols whilst thinking you’re honoring God. They also show that one can take the worship God gave and twist it to fit one’s own ends. 

Anything can become an idol. Anything. Worship music can be an idol. Sunday School can be an idol. Programs can be an idol. The pastor can be an idol. The building one meets in can be an idol. The order of service (or an element in the order) can be an idol. “The way we’ve always done it” can be an idol. Polity can be an idol. All things that are, by no means, bad in themselves, can become idols. Things that are used to worship God, can themselves become gods. Do you see how insidious idolatry is?

In Tim Keller’s book Counterfeit Gods he says this: “What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.” 

Then this: “A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.”[3]

In the church, then, we can say that if there are things that attract us to the church that isn’t Christ, it is an idol. If we are looking for a church and what we’re looking for centers on us and what we want or prefer, that’s wrong. If what we want in the church, and what we focus on in the church, is something that is intended to worship God, we are actually worshipping that thing. If there is something in the church where we say, “if the church didn’t have/provide this, it wouldn’t be worth attending, serving, and giving myself over to it.” 

We saw this in the worship wars of the last 30 years or so: if you don’t play (insert favorite genre) I will either (A) protest vigorously or (B) go to a church that does provide that (or in some cases, both A and then B). You can insert virtually anything into this. “If you don’t have this program,” “If you don’t have this Sunday School format,” “If you don’t have this as part of worship,” “If you don’t provide something entertaining for my kids,” etc. 

And it’s important to note, these typically are not things the Bible actually commands us to do. In other words, if the church doesn’t preach the Word and point to Christ, then yes, it is an unhealthy place, and such things should be addressed. But the battles churches often face have little to do with what the Bible says and more to do with what we simply want.

My question then is this: Do you love the church or just parts of the church? Do you want the church itself, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, or just aspects of the church that you happen to like or even potentially idolize? Is it possible that something good, something intended to glorify God, has actually become an idol to you?

Israel responded in sinful fear because they were anxious. They were afraid that Moses would not come back, and they’d have to go to the Promised Land without him or Yahweh’s leadership. This is why they wanted a god that would go before them (Ex 32:1). The hardship revealed their character, as it always does. 

The pandemic of well over a year has been a hardship indeed. Nearly every church is facing the same sorts of pains. But it is a hardship, and thus, it has revealed character. It has revealed what churches actually value the most and caused churches to strip down their services. Was it enough to offer congregational singing and the preached Word? Or were we in such a hurry to “get back to normal” that we figured church without “what we did before” the pandemic was not worth attending? 

Again, let me say that there are many things that are not bad things, and may even be good things, but a church could still be a biblical church without them. And there are good things that we can turn into idols even within the church if we say, “We need these things or we will abandon the fellowship.” And they are things, like the golden calf, that we can control (another idol) – we can turn them this way and that – and that control slips away when the calf gets melted, which scares us. 

How we react when certain things are absent also reveals what our idols are. If we react violently and angrily to certain things, is it possible that’s a sign that we were idolizing them or elevating them to a first-order place at the level of even things like Jesus’s divinity or salvation through Christ alone?

It would truly be a shame if the American church (who is, at best, spiritually anemic) would miss this opportunity to recognize her idols. We have been provided an opportunity to do honest introspection and to be humble enough to admit, “Yes, I gave these things an improper place: this is what is actually important and a first-order issue: _______.” 

After all, who of all people should readily be able to admit and recognize sin if not Christians? And once we do that, we can still enjoy things but in their proper place. Too many times we are willing to abandon the fellowship of the church for petty things that have nothing to do with the Bible. We simply like them and if we don’t have them, we don’t want the church either. What a tragedy! 

The pandemic has undoubtedly been a terrible thing, the human toll we perhaps will never truly and fully understand. However, in God’s providence He has provided this time for us to reorient and reset. He has given us space to ask, “What truly matters in the church? What does the Bible prioritize? What have we done that was unhealthy and now we have a chance to refocus?” 

It would truly be a mistake to see what idols have been exposed and do nothing with that. It would be a mistake to see our idols and then rush to put them back up. Now is the time to see what matters according to Scripture, to focus on those things, give things in the church their proper place, to honestly evaluate our motives, cling to the gospel and one another, and embrace a simple church model with a healthy, biblical ecclesiology. 

[1] Duane A. Garret, A Commentary on Exodus, Kregel Exegetical Library (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2014), 618-619. 

[2] Trevin Wax, “No Idols,” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/no-idols/

[3] Trevin Wax, “Counterfeit Gods: Tim Keller Takes on Our Idols,” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/counterfeit-gods-tim-keller-takes-on-our-idols/

Some Men Just Want the Fight

One of the very best movies I have seen in recent years is the World War I epic called 1917. The basic premise of the film is two young soldiers are tasked with delivering orders to another unit to call off a planned offensive attack because they would surely lose as it is a trap. In one of many profound scenes, our main protagonist, Lance Corporal Schofield is told by Captain Smith that he must ensure that there are witnesses when he delivers the standdown orders to the commander (Colonel Mackenzie) of the unit that must not advance, lest they be massacred. Schofield replies, “They’re direct orders, sir,” to which Captain Smith says, “I know, but some men just want the fight.”

What an absolutely chilling statement. 

Of course, what he was saying is that, even if Colonel Mackenzie received written orders to not advance, he might do it anyway because, well, he likes fighting, he enjoys war, he gets some sort of joy out of battle. He could simply say he never received the order. 

Some men cannot do without the war, it’s like they need it to live, or they derive meaning from the conflict. That sounds strange, I know, but some men just want the fight, even if it does damage to those they claim to love or care about. The fight, to them, is the most important thing in all the world. 

This is not a problem just in literal war, either. Churches everywhere seem to be in perpetual conflict, constant battles, ongoing unease and restlessness. Not because they are battling against, say, the rulers, the powers, the world forces of this darkness, the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12, NASB). Or even against sin that wages war within us (Rom 7). But with, well, anything and anyone that will keep them in constant battle. 

For some, conflict almost literally gives them life. It’s as if they cannot do without some sort of cause or battle. It’s like air or water. If no conflict is present, they’ll create some. Every conversation must be tinged with a critique, a line of gossip, some sort of misery because, well, we can’t be miserable by ourselves, we need others to join us in our discontentment. You better believe that you’ll know they’re unhappy because being quarrelsome makes them happy. Ironic, isn’t it? 

Some churches can’t seem to get out of this rut, and I believe it’s for several reasons. For one, some churches have had disfunction, unhealthiness, broken structures, and fighting consistently for so long, they don’t recognize that it’s destructive and wrong. It’s like when I lived in North Texas where the foundations of homes shifted and created cracks inside and outside the house. They were there so long some homeowners forgot they were there; they just got used to them. Sometimes, churches get used to constant disfunction and don’t even realize it. But then when healthy systems, teachings, structures are introduced, it’s they that are the problem. Which is good for the fighters because they have something new to battle. 

A second reason may be the most obvious. The people who genuinely don’t want conflict, they’d prefer the conflict over confronting those who are causing the conflict. By this I mean it’s easier to sit and listen, or engage (in other words, join in and eventually buy-in), than it is to rebuke. It’s uncomfortable to tell someone you know, or someone who you consider a friend, to kindly stop the constant negativity. It is, unfortunately, easier and more comfortable to sit and listen over and over and over as your friend waxes eloquent as to why everything is terrible…again. 

To be sure, there are times when conflict is necessary. We should battle sin in our hearts, battle sin with one another (i.e., help our brothers and sisters defeat sin in their lives), put an end to destructive false teaching, fight for what is right and good and biblical. But that’s not what’s at issue here. What’s at issue here is what the bible would call a quarrelsome person (Prov 17:14; 18:1; 20:3; 2 Tim 2:23; James 4:1-2 see also 1 Cor 12:25; Jude 1:19). Someone who must divide, must complain, must critique, must fight, and must bring others into their battles. 

The dangers are inherent, aren’t they? Unchecked, this will divide and destroy a church. Negativity and gossip spread through a church and community like gangrene. It will dishearten saints, kill fellowship, stop momentum. After all, how do you focus on the gospel when you’re bogged down fighting each other all the live long day? 

Another danger is that the love of fighting, the negativity, they are slowly killing the source. A Christian who lacks joy is a contradiction in terms. Someone who must always be in conflict is really crying out for help because something is not right. Left unchecked, the person will ironically continue to hurt themselves. 

A third danger is that it’s hurting you, that is, if you are always giving ear to it. I’ve been a pastor long enough to know that if a supporter has turned on you, I usually want to ask who they’ve been giving ear to. Inevitably, they have listened and listened and listened to the fighter and have slowly bought in. Do we really think we are strong enough to hear constant negativity and not let it affect us? 

What should you do when you recognize this? 

Simple enough: stop giving ear to it. If we love our friends we will gently, lovingly tell them how destructive constant fighting is. It’s sinful and destructive. Loving rebuke is never fun, but it’s sometimes necessary. If we see constant, unrepentant sin in the lives of our brothers and sisters and say nothing, that’s unloving. We aren’t loving them well, not when we can do something about what’s hurting them and stay silent. 

Paul offers this advice in Titus 3: “But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.”

It’s clearly possible to offer grace while also staying away from factiousness. Warn repeatedly, in love (repentance is not only always available, but preferred/the goal!), then, if no repentance is forth coming and they continue to unlovingly drag you into their battles, mark and avoid. We should fight, but we should fight sin and darkness, not one another, and we surely shouldn’t love the battles. But some men, well, they just want the fight, and they’ll take them wherever they can get them. Don’t let that be you. 

Are You Bored with Jesus?

“Discipleship is learning about Christ’s supremacy over all things. It is truly companionship with Jesus through all of life. A scheme of the devil is to get people to renounce their faith in Christ, but another scheme of the devil is for people to simply grow bored with Christ. Satan will do anything he can to get you to take your eyes off Christ. He knows that you, or your church, do not have to renounce Jesus to cease to be useful in God’s kingdom; you just have to grow bored with him.”[1]

In the opening lines of Psalm 45 the psalmist gushes over the beauty of the king. He says that the king is the “fairest of all.” To him, the king’s beauty simply exceeds all men who have existed, existed during the psalmist’s time, and would exist forevermore. What makes him so lovely? His exceedingly great character, His warring on behalf of righteousness and meekness and truth, and grace pours from His lips like the mighty water of Niagara.

The psalmist simply cannot contain himself and he cannot wait to sing before the king. 

This psalm points to the Messiah – the author of Hebrews tells us so (Heb 1:8), as well as the fact that the king is addressed as God in verse 6. Jesus is the object (even if the psalmist didn’t fully understand that – the Holy Spirit inspiring him did) and His deeds are magnified as He takes a bride and makes her lovely through His deeds. 

The opening lines of the psalm provoke a question in my own heart, and I wonder about how other modern Americans would answer this question: do you gush over Jesus like this psalmist did? Can you hardly contain yourself when you worship Him? When you think of Him, does He thrill you – get your heart racing? 

By all accounts, we are an excitable people. Anyone who is morose in worship can say “I just don’t get outwardly excited about things” but that’s not true. As someone who currently resides in Georgia, I can say I’ve seen how people react to Georgia Bulldog games. I have doubts that they go all the way to Athens and sit the whole time with an expression on their face like they just bit into a lemon. I doubt when the Dogs score, they stay seated and golf clap. 

I also doubt that when their kids achieve something they aren’t thrilled. I doubt that when they got that promotion they wanted they were docile. I doubt that if someone handed them a million dollars they would simply nod, expressionless, and say “Thanks.”

We get thrilled, but is Jesus the One who thrills us? 

I also wonder if the way we easily get distracted about things isn’t a sign that Jesus bores us. 

I can’t help but wonder when Christians buy into conspiracy theories, worship at the altar of politics, bounce from church-to-church over trivial things, focus on church programs or get bogged down in preferences, or fight and divide in the church, or grumble, or focus on worship styles rather than on the One being worshipped, if we haven’t simply just gotten bored with the King.  

Jesus should thrill and excite, Jesus should astound and ignite our passions, but so often in the church we focus on other things that are not Jesus. I’ve known people who have left churches that preached the gospel from the Bible and put Christ at the center, but because of things like the format of Sunday school or the lack of musical programs, they left unceremoniously. Jesus was preached faithfully, the words sung were true and Christ exalting, yet it wasn’t enough for them to stay in the fellowship. Why is that? 

Was Jesus not enough? They needed more? 

Or consider what we look for when we are searching for a church. I have asked many people who were “church shopping” (what a horrible phrase, by the way), what they were looking for. Typically, the first thing said had to do with style of music, programs for kids, or a place they could “fit in.” I can’t remember a single time when the first thing said was “A church that preaches Jesus from the Bible” or “A church that makes Christ the center of everything they do” or some theological agreement. 

Are we bored with Jesus? 

Why are we obsessed with politics? Why are some social media pages of Christians filled with nothing but political posts that vilify image bearers who happen to disagree with us? Why are we willing to abandon the fellowship of a church for something as trivial as music genres and programs? 

Truly, if a church simply preaches the gospel from the Word faithfully and sings Christ-exalting songs, shouldn’t that be enough for us? Isn’t everything else in addition to that gravy?

If Jesus thrills us, shouldn’t worshipping Him with the saints still get our hearts pumping? What a privilege! If He was truly enough, would we really have time to fight with each other? If He was enough, would we really have time to be on the look out for things in our churches to gripe about or leave over? And if Jesus was the King that the psalmist says He is (which, He is and more) then would our obsession be with earthly politics in which our hopes raise and fall? 

The solution truly isn’t that difficult: simply dwell on His majesty. Stop letting other things edge Him aside. He is glorious enough to be infatuated with – the depths of His glory are truly endless. And if you’ve been distracted, bogged down, thinking about abandoning the fellowship, feeling unstratified with things of earth, ask yourself: Am I bored with Jesus? And be prepared for a hard answer from the Spirit of God, then, with haste, fix your eyes back on Jesus and be thrilled once again! 

[1] J.T. English, Deep Discipleship: How the Church Can Make Whole Disciples of Jesus (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2020), 36. Emphasis Added. 

What in the World is Going on in the Southern Baptist Convention?

No one can deny that the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a gigantic mess right now. “Dumpster fire” was the way one podcast host recently described it. Most people are not super engaged in SBC politics, not even most SBC members. And who could blame them? But one cannot help but see them now that mainstream news outlets like the Washington Post, New Yorker, the Atlantic, and more and more have written recent articles on the ever-escalating drama. So, what in the world is going on here? 

I want to make sure I begin by saying that I have a great love for the SBC. My undergraduate degree is from a school affiliated with the SBC, and my master’s degree and doctoral work are from SBC seminaries (MBTS and SBTS respectively). I have been involved in SBC life from local associations to state conventions to a national entity. I have pastored only SBC churches, I was saved in an SBC church, and I seriously doubt I’ll ever be anything other than Southern Baptist until the Lord calls me home. 

It grieves me greatly that the SBC is in the state it is in right now, so what’s going on? First, some background…

Abuse

Let’s go back to 2019 when the Houston Chronicle in Texas revealed over 700 cases of abuse within SBC churches. What was revealed was that some ministers were able to prey on victims and go to other churches where no record of their prior misdeeds were known. So they did it again. What was revealed was that some churches hid abuse, refused to report abuse, and sometimes even knowingly hired abusers. The SBC had a crisis on its hands. 

This led to the creation of a Credentials Committee and an amendments to the SBC “to specifically state that sexual abuse and discrimination based on ethnicity are grounds for a church to be deemed as ‘not in friendly cooperation’ with the convention” (Link).

This also led to the Caring Well Initiative led by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission to help churches prevent abuse and know how to respond appropriately.

Paige Patterson

Paige Patterson is a well-known figure in the SBC, having served as president of Criswell College, Southeastern Seminary, and Southwestern Seminary. He is also well-known as an important figure in the “Conservative Resurgence” which stemmed the tide of liberal teachings in Southern Baptist seminaries. 

In 2018 it was reported that Patterson “lied to the board of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) about a rape allegation that came before him at another seminary, withheld documents from his previous presidency, and referenced attempting to “break down” the victim of a more recent rape incident.” (CT)

Patterson’s firing raised the ire of many of his supporters, as you can imagine. Adam Greenway replaced Patterson as president of SWBTS and immediately made necessary changes such as removing stained-glass portraits of Patterson and other “heroes of the conservative resurgence” from the chapel at SWBTS.

Resolution Nine

At the last annual meeting in 2019 in Birmingham a resolution was passed entitled “On Critical Race Theory And Intersectionality.” Plenty of people did not like this including the group that will be addressed in the next topic. Something is important to note here concerning resolutions. Resolutions are not binding in any way, shape, or form. If you like the resolution, you can follow it, think about it, take whatever action it is calling for, or you can reject it, pretend it doesn’t exist, or print it and then shred it.

According to the resolution website: “A resolution is not used to direct an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention to specific action other than to communicate the opinion or concern expressed.”

Here’s an example by way of shameless plug: in 2018 in Dallas the resolution I wrote and submitted called “On Prayer And Support For Arab Christians” was passed through the resolutions committee and voted on by the messengers along with the other resolutions that made it to the floor. I was very happy about this as I was hoping to bring to the attention the fact that we have many Arab brothers and sisters in Christ under hardship around the world. But here’s the thing: no one has to pray or support Arab Christians because of my resolution. Why? Because, and this is important: resolutions are not binding.

So, the angst surrounding “resolution 9” is unwarranted, unnecessary, just another reason to fight with one another. But, it did raise the ire of some.

CBN

After Patterson’s firing, a new “network” was started called the Conservative Baptist Network which describes itself as “a partnership of Southern Baptists where all generations are encouraged, equipped, and empowered to bring positive, biblical solutions that strengthen the SBC in an effort to fulfill the Great Commission and influence culture.” 

This was curious to many considering that the SBC is a conservative denomination. The CBN falsely (and continually) leveled accusations against the SBC Saying that there is a “liberal drift” in the convention. One of the complaints from CBN is that Critical Race Theory (CRT) is being taught in the seminaries and pushed in other entities.

I’ll go ahead and editorialize: none of that is true. There is no liberal drift in the SBC, CRT is not being taught, and many (all?) of the people that the CBN accuses of liberalism within the SBC all affirm every line of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 (BF&M), which is a conservative document. 

To further the drama: then chairman of the SBC executive committee (EC) Mike Stone (current SBC president candidate) claimed to have no affiliation with the CBN until the day after his term on the EC when it was revealed that he is on the “steering council.” 

Leading up to SBC annual meeting 2021, many CBN members on social media have adopted the pirate-esque phrase “take the ship,” believing that they must take back the SBC from the so-called “liberal drift.” Their candidate is Mike Stone, who they believe is the true hope of stopping the SBC from this “drift.” 

Leading up to the 2021 Annual Meeting

So those are the broad brushstrokes of what is in the background leading to the annual meeting this year. But wait, there’s more. 

In the past month, more light has been shed on everything I’ve mentioned so far. Paige Patterson had claimed all along that he had nothing to do with the CBN or its formation. It turns out, however, that not only did Patterson attend the CBN conference held at Mid-America Seminary, but he now admits that the initial CBN promo videos were shot in his house. 

On top of this, the SWBTS portion of the SBC book of reports that was released ahead of the convention revealed that Patterson misappropriated “confidential donor information” and took seminary property after his 2018 firing (CT). Further, the report states that “the Pattersons have continued to use the Seminary’s confidential donor list in order to contact Seminary donors to divert donations and gifts away from the Seminary.” 

Leading up to the annual meeting this year, Russell Moore announced that he would be leaving the ERLC to work fulltime at Christianity Today. A letter Moore sent to the trustees of the ERLC last year was leaked and revealed some of the opposition Moore faced in his time as president. This included threats and interference in response to the aforementioned sexual abuse reports and racial reconciliation efforts (you can read it in its entirety here). 

Another letter was released that Moore sent to SBC president JD Greear which revealed more of what those who have been paying attention already knew. Moore faced considerable resistance from then EC chair Stone (and remember, he’s a president candidate this year) and EC president Ronnie Floyd. 

Said Moore: “You and I both heard, in closed door meetings, sexual abuse survivors spoken of in terms of ‘Potiphar’s wife’ and other spurious biblical analogies. The conversations in these closed door meetings were far worse than anything Southern Baptists knew — or the outside world could report.”

More: “Behind all of this was the undiluted rage that you and I faced from Executive Committee officers-including the then-chairman,” (this is in reference to Stone). “This included but was hardly limited to the tense meeting that you, Todd Unzicker, and Phillip Bethancourt from my team had with Mike Stone and Ronnie Floyd in Atlanta in May of 2019. There Stone vigorously insisted on delaying the formation of a credentials committee to assess churches reported to be mishandling sexual abuse.” (Read the letter in its entirety here). 

In response, Stone issued a video and Floyd issued statements defending themselves, claiming, among other things, that those events did not happen the way Moore reported. Many in the CBN were more outraged by the fact that the letter came out than they were the contents. 

Bethancourt then released audio which affirm Moore’s statements and contradict Floyd’s and Stone’s. On tape Floyd can be heard saying that he was “thinking of the base. I just want to preserve the base.” Floyd also complained that abuse-advocate Rachael Denhollander was allowed to speak at ERLC events without being told what she could and could not say. 

Stone claims on the tape that churches reported to cover abuse had been “thrown under the bus,” and complains that the creation of a standing Credentials Committee had been pushed on him and other Executive Committee leaders against their will and says they have been “bullied.” He calls such action “unseemly.” (Baptist news).

These tapes show that Floyd and Stone were not truthful in their response to Moore’s letter and that what Moore said in the letter regarding their statements were true. Stone and Floyd did in fact run interference to sexual abuse response, as Moore previously stated.

This brings us to today, unless something else comes out, which, at this point, you just never know. The annual meeting will take place next week in Nashville and already has more registered messengers than any meeting in the last 20+ years. There are 4 candidates for president: Mike Stone, Ed Litton, Albert Mohler, and Randy Adams. There will also be a motion on the very first day to have a third party investigate the EC actions in light of the sexual abuse reports and attempted interference from EC members to take action. 

Hopefully this helps clarify for those not well-versed in SBC inner workings. The best thing you can do right now is pray for the SBC as we meet next week to decide important issues. Pray for gospel unity and boldness to finally take action on matters of abuse. Pray also for charity that those who would cause division or level accusations of “a drift” will realize that the SBC is a big tent with autonomous churches that affirm the BF&M. Pray that we will remember the good that the SBC can do when we work together. Pray that we recover what makes the SBC special which is cooperation for education and missions. 

Maybe then we can stop of the “drift” toward compromise, coverup, and division. May God help us. 

**Update**

So I said above that other things might come out, well, something did. The EC put out a press release on June 11 that they were hiring Guidepost Solutions to “conduct an independent review of its processes.” This should have been done a long time ago. Now it seems more prudent to allow the motion of an investigation to come to the floor by action of the messengers rather than the EC doing it on their own. One has to wonder, if the EC is hiring the firm, and there is no mention of to whom they are to report with their findings, is this truly an independent investigation? I guess we shall see…

Now is No Time to Abandon the Fellowship

To the surprise of no one who knows me, I’ve never been the seafaring type. Travel on the water (in whatever form) has exactly zero appeal to me. That being said, something I do know about travel on the high seas is that the worst possible time to abandon ship is in the midst of a storm. When the waters are rough, when the wind is blowing, when the rain is pounding the ship; this would be a terrible time to jump overboard. Why? Because your shipmates need your help and Davy Jones’ Locker is a dangerous place to be, especially alone. 

At all times in this age, Christians will have trouble (John 16:33). For we are sojourners and strangers (1 Pet 2:11) traversing a dark and fallen land. There is, however, something uniquely challenging about the church in the middle of a pandemic. Not that this is somehow worse than any other time in history, but that it presents distinct challenges we are still trying to navigate. Among the questions of safety procedures and the return to “normalcy,” a majority of churches have not seen a return of all of their pre-Covid members. Where are they?

The reasons vary, of course. Some may have gotten a little too used to watching from home in their pajamas with a cup of coffee in their hand whilst scrolling through social media. Some have taken this opportunity to go to a different church, one that perhaps caters to their preferences better than the church that they are members and pre-Covid attenders of. Some were sporadic attenders to begin with and have found not going to the gatherings easier than ever.  

In this space, I would like to encourage you, dear church member, that now is no time to abandon the fellowship. The author of Hebrews exhorts us all to not forsake the assembly “as is the habit of some” (Heb 10:25). The word “forsake” means something like “leave in the lurch,” “desert,” and “abandon.” When we leave the church, we are doing something far more than choosing one civic or social or country club rather than another. We are abandoning the fellowship. In a time like this, when churches are filled with uncertainty and struggling to regain their footing, now is no time to leave them in the lurch. Allow me to offer three simple reasons: 

You Made a Vow 

Sam Allberry writes in Why Bother with Church? “The church is the beloved bride of Jesus. Church is not his hobby; it is his marriage – and it’s ours too.” If you are a member of a local church, you have formally entered into a covenant with that church. This means you have made a vow to stick with that church, even when it becomes inconvenient to do so. In sickness and in health, you told the church when you joined that you intended to be there for the long-haul. 

When things get tough, that is when our mettle is tested the most. Hardship, then, is a great revealer of our character and what we think of the vows we have made to our fellow believers. Church membership is our marriage. Since we are married to Jesus, we love what Jesus loves. And since the church is the beloved bride of Christ (Eph 5:25-33), we must treat her with the care that Christ’s calls us to. When she needs us, we do not run, we stay, we fight for her purity, we keep our promises, we love her unconditionally. 

You Need the Church

When the storm is raging and we are on the ship, jumping overboard is our worst option. The seas are dangerous and dark and full of frightening creatures. Staying tethered to our fellow crew will keep us from danger. The fact of the matter is, we need the church to keep us in the love of God (Jude 20), to keep us from the fire (Jude 23), to be stimulated to love and good deeds (Heb 10:24), and to be encouraged (Heb 10:25) in order to stay on the narrow path of Christ followership. None of us can live the Christian life alone, and we were never meant to. As John Wesley wisely said, “The Bible knows nothing of solitary religion.” 

We need the church in order to obey the “one another” commands of the New Testament, for accountability, and to use our spiritual gifts for the edification of the body that we are attached to (1 Cor 12:7). To abandon the fellowship when the Day of the Lord draws nearer by the hour is to court spiritual trouble. Don’t jump overboard, the sea is a scary and dangerous place. God knows this, which is why when He saves us, He saves us into a family. Now is no time to go at it alone.

The Church Needs You

Finally, the church needs you and your gifts. She needs you to function since the Holy Spirit has sovereignly placed you in that particular church for her good and growth (1 Cor 12:7, 18). Not being with the body that you are a member of is tantamount to being a severed limb like Thing from The Addams Family. What a strange sight that is! And how hard it is to eat and see and hear when you are a severed hand all on your own. 

Your church will feel the pain of your abandonment. The rest of the body must compensate for your absence. This means to abandon the fellowship is to do active harm to the body of Christ. When you jump overboard, the rest of the crew must work extra hard to make up for the missing crew members, which causes them to work overtime. 

The times are hard, the days are strange, so return to the church you vowed to love. Stay, give, serve, love, even if it is hard. You need them, they need you, and God will be glorified through that kind of other-worldly commitment. 

Be Faithful and Come What May

What does church success look like during a global pandemic? For at least a generation, success in churches was based largely on numerics, on this we can agree. Every year in my denomination (the Southern Baptist Convention), for example, churches must fill out the Annual Church Profile (ACP), which asks churches nearly every conceivable question regarding their numbers. It was easy to get sucked into this being a type of self-reflection on whether or not you and your church were “successful” that year. Now, this is not to denigrate ACPs, they serve a purpose, of course, but it has been clear for at least a half century that numbers purportedly told the story about the health and success of a church. 

And what pastor hasn’t attended associational, state, or national convention meetings where they were asked multiple times, “Hey brother, how many you runnin’?” 

Numbers are important, but they do not always tell the full story on church health and success. Big churches can be unhealthy, small churches can be healthy. We know this in every season, but this especially comes to the fore in the midst of a global pandemic. 

If numbers = success/health, a majority of churches right now are likely not getting a passing grade. Churches everywhere are seeing decreases in attendance: once-a-month attenders have become non-attenders, the vulnerable cannot attend because of health concerns, and some regular attenders have abandoned the fellowship, perhaps for a different church that fits their preferences better. This can be quite disheartening until you remember that Scripture does not define success or health according to numbers. Rather, what we are called to is faithfulness, and God will take care of the results. 

This is good news for pastors, churches, and faithful church members. Better still, it applies whether or not we are in a global pandemic. While saying “just be faithful” seems overly simplistic, it really does not have to be as complicated as we might try to make it. Does this resolve all questions we might have right now in terms of having in-person service versus online only or mask versus no mask or any number of questions the Bible is silent on? Of course not. 

What it does do is (1) help us keep our hand to the plow, (2) fend off discouragement, and (3) protect our hearts when criticized. 

Preach the Word, study the Word, pray, love unconditionally, serve sacrificially, rest in the gospel, gather with the saints in the church you have covenanted with (if possible), love your neighbor as self – these are all things we can do at all times, COVID or not. 

Last year I wrote a post at FTC pleading with church members to give their pastor grace. Pastors need grace (just as much as you do, by the way) in and out of global pandemics and my goal there was to speak to church members to be understanding and gracious as their pastor navigated a unique situation with them. Of course, some will not heed this call to grace. Grumbling and criticism is inevitable, but a shield against being struck to the heart by these flinging arrows is resting on Christ and striving by the Spirit’s power toward faithfulness. 

Do you remember when the Israelites had been in the wilderness for a little over a month and began to grumble against Moses and Aaron because they were hungry (Ex 16:2-3)? Moses asks them twice “What are we?” (Ex 16:7-8) and says, “Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord” (Ex 16:8). This is ultimately where all grumbling is directed. Grumbling exposes an underlying discontentment with God, says Moses. 

In his excellent book Revitalize, Andy Davis draws off this picture in the work of revitalization (though this applies to pastoring on the whole) when he says, “As the work is progressing, Satan will rouse his servants to bring fierce opposition and poignant criticism, and some of those flaming arrows will find their mark with stinging potency. But as Moses said to the bitter Israelites, ‘What are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord!’ (Exod. 16:8). We are nothing! If we are standing on Scripture and leading the church toward spiritual health, the opposition is to Christ, not to us. My opponents at FBC did not even know my name two years before that time, and the only reason they were yelling at me in church conferences was because of the Lord’s work. I am nothing; Christ is everything” (emphasis mine).[1]

We must remember that if we are being biblically faithful as pastors or church members, the grumbling, criticism, and gracelessness is not ultimately against us, but against Christ. After all, the church belongs to Him, and if we are following the calls in His Word, then we are being faithful. Even if others have ideas about how the church ought to operate, they will always be bad ideas compared to the One who ultimately owns every local church. 

So, pastor and church member, are you being faithful to what the Word calls you to be? Of course, it will not be perfect faithfulness, but are you resting in Christ as your hope, and leaning on Him? Are you striving to be what the church is called to be according to Christ? Then that’s all you are called to do. Be encouraged! Ultimately, your hope rests in Christ, not your performance and there is a lot of freedom in that. So keep watering, God will give the growth (1 Cor 3:7) on His sovereign time, in His providential wisdom, in ways we might not expect or even choose, for His glory, pandemic or not.

[1] Andy Davis, Revitalize: Biblical Keys to Helping your Church Come Alive Again (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2017), 52. 

A Plea to Church Members, Give Your Pastor Grace

This post originally appeared on FTC.co on August 11, 2020.

A few days ago I was scrolling through my Timehop and I came across a tweet that I had retweeted from Ray Ortlund in which he said, “If your pastor loves the Lord, is faithful to his wife, preaches Jesus from the Bible, don’t hassle him. If he’s imperfect in some ways, don’t fix him. Who can flourish under that scrutiny? Instead, get down on your knees and thank God. He gave you your pastor (Eph 4:11-12).”

This is a good word no matter the season. Pastors reading that would give a hearty “amen” to such sage advice year-round. But there is no greater time to take this advice as a church member than right now.

We find ourselves in an incredibly strange and taxing time. I do not need to recount the ways in which our world causes us to be anxious, for you are well aware. At the height of our anxiety is the present pandemic which has caused us all to change our lifestyles for the greater good. But even something as impartial as an unseen virus has become political fodder and subject to conspiracy theories.

On top of the stress of coronavirus, opinions offered uncensored across social media. When it comes to the reopening of churches and how pastors lead during a pandemic, the opinions are legion. Some think churches should re-open ASAP, others think we should wait awhile. Guess who is caught in the middle of every opinion about what the church should and should not do in the midst of the pandemic?

Your pastor.

I have been privileged enough to study theology and pastoral ministry on the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral level and I have not once taken a class called, “Pastoring in a Pandemic.” Why? Because no such class exists.

My point is thus: all of us are navigating this for the first time. There is no playbook on how to lead when a global pandemic is ravaging communities in which the best course of action is to do nothing and stay home. Questions abound concerning when is the right time to re-open the churches for in person gatherings. Is there a right or wrong answer? I don’t know, but I do know your pastor is under incredible stress about what is the right thing to do.

While coronavirus caused many people to slow down and do less, I promise this is not the case with your pastor. In fact, your pastor may be working harder than ever in an attempt to shepherd his flock from a distance all the while keeping them connected and provide content to minister to their souls. Add to this the prospect of opening too quickly and putting members at risk of illness and you have a “perfect storm” for pastoral stress.

Many members might not realize this, and they may be genuinely trying to help by offering critique or advice, or maybe they think they are the only ones doing it, not realizing he is hearing things from multiple people. That adds even more stress.

But wait, there’s more.

On top of all of that, your pastor and church are being compared to other churches in town. “Fourth Baptist Church has already re-opened, why haven’t we?” or the opposite, “Maybe we re-opened too fast. I’m not going to attend for a long time. Other churches are being more cautious.” Or the classicly unhelpful “People have been saying…” or “Brother Demas thinks we should have opened a long time ago and this is all blown out of proportion.”

What is your pastor to do? Pastoral ministry is already a highly criticized, stressful calling. Add a pandemic and you may have a pastor who is questioning his calling and/or is on the brink of burnout—a dangerous place to be, for sure.

I have seen pastors admit this on social media platforms. Many comments and replies are supportive, offering prayer and an ear. Others suggest the pastor should “suck it up,” or compare them to others who “have it much worse.” How helpful is that?

I tell you all of this to offer a simple plea in these strange times: give your pastor grace. He needs it, he hurts, he’s stressed about doing the right thing in a moment where there is no playbook, he loves his people, he wants what’s best for the physical and spiritual well-being of the people Christ has called him to shepherd, and he is trying his best. Would you give him grace?

Consider Hebrews 13:7, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

Or, right before Paul talks about God giving churches pastors in order to equip them for the work of ministry, he commands his readers in Ephesus (and us) to patiently bear with one another in love (Eph 4:2).

So brothers and sisters, be patient, be loving, bear burdens (don’t add to them), and remember the grace you would want to receive and then give it to your pastor. He needs your support and encouragement now more than ever, would you lovingly offer it to him? Because he desperately wants to give it to you, but may find it difficult when he’s ministering with “groaning,” which “is not advantage to you.”

Give him grace.