Anglicans Ablaze: April 2021

Friday, April 30, 2021

Evangelicals Are Losing Their Climate Skepticism

No wonder the pushback on President Joe Biden’s climate agenda has thus far been minimal.

Let’s start with the numbers.

In 2014, Pew reported that just 28% of white evangelicals attributed global warming to human activity. Last October, by contrast, 44% of them said climate change was due “mostly to human activities,” according to a Climate Nexus poll.

Notwithstanding the difference in how the question was asked, white evangelicals have clearly become more willing to acknowledge anthropogenic climate change over the past decade. Indeed, while they remain less concerned about the issue than other major American religious communities, Climate Nexus found them to be closer to mainstream opinion than they used to be.

Thus, 63% of them (versus 74% of all adults) think climate change is happening. Fifty-six percent (versus 75%) said it’s best described as a crisis or a major problem. Sixty-seven percent (versus 71%) said they “strongly” or “somewhat” support government action to address climate change. And 56% (versus 70%) said they thought passing a comprehensive bill to address climate change should be a “top” or “important” priority for Congress and the president in 2021.

Those numbers are little short of astonishing, given the successful effort of evangelical leaders (backed by the fossil fuel industry) to turn climate change into a religious issue comparable to abortion and LGBT rights in the Great American Culture War. Read More

Why All The Concern Over Carbon?

US climate commitments at the Earth Day summit signal an urgency Christians should support for eschatological as well as ecological reasons.

President Joe Biden opened a two-day virtual climate summit on Earth Day by committing the United States, the world’s second largest greenhouse-gas producer after China, to reducing emissions 50–52 percent below 2005 levels. It’s an ambitious goal, one that the US is not on track to come close to meeting. Emissions this past year were projected to be down more than 20 percent, mostly due to the pandemic’s impact on human activity. But with restrictions easing, pressure mounts on the world to return to normal, which is bad news for the atmosphere since this means releasing carbon to levels higher than has ever happened naturally in over 20,000 years.

Jesus foretold environmental demise on a cosmic scale while standing in the temple courts, symbolic of creation itself as the abode of the Almighty. Jesus cited ancient apocalyptic language about the darkening sun and moon, famines, earthquakes, and war (Mark 13:5–25).

Jesus’ grim forecast nevertheless provides solace in God’s sovereignty and concern for his people (13:13). The Lord will watch over human life (Ps. 121:7–8). Unfortunately, this solace sometimes mixes in nationalist politics and laissez-faire economics alongside long-held suspicions of science as a secular displacement for faith. Christians have expressed skepticism over government rules restricting economic activity, and skepticism over scientific predictions of the future given past inaccuracies. Currently, over a third of evangelicals say there is “no solid evidence” that climate change is happening.

If only this were true. Instead, an overwhelming body of evidence starting in the mid-1800s aboard ships and progressing to recent tracking from satellites, geologic data, and computational analysis all converge to affirm the earth is getting hotter. More than 90 percent of earth scientists concur and point to humans as the primary cause. Rising tides, extreme weather, and hotter temperatures notwithstanding, climate change unheeded threatens to destroy economies, render parts of the world uninhabitable, and exacerbate disparities between rich and poor. Exactly what this may look like remains to be seen—consensus on warming isn’t consensus on its future effects—but the worries are real. Read More

What Trees Teach Us about Community and Crisis

As we seek to grow resilient communities, let’s look to the forest for wisdom

Today is Arbor Day in the U.S. — a tree-planting and tree-honoring tradition that began nearly 150 years ago. Throughout history, humans have recognized trees as pillars of strength. They provide the oxygen, nourishment, and resources for life on earth.

But the secret to trees’ strength isn’t simply that they’re the largest and longest-living plants on the planet. They have managed to survive crisis — while helping other creatures to do the same — because they’re literally rooted in community. Today, as our planet faces countless crises, trees have much to teach us.

Far from loners, trees grow as a tight-knit group, ntertwined at the roots. But only recently did Western scientists catch on to their communication. Trees in a forest can “talk,” exchanging nutrients, carbon, and water through mycorrhizal networks — a sort of underground internet built by soil fungi. (Some biologists nickname it the “wood wide web.”)

Forests depend on trees’ vast social networks. Older, well-connected “Mother trees” are the community cornerstones that share extra nutrients with younger ones that need them. If two trees are friends, they keep their branches from growing in each other’s way. Collectively, they can regulate the microclimate and air temperature to be just how they like it: cool and damp. Togetherness is a tree’s ticket for survival. Read More

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Christians in the Twenty-First Century: Churchgoers or Disciples of Jesus?

Church planting is far more difficult in 2021 than it was in the mid-1980s—35 odd years ago. People no longer attend church like they did in the mid-1980s. In the mid-1980s a new church planted in a rapidly growing part of a state could expect to attract its share of newcomers to the area. It could grow from transfer growth alone. Not today.

We are now living in the age of the nones and the dones. The nones are individuals who, when they are surveyed, indicate that they have no religious affiliation. They may believe in God and Jesus but they have no use for organized religion. The dones are individuals who for a variety of reasons have burned out on church. They still believe in God and Jesus. They are just done with church and church members. The growth of this segment of the population is not good news for church planters or existing churches.

The COVID-19 pandemic of the last 12 months has accelerated the decline in church attendance.

A number of churches made the news for their defiance of public health measures requiring face masks, social distancing, and outdoor worship, and limiting the size of gatherings. Some churches took their local government to court and won their cases. Their success was hailed as a victory for religious freedom and was feted in white evangelical circles. They, however, lost in the court of public opinion and damaged further the sliding public image of Christianity and Christians in the United States. They made the task of church planters more difficult.

The COVID-19 pandemic is also impacting churches in other ways which will affect church planting. A segment of the churchgoing population, primarily white evangelicals, has been dismissive of the seriousness of the pandemic and its threat to the larger population. They have played an active role in perpetuating disinformation and misinformation about the virus. They have also been active in spreading conspiracy theories. Pastors have urged people to throw away their face masks from the pulpit and on social media. They have also encouraged people to ignore the guidance and recommendations of the CDC and the state and local health authorities.

This segment of the churchgoing population has taken a leading role in refusing to undergo vaccination against the virus and propagating all kinds of erroneous beliefs about the vaccines and their side-affects. They have been doing more than their share of scaremongering. They have created a public image that Christians do not care about the health, safety, and well-being of their communities and the larger population.

While some Christians may attribute a general hostility toward Christianity in the US population for the stereotypes of Christians that are common in the nation’s unchurched population, they themselves have contributed to these stereotypes through their own attitudes and behaviors. They have to a large extent ignored what Jesus taught about how his disciples should relate to those who were not yet his disciples. Rather they have focused upon what he said about expecting opposition. They have adopted a tribalistic view of the world—an “us vs. them” view. The sad truth, however, is that what they see as opposition is largely what they caused themselves. Rather than being “wise as serpents and as gentle as doves,” they have not shown the winsomeness that should characterize the witness of a Christian.

One of the lessons that we can learn from the COVID-pandemic is that Christians need to unlearn being churchgoers and to learn being disciples of Jesus. We need to live the Great Commission as well as the Great Commandment. A Christianity Today article that caught my attention told the story of how the pandemic sharpened the focus of a Nazarene church on loving their neighbor. Loving our neighbor, however, involves more than meeting their physical needs. We must also meet their spiritual needs. Meeting their physical needs may be the easiest task. Meeting their spiritual needs may be more challenging. We can fill people’s bellies, but we cannot fill their souls. Only God can fill them with himself.

God uses us as a means of his grace. God uses our words and our actions to point to Jesus. They show that Jesus can make a difference in someone’s life. They show that following Jesus is worthwhile. While we cannot open someone’s heart and mind to God’s grace, God himself can use our words and actions to open them. We cannot love people into God’s kingdom. God, however, can use our loving witness to draw them into the kingdom.

While gathering with our fellow Christians to sing God’s praises, to hear God’s Word, to pray for the church and the world, and to share the Lord’s Supper are a part of being a disciple of Jesus, they are not the whole of it. We need to disabuse ourselves of the idea that churchgoing and discipleship are one and the same. They are not. We also need to disabuse ourselves of the idea that singing God’s praise at our gatherings is the entirety of worship. It is not. Discipleship and worship are inseparably linked. When we devote our lives to obeying Jesus’ teaching and following his example, we recognize and honor God. We show our love for the Father by keeping the words of the Son, the words that the Son heard from the Father, the words the Father gave him. We show our love for God by obeying God’s command to listen to Jesus and to act on what he taught.

Singing God’s praises and then paying no heed to what Jesus said or to the example he set is not showing our love of God. We are doing what the Pharisees and scribes did. They chose to do what they believed would make them look righteous in the eyes of their fellow Jews and would win the praise and plaudits of their fellow Jews but ignored what mattered most to God, that they should be merciful as God himself was merciful.

We do not love God with every atom of our being if we do not love our neighbor as ourselves. Those to who we are neighbor are not just the members of our tribe. They are people who do not look like us. They do not speak like us. They do vote like us. They not value what we value. They may be people whom we secretly despise or openly hate. They are, however, our neighbors.

How we act toward these people is not only a test of our discipleship but also is a measure of our love of God, a measure of our love of the Son whom God gave out of his love for his creation. We cannot say that we love God and then reject those for whose salvation the Son humbled himself and became a human being like ourselves.

I am not talking about conservative Christianity. I am not talking about progressive Christianity. I am not talking about the “Anglican Way.” I am talking about God’s way—Jesus’ way. I am talking about what Matthew 28: 19-20 means when it says, “teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” We do not teach them by haranguing them from a pulpit or lecturing them in a classroom. We teach them by doing what Jesus commanded and modeling what it is to be a true disciple of our Lord. I am not saying that there should not be any verbal instruction but what will have the most lasting effect will be seeing others walking as disciples of Jesus and walking as Jesus’ disciples themselves.

Are We Following the God of What Works? Free eBook

5 barriers to conversion-based church planting

Dietrich Schindler shares what he’s learned in his 30 years of church multiplication and why he believes conversion-based church planting is not on the radar of most leaders today.

See if this sounds familiar: A gifted leader inspires other Christians to start a new church. They meet regularly to pray, plan and lay out a church-planting strategy. Often, this involves what the worship service will look like and what kinds of programs the church will offer.

My guess is you’ve either been a part of or led that process at one time or another. Unwittingly, the leaders of the new venture often reduce the meaning of church to an event, equating the church with a worship service. The worship service becomes the ministry’s driving force, which quickly translates to a focus on numbers, giving, staff, technology and image projection.

This commonly held assumption about church planting is depriving people of discovering the hope of Christ at a time when we desperately need it. If we commit our church-planting efforts into the hands of the god of what works, we shouldn’t be surprised when the wheels come off. Read More

As Thom Rainer and Kevin Ezell in a recent Church Answers podcast drew to their listeners' attention, the transfer growth is not there due to the declining churchgoing. People are not attending church like they once did. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend. If new churches are to grow and thrive, they must focus upon making new converts to the Christian faith.

Sharing the Gospel with the Happiest People in the World

Last month, the World Happiness Report declared that for the fourth year in a row, the residents of Finland are the happiest in the world. In fact, Finland and its fellow Nordic countries—Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland—have all been in the top 10 happiest countries since 2013. (This year, the United States reached No. 14, up from 18 in 2020.)

“Clearly, when it comes to the level of average-life evaluations, the Nordic states are doing something right,” the report’s authors noted in a section titled “The Nordic Exceptionalism: What Explains Why the Nordic Countries Are Constantly Among the Happiest in the World.” Their conclusions include low corruption, well-functioning government institutions, and high levels of social trust.

But even exceptionally happy Danes can be lost Danes. Only 9 percent say their faith is very important to them, 10 percent pray daily, and 3 percent attend worship services weekly.

So how can I, a pastor in Copenhagen, convince the happiest people in the world that they need the gospel? Read More

3 Strategic Steps to Relaunch Your Small Groups

As the percentage of the population receiving COVID-19 vaccinations continues to rise, church leaders are seeing an increase in the number of people attending on-campus groups and weekend worship services. We are in the dawn of a new post-pandemic era for the church.

According to a recent Lifeway Research survey, pastors expect that by the end of summer 2021, the majority of their people will be back to meeting in groups. Church leaders I’ve spoken with recently have all indicated that members are returning, and that formerly unconnected individuals and families are joining their congregations even now. The race to normalcy is on. Read More

In my opinion Ken Brady is overly-optimistic. He offers good advice on launching new small groups but his claim that we are "in the dawn of a new post-pandemic era" may be premature. More reliable predictors would be the percentages of the church growing population and the non-churchgoing population, which is fully-vaccinated, not the hopes of pastors. According to CDC guidelines fully-vaccinated people can gather in small groups in which no unvaccinated people are present. This, however, is not an indicator that we have entered "the dawn of a new post pandemic era." When I factor in vaccine hesitancy, white evangelical resistance to vaccination, the vocal anti-vaxxer sentiment on social media, the cancelled and missed vaccine appointments, pandemic fatigue, and the opportunistic nature of the virus, I am inclined to adopt a more cautious "wait-and-see" attitude and take such predictions with a grain of salt.

Were the New Testament Authors Aware of Their Own Authority?

Sometimes, even in the academic world, things get said so many times that people assume they are true. And when that happens, no one bothers to look at the historical evidence in a fresh way.

One example, which is fairly routine these days, is to assert that the New Testament authors certainly did not think they were writing Scripture, nor had any awareness of their own authority. Mark Allan Powell, in his New Testament introduction, affirms this view plainly, “The authors of our New Testament books did not know that they were writing scripture.”[1] Gamble takes the same approach, “None of the writings which belong to the NT was composed as scripture…[they] were written for immediate and practical purposes within the early churches, and only gradually did they come to be valued and to be spoken of as ‘scripture’.”[2]

Now, from one perspective, I understand what these authors are trying to say. Certainly none of the NT authors wrote with an awareness of a 27 book canon and understood their place in it. They could not have fully foreseen the shape and scope of this collection. But, these scholars imply that there was no authoritative intent when the NT authors wrote—and that is a very different thing. Read More

For Evangelical Leader Jamie Aten, Advocating for Vaccines Led to a Death Threat

Aten, who teaches at an evangelical college, has received swarms of angry anti-vaxxer emails — including one saying his work was ‘punishable by death.’

Jamie Aten has spent years trying to help his fellow evangelicals deal with disasters.

In the past, when he wrote about hurricanes, floods and tornadoes — or even his personal battle with cancer — Aten’s work has been well received.

When Aten, executive director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College, began to urge his fellow evangelicals to get vaccinated, however, things got ugly.

“How’s your Monday going?” he tweeted on April 27. “Mine started with having to file a police report in response to the increasing number of threats I’m getting for encouraging white evangelicals to get vaccinated against COVID-19.”

How's your Monday going? Mine started with having to file a police report in response to the increasing number of threats I'm getting for encouraging white evangelicals to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Read More

Also See:
Black Protestants aren’t least likely to get a vaccine; white evangelicals are
Franklin Graham unfazed after evangelical base blasts him for encouraging vaccines

Image Credit: Jamie Aten

How Should We Respond to Christian Conspiracy Theories?

My concern with this question relates mainly to the first thing that Lindsay asks about; namely, What should we think and do in response to people who gravitate to what Lindsay calls “spiritual conspiracy theories”?

Old News, New Media

And that’s not a new question. In every generation, there have been predictions of the end of the world, and speculations about world leaders as the antichrist, and calamities that definitely signify the near end of the world, and political events that definitely fulfill last-day biblical prophecies, and bizarre sequences of events that cause the spinning out of conspiratorial webs. These have an uncanny way of being self-confirming, and then they peter out in the end and are forgotten for a few decades until they start all over again.

That’s not new. What’s new is not the alarmist mentalities or conspiracy theories or vocal doomsayers. What’s new is the presence of social media and the speed and ease and extent to which these theories spread.

So, how should we respond now, especially personally, if we know someone who is given to this kind of speculation and intrigue? What should we do if we know someone who always seems to be sniffing out something other than what is plainly there? And my answer to this is based on a certain diagnosis of what’s going on in their mind. Read More

Tarot Booms as Generation Z Sorts Out Spiritual Path

Generation Z has been the driving force behind the renewed popularity and mainstreaming of the age-old esoteric system.

Jenna Cargle was first introduced to tarot by her mother, a Catholic. “She was always talking about herbs, crystals, astrology and tarot,” explained the 18-year-old Atlantan.

Her mother’s mix of beliefs wouldn’t have attracted attention in many households, where tarot is akin to divination fads such as throwing I Ching or playing with a Ouija board. Not in Cargle’s family, some of whom rejected tarot and other practices as evil. Cargle herself was reluctant to embrace the practice.

Then, when she was 16, said Cargle, “I got comfortable with myself, Catholicism and spirituality. … I was no longer afraid to touch a tarot deck.” Cargle, who now identifies as spiritual but not religious, sees tarot as a tool.

“I’m a strong believer that everything happens for a reason and that there is a set path for everyone. But there are different (possible) endings.” The tarot can help predict those endings, she explained.

Cargle is not alone in her spiritual discovery. Generation Z has been the driving force behind the renewed popularity and mainstreaming of the age-old esoteric system. Read More

Esoteric? Occultic would be a more accurate description. My own generation, the Boomers, dabbled in the occult too--astrology, I-Ching, Ouija boards, seances, tarot. This dabbling was in part due to curiosity and in part due to the influence of New Age thinking.

In a number of countries around the world, Catholicism has become mixed with occult practices or the practices of indigenous religions. Religious syncretism is not new albeit it may have increased in recent years with the growing privatization of religion. The privatization of religion, however, is also not new. It has a long history going back to ancient times.

Tarot is a form of divination and all forms of divination are proscribed in the Bible. Tarot can be a gateway to what may be described as darker and more dangerous occult practices and demonic oppression. Tarot is not a harmless practice. The card readings can increasingly influence the reader's decisions and eventual take control of the reader's life. From a spiritual warfare perspective the reader's fascination with the occult will attract the attention of the spiritual forces opposed to God. They can manipulate the readings to manipulate the reader and to draw them away from God. In reading the cards, the reader is turning to other powers beside God and giving these spiritual forces a foothold in the reader's life. They will exploit any foothold such as fascination with the occult, unrepented sin, and so forth, which they can gain in an individual's life and will make use of it to do spiritual harm to that individual and to others.

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Turn Your Online Church Into an Engaged Church Online!

On Wednesday, April 21, VP of Business Development Pastor Jason Daye, and Digital Product expert, Kevin Hertel, hosted a webinar called Online Church vs. Church Online. During this one hour discussion, they outlined how to increase engagement and truly disciple a church’s digital audience. Below is a synopsis of the conversation. To watch the entire webinar replay – click here…

As a society, over the past year we have had to shift from in-person events and meetings to everything being online. And this is true for all areas of life, not just the church: businesses everywhere are doing meetings online; conferences, movies, education and even live theater have all adapted and moved online.

A recent study conducted by Anyroad, an experiential management company, interviewed a variety of businesses about online virtual events. Just like churches, many businesses hosted virtual events for the first time in 2020. But over 85% said that virtual events are here to stay! (Click here to learn more about the Study)

Prior to COVID, many churches were already hosting online services but once the virus hit, we have seen tons of churches who have gone online for the first time ever. Initially, as churches closed, the important thing was to just have a Sunday service that people at home could watch.

But as time has gone on it is becoming more important to look beyond just broadcasting our services. As the church, we need to answer this question: How do we build the church and disciple people online? Read Online

Also See:
3 Key Lessons for Your Church from a Study of 20, 000 Online Events

8 Pandemic-Friendly Ways to Reach Your Low-Tech Members

COVID has brought many challenges to staying connected, and it can be especially difficult for churches to engage with members who don’t have internet or are uncomfortable with technology, social media, or smartphones. Often those groups include seniors or lower income individuals and families. But with a little creativity, personal touch, and, in some cases, old-school outreach methods, you can keep connected with all your members. Here are a few pandemic-friendly tips to help engage even your low-tech members. Read More

I have previously posted this article. It is one of those articles which is worthwhile posting again and again because newcomers to Anglicans Ablaze have neve read it and readers are are not new to Anglicans Ablaze will benefit from reading it again. I live in a county that is largely rural and many people do not have access to the internet. Before the pandemic they used one of the computers at the county public library to access the internet. The county public library limits the number of patrons who may be in the library at one time and also limits the amount of time that they may use one of the library's computers. The older resident who do have internet access, have difficulty in using videoconferencing platforms like Zoom and may lack the equipment to use these platforms. A number of small churches have negligible online presence, a church website that desperately needs upgrading and a Facebook page that is rarely used.

Declining Attendance and 7 Preaching Shifts That Are happening Right Now

Every week you host services at your church hoping to reach more people, which is admirable and appropriate.

The problem is that the culture is changing and never bothered to ask you permission.

In many ways, preachers are using a method that’s been around for centuries…if not millennia…which on the one hand is wonderful. The challenge is that culture is changing so rapidly, fewer and fewer people are hearing the message every year. At least that’s the case in many, if not most churches.

If you think that the cultural change is over, fasten your seat belts. It’s not showing any sign of decelerating any time soon.

Here are 7 things that are changing right now. Read More

Mask Up and Get Back to Church: CDC Endorses Indoor Worship After Vaccination

Administrator's Note: The CDC is NOT saying that fully-vaccinated people can dispense with a face mask when they attend a church service. Gathering at full capacity is NOT a safe activity for unvaccinated people. The CDC has not changed its recommendations that unvaccinated people wear face masks and social distance at in-person church services or that churches limit the size of the gatherings that they attend and make sure the room in which they are held is adequately ventilated. What the CDC is saying is that a church can go to full capacity if the entire congregation (and visitors) are fully-vaccinated. Churches will need to verify that the members of their congregations are indeed fully-vaccinated and any visitors too. They may need to require attendees to produce proof of vaccination. Alternately churches might have to hold separate church services for vaccinated and unvaccinated people. What I anticipate is a lot of confusion stemming from the different guidance for vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

Gathering at full-capacity is now listed among safe activities for people who have gotten the COVID-19 shot.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosened the agency’s social distancing recommendations this week, announcing that fully vaccinated people who wear masks can safely attend many indoor events such as worship services.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky made the announcement Tuesday during a White House press briefing, where she outlined a number of indoor activities people who wear masks and have received vaccines against COVID-19 can participate in safely—including worship.

“As we gather more and more data on the real-world efficacy of vaccines, we know that masked, fully vaccinated people can safely attend worship services inside,” she said.

Walensky also said that masked, fully vaccinated people can safely go to an indoor restaurant or bar, and “even participate in an indoor exercise class.”

The CDC continues to recommend that fully vaccinated people use masks for indoor activities such as singing in an indoor chorus, going to a movie theater or eating indoors at a restaurant. As for outdoor activities, the CDC generally only recommends masks among fully vaccinated people if they plan on attending a crowded outdoor event such as a concert. Read More

Also See:
Where Two or More Are Vaccinated: Advice for Churches in 2021
15 of the safest activities for the fully vaccinated -- with and without face masks
Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People
CDC's updated Covid-19 guidance for summer camps emphasizes getting vaccinated, wearing masks and staying distanced
Fact check: No, interacting with a vaccinated person won't cause miscarriage or menstrual changes - this is the latest craziness circulating on social media on the internet

Miami school bars vaccinated teachers from seeing students - This is one of the reasons that the United States has the highest infection rates in the world

All Hallows Evening Prayer for Wednesday Evening (April 28, 2021) Is Now Online.

All Hallows Evening Prayer is a service of worship in the evening for all pilgrims on the journey to the heavenly city.

Just because we have physical limitations, are housebound, or otherwise are prevented from living our lives as fully as we might like, does not mean that we cannot be a blessing to others. We can pray for them. We can inspire them with our faith. We can bless them in a surprising number of ways.

The Scripture reading for this Wednesday evening is Ephesians 2: 1-10 From Death to Life

The homily is titled “Created for Good Works.”

The link to this Wednesday evening’s service is—

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2021/04/all-hallows-evening-prayer-for_28.html

Please feel free to share the link to the service with anyone whom you believe might benefit from the service.

If an ad plays when you open a link to a video in a new tab, click the refresh icon of your browser until the song appears. An ad may follow a song so as soon as the song is finished, close the tab.

Previous services are online at

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/

May this service be a blessing to you.

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Putting in a Good Word for Online Sermons

Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper. Psalm 1: 1-3, NRSV

A sermon should edify, encourage, energize, enthuse, exhort, inspire, and uplift the congregation. The liturgy is not the place for a lecture on the Bible, a lecture that is dull and which drags on and on, a lecture that dwells on irrelevant facts and unimportant details. If I want to learn more about a particular passage or chapter of the Bible, I read one of the better commentaries but only after I have done an exhaustive study of the passage or chapter myself from scratch. I have no interest in hearing a pastor regurgitate what he may have read or offer pointless speculations about a passage and then dismiss these speculations. He is wasting my time and the time of the rest of the congregation.

If the pastor is a supply for the pulpit and the communion table and is receiving an honorarium, my thought is that the church should hire someone else next time. A congregation should not be forced to sit through a long, boring sermon in order to receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Boredom is, after all, a form of anger. By the time the preacher has finished, the congregation may no longer be in a fit state to receive the sacrament, being no longer in love and charity with their neighbor, i.e., the pastor.

Pastors should keep their sermons short and to the point. They should not wander all over the place or chase rabbits, going completely off track and talking about random unrelated topics before coming back to their original point, if they come back to it at all. The congregation does not need to hear everything that they have read on the subject, only what is salient to the point that they are seeking to make, presuming that they have a point.

A wise investment on a part of a bishop would be to sponsor quarterly preaching clinics for pastors and lay preachers. These clinics can be conducted online, using Zoom or another video conferencing platform.

What some pastors claim are sermons are talks or lectures that after careful editing of their content and further polishing properly belong in the classroom, not a service of public worship. The purpose of a sermon is not to show the congregation how erudite or well-read the pastor is, but to affect a transformation in the lives of the congregation. It meant to be means through which God works in us, a channel of God’s grace through which God influences our lives.

The poor quality of their sermons may explain why some pastors have been reluctant to take their sermons online. When a pastor preaches a sermon online, whether live-streamed or pre-recorded and then streamed, he no longer has a captive audience. If his sermon does not grab the attention of online viewers and hold their attention, they will be gone with the click of a mouse. They will not stick around to hear the entire sermon.

In service of public worship where a pastor has a captive audience, he does not have as much incentive to improve his preaching than he does when he takes his sermons online. While we might like to believe that all pastors desire to see the spiritual growth of the flock in their care, some pastors may be less attentive to their flock’s spiritual growth than others. They may have erroneous views of their role as a pastor. For example, they may primarily see themselves as a dispenser of sacramental grace. They may have grown lazy and careless. They may have lost their first love. They are no longer responsive to the nudging of the Holy Spirit and worldly preoccupations have taken Jesus’ place in their lives.

Members of a congregation will tolerate poor quality sermons because they may have not experienced good preaching. When it comes to a pastor to serve as a supply for the pulpit and the communion table, they may have little choice. They must take whoever is available. Despite the poor quality of his sermons, they or other members of the congregation may think highly of the pastor for a variety of reasons, reasons that may have little to do with his qualifications as a pastor: He is local. He shares their political views. He enjoys the same hobbies and pastimes. He is amiable. And so forth. Their primary reason for attending the service may be to participate in what is for them a familiar Sunday morning ritual, to receive communion and to socialize after the service. Listening to a sermon is simply a part of the ritual.

Going online forces a pastor to take more trouble in preparing his sermons. He is more likely to keep his sermon short and to stick to the point. If he pre-records his sermons before streaming them, he has an opportunity to hear and see himself and redo the sermon before airing it. Unless the pastor is doing online communion, the sermon will be the primary reason, viewers will be visiting the church’s website or Facebook page. Viewers will also be comparing his sermons with those of other pastors.

Going online has other benefits. A pastor can create a library of his sermons, which members of his congregation and other visitors to the church website can access at any time of the day. If regular attendees of the church miss a service, they can hear the sermon at a later time. Churchgoers looking for a new church home can get a foretaste of the pastor’s preaching.

Millennials will visit a church website, listen to audios of sermons, and watch videos of services as many as six times before deciding to visit a church in person. In this day and age few people visit a church without checking out the church beforehand. They want to know what they can expect to find when if they visit the church. They want to know what the church has to offer them and their children. In these days of the CVID-19 pandemic they want to know what precautionary measures, if any, the church takes to protect visitors. They do not want to visit a church blind.

With the decline in churchgoing in the United States and Canada, pastors and lay preachers need to take their preaching more seriously. While how their sermons ultimately affect their listeners is God’s doing, this does not excuse them from putting their best effort into each sermon that they preach. To do otherwise is not to be faithful to the calling that God has entrusted to them. A sermon that transforms the lives of those who hear it can affect the lives of those whose lives intersect with theirs. It can affect the life of a whole community.

Wind and water can reduce a boulder to a tiny pebble. They can reduce to a range of tall mountains to a series of low hills. God’s Word, faithfully preached, is far more powerful than wind and water.

Preachers must also practice what they preach. “Practice what you preach” has become an axiom that is honored more by its neglect than by its observance. Preachers themselves are a part of their own message.

I do not see how preachers, ordained or lay, can preach to a congregation seeking to live Jesus’ teaching and to follow Jesus’ example in their lives, if they do not themselves believe and practice what Jesus taught and exemplified. Whatever message they are preaching, they are not preaching Jesus.

One of the reasons that Christians are exercising less influence in the United States and Canada is that their lives no longer reflect the One that they call Lord. When Christians live no differently from their non-Christian neighbors, when they go on social media, spread untruths, and lash out at other people, they are doing untold harm to the Jesus' church on earth. They are undoing the faithful witness of previous generations who took Jesus' words and example to heart. The task of the God-fearing, God-honoring preacher is to call them back to the way of Jesus and not to egg them on in the ways of the world.

5 Essential Ingredients for Planting Purpose Driven Churches

If the local church is the hope of the world… then we need more local churches.

As I write this, I’m a couple of hours away from teaching a lab at Saddleback Church’s Hope Renewed conference on Planting Purpose Driven Churches. I’m a huge believer in the power of church planting for extending the reach of God’s kingdom throughout the world.

The story of Grace Hills, the church we’ve been planting since Saddleback sent us to Northwest Arkansas six years ago, has had some exciting things happen. We started with one other family and this past Easter, we had over 550 people attending. That’s cool! But growing larger isn’t the most beautiful part of our story.

It’s that we’ve managed to spread out and multiply. Read More

Why Jesus’s Humanity Matters as Much as His Divinity

OK, let’s admit it. We love superhero movies. Or at least that’s what the box-office numbers are telling us. By the end of 2019 (2020 doesn’t count), superhero movies represented a mind-blowing 25 percent of the domestic movie marketplace.

But this fascination is nothing new. I can still remember watching the reruns of Superman—the original starring George Reeves—on TV. For most of the show he was just Clark Kent, a normal, mild-mannered reporter. But at the end of each show, he would show up as Superman and save the day.

That’s the thing about Superman. He looked like an ordinary human—he walked, talked, and ate food. But, in reality, he wasn’t human at all. He was an alien being from the planet Krypton. His humanity was only an illusion.

Indeed, Superman was able to save people precisely because he wasn’t human like us. When it comes to the person of Christ, however, things are very different. Read More

The Ninth Commandment

From the Westminster Larger Catechism:

Q. 143. Which is the ninth commandment?

A. The ninth commandment is, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Read More

Simply put, don't tell lies or spread other people's lies. Regrettably numerous people who call themselves Christians are breaking the ninth commandment seemingly every minute of the day on social media with their posts. If they themselves believe the lie, they appear to have the idea that they are not breaking the ninth commandment. Believing a lie does not transform it into the truth nor does it justify perpetuating a lie. As Jesus himself pointed out, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth while the devil is the father of lies.

How the Crisis Probably Killed Your Vision (and How to Get It Back)

How’s your vision casting lately?

I noticed something recently that surprised and disappointed me: Without realizing it, a few months ago, I stopped casting vision for my team.

Which is really strange, because I’m a visionary, that’s what I do. And I’ve been leading with vision for decades.

But after one more meeting where my (amazing) team was in the weeds slugging out logistics for a new initiative we’re launching, it hit me: I haven’t cast vision for this initiative for months. As a result, we were bogged down in pedantic details that almost everyone finds frustrating.

I stopped the meeting, cast some vision, and then both personally with individual team members and later with our entire team, I apologized to them for not leading with a clear (and inspiring) vision.

Then I leaned back and asked myself “What the heck just happened? How did vision slip and I didn’t even notice it?”

Then I looked around and realized, I haven’t seen a ton of other leaders casting a lot of vision either.

Having never led through a global pandemic/series of gigantic crises before, my conclusion is that crisis kills vision. Unless you decide it won’t.

In this post, I’ll explain how that happens and how to get it back. Read More

What You Can Do to Develop More Women Small-Group Pastors

Despite a plethora of female group leaders, few small-group pastors are women.

Roughly 1 in 3 of all MDiv students is female, according to The Association of Theological Schools. This trend spans back several years. And yet, as Barna reported, less than 10 percent of all lead pastors are women. Of course, women lead in various ministries apart from the role of senior pastor. Even so, the trend of men outnumbering women in official church leadership roles holds across church leadership, including the role of small-group pastor.

Though women are at the helm of many small groups, it's rare to find a woman appointed as small-group pastor. But why is this the case? Through the research I've conducted with women around the globe, I believe there are two reasons behind the lack of female leaders we see for these ministries. Read More

Monday, April 26, 2021

On the Cusp of a New Church Planting Cycle

For Anglicans and Episcopalians in North American church planting may be cyclical. When one examines the dates that new churches were launched in Louisiana and Kentucky, there appears to be a discernible church planting cycle in which new works are started roughly twenty years apart. The events of 2003 may have disrupted this cycle in the Episcopal Church. The same period, however, saw the launching of a number of Continuing Anglican churches in response to these developments or earlier developments. If this observation is accurate, we are on the cusp of new church planting cycle.

The church planting in the Continuing Anglican Churches has tended to be reactive. A group will break away from an existing church and form a new church. Few new churches move beyond the stage of being a chapel for the families and individuals that formed the church. They tend to be churches who are “against” rather than “for” and this negativity blunts their appeal.

One of the appeals of the early Anglican Mission in America was that its approach to church planting was more proactive than reactive. The AMiA saw itself as an organization whose primary mission was to plant, grow, and strengthen dynamic new churches.

On the other hand, the second Anglican Church in North America has proven a mixed bag. One part of the ACNA is planting new churches and experiencing growth; another part of the ACNA, like the Continuing Anglican Churches, is experiencing decline.

In the Commonwealth of Kentucky, in the Kentucky Deanery of the Anglican Diocese of the South, Archbishop Foley Beach’s own diocese, church planting is confined to those areas of the state with high population density, areas of the state where the Episcopal Church has historically planted new churches and enjoyed a measure of success. In less densely populated areas of the state where the Episcopal Church has also planted new churches but in which very few of the new works have become self-supporting, very little, if any, ACNA church planting activity may be observed.

In my region of the Commonwealth of Kentucky are two tiny Continuing Anglican churches, one planted in 2005 and the other sometime later. The two churches are located in the same county and are roughly 15 miles apart. The second church, which was started by a former member of the first church, is a proprietary chapel, located on private property and next to a family cemetery. The two churches are affiliated with two different Continuing Anglican jurisdictions. They function as chapels for a small group of individuals, several of whom live outside the county in a community about 25 miles from the first church and about 35 miles from the second church. Whether the two churches will survive the COVID-19 pandemic is open to question. The first church has negligible connection with the community in which it is located. The second church is in a rural location. However, small churches can prove surprisingly durable.

The COVID-19 pandemic, while it is expected to lead to the closure of a number of declining, unhealthy churches, is also expected to spur a new round of church planting.

Anglican and Episcopal startups, while they face the same challenges as other denominational and non-denominal startups have some particular challenges of their own. For Continuing Anglican startups, the traditionalist base from which they could draw new members is simply not there. It has evaporated as old age, ill-health, physical and mental incapacity, and death have taken their toll. They must be evangelistic and reach and engage new segments of the population. This means that they must become community-focused, building strong connections between themselves and the communities in which they are planted. They must adopt new patterns of worship, patterns of worship which are engaging to the population segments that they are targeting, and which also energize the new congregation to take an active role in evangelizing these population segments.

The challenge that Episcopal startups face is that the segments of the population that share the values of progressive Episcopalians are disinterested in organized religion. They are the population segments that see little or no value in organized religion and are least likely to participate in its activities. Episcopal startups are faced with challenge of convincing a skeptical ministry target group that these activities are relevant to their lives and are worthwhile.

The Continuing Anglican jurisdictions, the Anglican Church in North America, and the Episcopal Church have common heritage of apathy and antipathy toward evangelism. This can be traced to anti-evangelical and anti-evangelistic attitudes which the then Protestant Episcopal Church acquired in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. These attitudes disaffected Episcopalians fleeing the Episcopal Church have carried into the Continuing Anglican Churches and the Anglican Church in North America. As the last decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century have shown, these attitudes are very much alive in the Episcopal Church today. None of these churches are known for their evangelistic fervor. Only a few non-geographic dioceses are responsible for the growth of the Anglican Church in North America and most of these dioceses were originally a part of the AMiA. This is what was the pattern of the Episcopal Church in the last century. Only a small segment of the Episcopal Church was active in reaching and engaging the unchurched and planting and growing new churches.

Most Anglicans and Episcopalians lack the flexibility to pioneer a new church. They are finicky. They have become accustomed to a particular ambiance in their churches and expect the new church to replicate this ambiance. They are inclined to put their preferences before reaching and engaging the unchurched. Replicating their preferred ambiance in the non-traditional settings in which new startups meet is not only difficult, but it looks incongruous and, worst of all, tacky! As well as proving a wasteful use of resources, it can create obstacles to reaching and engaging the unchurched that form the new startup’s ministry target group. The mission of a new startup is to be the Church to a particular neighborhood or community or a particular segment of its population, to form and build relationships with the unchurched, and to point them to Jesus.

Among the particular challenges that Anglican and Episcopal startups face is that a weekly celebration of the Holy Eucharist has become normative in most Continuing Anglican Churches, the Anglican Church in North America, and the Episcopal Church. At the same time there is also a shortage of clergy qualified to preach sermons, administer the sacraments, and to lead and grow a new church. Ordination to the priesthood does not confer the knowledge and the skills that a church planter needs to lead and grow a new church. Subject to licensing by the bishop, it authorizes a pastor to preach sermons and administer the sacraments. Ideally a new startup’s pastor should be qualified to lead and grow the new church. In reality lay members of the launch team or core group may be far more qualified. Due to a variety of factors the pastor may prove a hindrance. He may lack energy. He may have inadequate people skills. He may have the wrong personality. He may have unhelpful preconceived notions of how to do church. He may be short on flexibility and creativity. He may be unable or unwilling to share leadership and delegate responsibilities. And so on.

In the Continuing Anglican Churches, the Anglican Church in North America, and the Episcopal Church the tendency is to organize a new congregations around the ministry of a priest or a transitional deacon who will be ordained a priest at a future date. This has several drawbacks. It limits the number of new startups. It conveys the idea that the work of ministry is the work of the clergy and not the whole church. It encourages overdependency upon the leadership of one person. It can lead to the collapse of the new work if the member of the clergy becomes physically or mentally incapacitated, dies, is involved in a scandal, or moves on. It limits the kind of church that can be planted, typically a conventional parish church large enough to pay a stipend to a priest.

We are living in an age of declining church attendance, the age of the nones, the growing number of people who say that they have no religious affiliation when they are surveyed. The folks who are experienced in connecting the dots are telling us that we can expect to see smaller worship gatherings, more neighborhood churches, more micro-churches, more multi-site churches such as house church networks and cell churches, and more co-vocational pastors. Megachurches will not disappear, but they will form a tiny segment of the churches in the United States. Most churches will be small, lean, and nimble. They will be connected to a specific neighborhood or community and will reflect that neighborhood or community. What are the implications for Continuing Anglican Churches, the Anglican Church in North America, and the Episcopal Church?

Organizing a new congregation around the ministry of a priest or a transitional deacon will not be the good organizational principle for new church plants in the twenty-first century. The conventional parish church is expected to fall on hard times in the age of the nones. Conditions that enabled this kind of church to grow and flourish will no longer exist.

The Continuing Anglican Churches, the Anglican Church in North America, and the Episcopal Church are not prepared for the kinds of churches that we can expect to see. They will be churches in which the laity play a much larger role in the worship, life, and ministry of the local church. They will people’s churches, churches that have a close interface with the population segment at which they are targeted. They will be serving this population segment not from a distance but in its very midst. They will make disciples by being disciples in their ministry target group.

The micro-church is one of these kinds of churches. A micro-church is a small group of mature Christians, new Christians, and seekers being the Church to a specific population segment of a particular neighborhood or community. To be fully the Church to such a population segment a micro-church must be able to baptize and to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Within the Continuing Anglican Churches, the Anglican Church in North America, and the Episcopal Church, baptism is not possible without a deacon and the Lord’s Supper without a priest. This leads us to the delicate question of the lay administration of the sacraments.

The Anglican Diocese of Sydney broached this question as early as 1977. I am not proposing to rehash all the arguments for and against lay and diaconal administration of the sacraments but to touch on a few salient points. The Scriptures do not prescribe who should preside at the Eucharist. Until the first Council of Orange, which was a local council, not a general or ecumenical council, deacons were permitted to preside at the Eucharist in the absence of the bishop. Presbyters objected to this practice on the grounds that presiding at the Eucharist in the absence of the bishop was their prerogative. They based their case on tradition and custom, not Scripture.

The main Anglo-Catholic argument against lay and diaconal administration of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is that only a priest can consecrate the sacramental bread and wine, transmogrifying these elements into the grace-filled Body and Blood of Christ. At the priest’s ordination the bishop confers upon him by the imposition of episcopal hands and the anointing of the priest’s hands with blessed oil a special gift of the Holy Spirit which enables the priest to confect the elements into Christ’s Body and Blood. This view is also held by the Roman Catholic Church. It was rejected by the English Reformers in the sixteenth century on the grounds that it has no basis in Scripture and was contrary to what Scripture taught. It was reintroduced into the Anglican and Episcopal Churches during the Catholic Revival of the nineteenth century.

The main evangelical argument against lay and diaconal administration of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is that it is not the historic practice of the Anglican and Episcopal Churches. Unsaid but implied is the claim that it has been the longstanding prerogative of presbyters to preside at the Eucharist in the absence of the bishop.

It is sometimes asserted that only ministers of the gospel should administer the sacraments. This argument can be traced to the Puritans who in the earlier seventeenth century objected to the practice of midwives baptizing in private houses newborns who were not expected to survive. Their objection was not on biblical grounds. It was based on their belief that only a minister of the gospel should administer the gospel sacraments. The practice of lay administration of the sacrament of baptism has been the practice of the Church since New Testament times. The counterargument is that lay readers and deacons, which the Anglican Diocese of Sydney was proposing to license to administer the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper under special circumstances, are also ministers of the gospel.

For those who argue that there is no precedent for lay and diaconal administration of the sacrament of Holy Communion, a number of instances of the practice may be found in the history of the Church. In the Middle Ages several monastic communities practiced lay administration of the Holy Communion when they were unable to secure the services of a priest. They used a selection of psalms to consecrate the elements. The Reformed Episcopal Church at one time permitted the licensing of lay readers and deacons to administer the sacrament of Holy Communion in missionary districts, mission churches, and mission chapels. The Evangelical Lutheran Church has a similar practice. Under the provisions of its constitution the presiding bishop of the Church of England in South Africa, now the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa, can authorize a lay reader or deacon to administer the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper under special circumstances. While it may carry little or no weight with Anglicans and Episcopalians, Baptists and Congregationalist Churches have a history of lay and diaconal administration of the gospel sacraments. As Archbishop Glenn Davies in a pastoral letter to the Anglican Diocese of Sydney on online communion noted, while lay administration of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is not an Anglican practice, it is a Christian practice.

It is worthy of note that the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion do not require that those exercising the office of public preaching or administering the sacraments should be ordained, “only lawfully called and sent” by those who have public authority to do the same. There is nothing in the Articles that prohibits the giving of that authority to a mission board or the congregation itself. They further state that ceremonies and rites which are ordained only by man’s authority may be changed provided nothing may be ordained that is contrary to God’s Word. It is also noteworthy that while the New Testament may describe what may be a primitive form of ordination, it does not prescribe a particular form for ordination or require ordination at all.

Anglicans and Episcopalians have a lot of baggage associated with this issue and is not ready to move past it. The issue will for the foreseeable future prove a unnecessary hindrance to church planting in their respective ecclesial bodies. It will restrict the use of micro-churches in these bodies as a church planting strategy.

An alternative to lay and diaconal administration of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, which the Episcopal Church adopted in the last century, is the ordination of local priests and local deacons. They are recruited from a particular congregation, trained at the diocesan or local level, and then ordained to serve the congregation from which they are recruited. This process can be as time-consuming as the process for recruiting, training, and ordaining regular priests and regular deacons. It also requires an existing congregation.

An innovative approach, which is not entirely without precedence, is for the bishop to ordain the entire launch team. The members of the launch team are technically the elders of the new church. They form its leadership team. In the not too distant future it is not beyond the realm of possibility that some farsighted bishop will lay hands on the entire congregation of a micro-church in recognition of their calling as a priestly people. The whole congregation would be concelebrants at the Eucharist with one their number serving as the “tongue” of the assembly.

If the Continuing Anglican Churches, the Anglican Church in North America, and the Episcopal Church are to have a future in the age of the nones, they need to start thinking out of the box. They also need to be rethinking their stances on key issues. One of the biggest barriers to these Churches reaching and engaging the unchurched and planting new churches are the Churches themselves. They need to take a hard look at how they are getting in their own way.

What You Need to Know Before Your Church Returns to "Normal."

None of us have ever experienced a year like this previous one. As we come back from the pandemic to more normality in our church services, there are a few things to keep in mind.

There have been other events which have shaped culture and our churches forever. I once had a stalker make threats against me from our television ministry. It caused our church leadership to consider changes in the way I interacted with the church on Sundays. I still wanted to be available to greet people, but I was more careful where I stood and had people aware of my surroundings. In some ways, things were never quite the same.

Certainly, that’s a mild example of what we will experience coming out of COVID-19. The point is things will not be the same, even when we take the tape off every other pew in our worship centers and get rid of the “stand 6-feet apart” signs off our walls. It is going to be awkward for a while. For example, standing close to one another may feel a bit uncomfortable.

The key is to not assume everyone is going to be on the same page of returning. They certainly have not been on the same page during the pandemic, and they will not be afterward either. We need to give people grace to return as they are comfortable.

It will be awkward whenever we return. We must live in the tension again. Here are seven thoughts I’d encourage you to consider as we return to some sense of “normal.” Read More

Anglicans Ablaze

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