Saddleback Church’s Ordination of Women Pastors to Be Considered by SBC Committee

A committee that determines whether churches are conforming to Southern Baptist Convention affiliation rules will consider whether Saddleback Church, a prominent California congregation led by bestselling author Rick Warren, can continue in fellowship with the SBC after Saddleback recently ordained three women pastors.

Shad Tibbs, pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Trout, Louisiana, made the request on Tuesday (June 15), the first day of the Southern Baptists’ two-day annual meeting.

Tibbs called on the SBC to “break fellowship with Saddleback Baptist Church, as they have ordained three ladies as pastors, and all other churches that would choose to follow this path. At the very least, I am asking that the validity of this matter be looked into.” Read More

Also See:
Critical Race Theory, Sex Abuse, and Southern Baptists

The Definitive Checklist for Launching Your Church Website

I don’t know if there’s anything quite as nerve-racking as launching a website. You’ve put a ton of work into the website, and you hope that everything works. Of course, “hoping” that everything works isn’t really a great way to launch a website.

However, you can do more than just “hope” everything goes well. You can use a website launch checklist to make sure you got everything covered. Using a website launch checklist, you’ll be reminded to check for bad links, design flaws, and basic elements like images.

If you’re looking to launch a website or do a checkup on your website to make sure it’s up to date, I’ve compiled The Definitive Checklist for Launching Your Church Website below to help you get started. Read More

The Good and the Bad of Losing Cultural Christianity

Earlier this spring, I took part in the “Culture Friday” segment on The World and Everything In It podcast. We discussed the Gallup “Houses of Worship” research that showed—for the first time in the eight decades of this survey—religious Americans to now be in the minority. Only 47 percent of Americans claim membership in a church, synagogue, or mosque.

The fading of cultural Christianity, even in traditionally Bible belt parts of the country, has stirred up all sorts of commentary, from the effects of expressive individualism on society’s thought patterns, to the syncretistic approach many adopt in terms of a more generic “spirituality,” and the privatization of belief that leads to conflict regarding religious liberty in the public square. Read More

Recommended:
Faith still shapes morals and values even after people are ‘done’ with religion
BBC’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ Exposes the Poison of Individualism
In a Cultural Revolution, Sit Tight

Southern Baptists Approve Major Investigation Into Abuse Response

Pastors speaking on behalf of victims pushed for a task force to direct inquiry into the Executive Committee.

Southern Baptists called on their denomination to launch what would be its biggest investigation into sexual abuse responses and coverup.

While the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) recently commissioned its own independent inquiry through Guidepost Solutions, messengers voted at its annual meeting to transfer oversight of that investigation or launch an additional one.

Thousands of messengers in the convention hall, voting with a wave of yellow cards in the air, supported the move as an additional level of accountability, while few opposed.

“It is the least we can do for abuse survivors. It is worth the extra effort. It is worth the money. It is worth the time and attention,” said Grant Gaines, a Tennessee pastor who made the request for an outside task force with an SBC abuse victim at his side. “If this investigation is worth doing, then it’s worth doing right.” Read More

Image Credit: Baptist Press

How to Fight Peer Pressure Culture in Our Churches

We’ve had stunning illustrations in recent months about how an enabling culture is created and perpetuated around toxic but charismatic leaders. High-profile examples have ranged from churches like Willow Creek and Harvest Bible Chapel to Christian organizations headed by Dave Ramsey and the late Ravi Zacharias.

In the case of every single one of these churches and ministries, we see that though these seemingly “too big to fail” organizations were honored through the years for their strong evangelical bona fides, their day-to-day organizational cultures discipled staff through the most destructive kinds of peer pressure.

A culture of peer pressure can be leveraged by manipulative leaders to keep toxic secrets in the dark: “Christians are right to heed scriptural warnings about gossip, secrets, and lies. Yet the American church has also seen a pattern of leaders referencing such teachings to silence and discredit victims and whistleblowers,” CT wrote on the falling-out at Ramsey’s company and others.

The reckoning of these fallen leaders offers those of us in ministry trenches an opportunity to interrogate our own local church culture. That examination can and should include the ways in which we have substituted peer pressure for authentic discipleship. The same social and spiritual tendencies that created unhealthy culture in these fallen ministries often exist in smaller doses in our own local churches. Read More

Coronavirus Reality Check: The Covid 19 Pandemic Has NOT Gone Away

While deaths and hospitalizations are down, the infection rate is rising in some states. At least eight states have noted increases in their infection rates over a two week period. With vaccination rates down, the spread of the Delta variant in the United States, and a fight brewing over the vaccination of the young, including the mandatory vaccination of university students, the respite that we are enjoying is likely to prove temporary. The United Kingdom has been forced to push back its relaxation of public health restrictions due to increasing infections. 

COVID-19 cases rise slightly across US

These communities remain at high risk for dangerous Covid-19 variants rapidly increasing in US, expert warns 

CDC now calls coronavirus Delta variant a 'variant of concern'
Former White House adviser says dangerous coronavirus variant is 'like Covid on steroids'
Covid: Epidemic growing across England, says study
5 states pose a barrier to Biden's vaccine goals because they've so far vaccinated less than half of their population
The U.S. Has Hit 600,000 COVID Deaths, More Than Any Other Country
More evidence suggests COVID-19 was in US by Christmas 2019 

The COVID-19 coronavirus should not be our only concern. With the relaxation of public health restrictions in many parts of the country, we are seeing an uptick not only in summer colds but also in Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), a respiratory illness which can be life threatening in infants and toddlers and senior adults over the age of 65. 

CDC warns of respiratory illness spreading across the South
What Is RSV? CDC Warns of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Rising in the Southern U.S. 

Is It a Summer Cold or COVID-19? Here’s What Doctors Want You to Keep in Mind

It is not the time for Americans to ditch their face masks. Indeed we might follow the example of Japanese and  wear a face mask whenever we have a cold or the flu or some other infection disease that can spread through the air. Keeping our distance from people who are coughing or sneezing and frequently washing our hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds are good habits to adopt. Americans need to become more aware of how they can spread and contract diseases. Parents who leave their child at day care or send their child to school when they are sick have been responsible for infecting other children with their child's illness. Some childhood diseases that parents mistakenly think are harmless can do irreparable harm to a child. One way a church can serve its community is public health education. Inculcating good public health habits in children and adults would not only reduce the spread of infectious diseases but also the cost of health care. 

The Main Reason People Don’t Become Church Members

Church membership should not consist of rules to keep people out, but ramps to help people grow.

Membership in a local church may seem outdated or unnecessary, but if led well, it adds great strength to your church.

Candidly, nearly all churches have some form of “membership.” Read More

How to Turn an Aging Facility into a Kingdom Efficient Facility [Podcast]

For many years, congregations have watched as their facilities become dated, costly, and less-used. Kevin and Thom discuss this issue and offer insights about churches that have seen their facilities become much more Kingdom-efficient. Listen Now

Is your church building only used for a couple of hours on Sunday morning? Does it sit empty and unused for the remainder of the week? Is your congregation growing smaller and smaller? Do you think that there might be a connection? Drive to a local supermarket or convenience store and ask the store clerks and customers for directions to your church? Have they ever even heard of it?

3 Reasons to Preach the "Word-s"

Most ministers are familiar with Paul’s imperative to his young protégé Timothy: “Preach the Word!” (2 Timothy 4:2). It’s a great text, frequently cited in pastoral ordination sermons and preaching lectures. Yet many evangelicals committed to “preaching the Word” don’t seem as committed to actually using it much in their sermons. The preacher dutifully reads the biblical text in the beginning of the sermon but, as his sermon unfolds, he seldom (if ever) reads the actual words of the text. Consider these reasons why preachers are wise to speak (and repeat) as many of the actual words of the text as possible as they preach. Read More

It’s Okay to Let Your Mind Wander During Prayer

Those distractions aren’t failures of focus, but opportunities to trust God with the deepest truths of our hearts.

One evening when I (Kyle) was in seminary, I went with some classmates to a professor’s house. The professor was talking about a pet peeve: when people pray to the wrong person of the Trinity. After a short rant, he suggested we close in prayer. No one spoke a word! After a minute or two, everyone started laughing because we knew what was going on. We had become so self-conscious about praying correctly that no one wanted to pray.

It is all too easy to focus on praying the right way to the detriment of actually praying. But this is where prayer goes to die. If prayer becomes a place to pray about what we think God wants us to pray about and not what is on our hearts, then we simply won’t do it. In the words of Dominican priest Herbert McCabe, “People often complain of ‘distraction’ during prayer. Their mind goes wandering off to other things. This is nearly always due to praying for something you do not really much want; you just think it would be proper and respectable and ‘religious’ to want it.”

When prayer becomes a kind of performance, it is easy to interpret experiences like having our mind wander as failures. But McCabe touches on something profound. Because we have the Spirit of God in our souls, mind-wandering should not be seen as a random act of an undisciplined intellect. Our minds wander because, in Jesus’ words, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:21). When we come into God’s presence in prayer, we do so with the Spirit present to the deepest truths of our hearts. We should not be surprised that the truth of our hearts begins to percolate and rise to the surface. Read More

How Social Media Can Impede Our Witness: The Disconnect of the Digital Life

Recently, I was reading a book and was impressed by the scholar’s careful exposition, nuanced approach, and charitable engagement with critics. Naturally, in the age of social media, I decided to look up the author online and was surprised by what I found. It seemed that the scholar was acting a certain way on one medium and a different way on the other. Social media tends to tempt a number of us to post things that we would never publish in a book, much less say in person to another human being.

“The medium is the metaphor”

There is often a significant disconnect between how we portray ourselves online and then personally with others. This is notable because social media and digital culture tends to bifurcate our lives, giving us the impression that we have an “online” life and a “real” life. We frequently use technology to portray ourselves in certain ways depending on the medium, where the medium often dictates to us how we are to live, understand truth, and navigate the tensions in life. Neil Postman, in his classic book Amusing Ourselves to Death, describes this reality by using the phrase “the medium is the metaphor.” He writes how the medium in which something is communicated has significant bearing on the content itself and the reception of that message. Read More

When Evangelism Isn't Your Spiritual Gift

“I know I should be more evangelistic, but that’s just not my gift.”

“I have a friend who is lost. I need to get my pastor (or some other gifted person) to tell them about Jesus.”

Have you ever had thoughts like the ones above? Maybe you didn’t use these exact words but have you thought that you were not the right person to share the gospel with some you know? I know that it is tempting to want to delegate something as important as eternity to a professional, or someone who seems to have a special gift from the Lord. However, the fact is, each of us can (and should) share Christ. Read More

All Hallows Evening Prayer for Wednesday Evening (June 16, 2021) Is Now Online

Due to intermittent broadband internet service I was unable to post this Wednesday evening’s service until a short while ago.

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

One of the things that sets the Gospel of Mark from the other three gospels is that in Mark’s Gospel the disciples repeatedly do not get what Jesus is teaching. In today’s reading Jesus explains to them the meaning of the Parable of the Sower. New Testament scholars have put forward various theories as to why Mark portrays them as dense, slow-witted. One theory is a story-telling device, intended to draw those hearing Mark’s gospel into the gospel and to hold their attention. The listeners are in on a secret that Jesus’ closest disciples should grasp but fail to do so. The listeners are kept in suspense, wondering when the disciples will finally get it.

The Scripture reading for this Wednesday evening is Mark 4: 13-23 The Parable of the Sower

The homily is titled “How We Become Good Soil”

The link to this Wednesday evening’s service is—

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2021/06/all-hallows-evening-prayer-for_16.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.

The American Church Is a Mess. But I’m Still Hopeful.

Attrition rates and leadership failures are only one part of the story.

A recently leaked letter from Russell Moore describes profound institutional rot, overt racism, and the toleration of sexual abuse inside the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). (His claims were later substantiated in leaked recordings.) The public square has been consumed with discussing this controversy, especially as the SBC annual meeting is underway.

But the problems Moore describes are not limited to one denomination. Many so-called “moderate” evangelical leaders—those who hold to historic orthodoxy and traditional sexual ethics but speak out on behalf of women and racial minorities—have similar stories to tell. It feels increasingly hard to find institutions in America that aren’t knee-jerk conservative or progressive.

Beyond that, Christian institutions—whatever their doctrine or ideology—often hold in common a thirst for power, an unrepentant self-defensiveness, and a lack of courage that altogether belie the gospel. Many of them don’t seem to function all that differently than institutions outside the church.

In the midst of this upheaval, I’ve watched friends and acquaintances leave the church, others who are in the process of “deconstructing,” and still others (including orthodox church leaders) who are deeply disheartened, even depressed, about the state of the church in the West.

We have reason to be discouraged. The statistics are dismal. In a recent survey from Lifeway, two-thirds of young adults reported that they stopped attending church, citing religious or political disagreements with the church or hypocrisy among members. Two recent interviews in CT paint equally dark pictures.

What is happening to the institutional church in the United States? It’s easy for me to buy decline narratives—believing things will only get worse. And of course they could. There are examples in church history of Christian populations in certain countries dwindling and nearly disappearing.

But increasingly, my hope for the church is found in words that I recite each Sunday in the Nicene Creed: We believe in the Holy Spirit.

When we watch for the Spirit’s presence, we naturally notice those places in our lives where we see fruitfulness and abundance. But ground zero for the Spirit’s work is often in the very places where our resources fall short, where problems seem intractable and unsolvable. Read More

Meet the Conservative Evangelicals Practicing ‘Strategic Hibernation’ in the American Northwest

They might embrace their marginal status, but they don’t plan on staying marginal forever.

In September 2020, about 150 Christians gathered to stage an informal Psalm Sing in the parking lot of Moscow, Idaho’s city hall. They were there to protest the local mask mandate.

Five individuals were cited by police for violating the local order to wear masks, and two were arrested “for suspicion of resisting or obstructing an officer.” One of the event’s organizers was Douglas Wilson, pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, a 900-member congregation with historical connections to Christian Reconstructionism (also known as theonomy), a movement that hopes to see earthly society governed by biblical law. One month earlier on Twitter, Wilson had framed his concerns about the issue in revealing terms: “Too few see the masking orders for what they ultimately are. Our modern and very swollen state wants to get the largest possible number of people to get used to putting up with the most manifest lies.”

In Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America: Christian Reconstruction in the Pacific Northwest, historian Crawford Gribben recounts how in recent decades conservative evangelicals, inspired by assorted strands of theonomy and survivalism, came to settle in the Pacific Northwest. Gribben explores how this group of “born-again Protestants who embrace their marginal status” has thrived in the wilds of Idaho and adjoining states, proposing “strategies of survival, resistance, and reconstruction in evangelical America.” Read More

Also See:
US intel report warns of more violence by QAnon followers

Southern Baptists Pick President Who Worked for Racial Unity

The Southern Baptist Convention tamped down a push from the right at its largest meeting in decades on Tuesday, electing a new president who has worked to bridge racial divides in the church and defeating an effort to make an issue of critical race theory.

Ed Litton, a pastor from Alabama, won 52% of the vote in a runoff against Mike Stone, a Georgia pastor backed by a new group called the Conservative Baptist Network that has sought to move the already-conservative denomination further right.

Litton, who is white, was nominated by Fred Luter, the only Black pastor to serve as president of the United States’ largest Protest denomination. Luter praised Litton’s commitment to racial reconciliation and said he has dealt compassionately with the issue of sexual abuse within SBC churches, another hot-button subject at the gathering of more than 15,000 church representatives.

Stone had campaigned aggressively, including speaking at churches across the country and even appearing on Fox & Friends on Tuesday before the vote. And the Conservative Baptist Network had encouraged supporters to come to the meeting as voting delegates.

But in the end, the message that seemed to resonate with voters was that Stone — who supported a motion to repudiate critical race theory, an academic construct for framing systemic racism that has been a target of religious and political conservatives — was a divisive choice.

“We’re a family, and at times it seems like an incredibly dysfunctional family.” Litton said after the results were announced. “But we love each other.” Read More

Also See:
Southern Baptists Elect Ed Litton as New President
Moderates win the day in close vote over Southern Baptist presidency
Southern Baptists Are at a Fork in the Road
At Founders event, Southern Baptists urged to choose Bible over ‘paganism,’ CRT
The FAQS: What You Should Know About SBC Resolutions

Image Credit: Adam Covington

Are Women Worth Less than Men in the Bible?

It’s a big accusation and a common accusation, that in the Bible, women are worth less than men. And one of the go-to Bible passages is Leviticus 27. The accusation arises because of shiny shekels. Women are valued at less shekels!

Shekels were like our Aussie dollar or the English pound, they were a unit of value for the ancient Jews.

In Leviticus 27 if someone, a man or a woman, makes a special vow and they want to dedicate a person to the LORD then they pay a dedication in shekels. And here is where it seems like women are worth less. A woman, in her prime, between the age of 20 and 60 is only valued at 30 shekels. While a man of the same age is valued at 50 shekels.

It seems that women are worth less. There you have it. The smoking gun in the last chapter of Leviticus. God’s word says women are worthless. In two verses of Leviticus we have all the proof we need. Let’s throw out the Bible.

Yes, let’s. For if we don’t we might keep reading just a few more measly sentences. And there we’ll discover we have a problem. For it isn’t that simple. Read More

9 Questions To Unlock Your Leadership

How would you assess your personal momentum as a leader?

Do you sense your life and leadership moving forward in a positive and productive way?

If not, do you have a sense of what’s holding you back?

Feeling stuck as a leader is never a good feeling, but there is always a reason, and a way out.

In this post, I’m not referring to the momentum of your church or organization, but your personal momentum. Yes, the two are always connected, but momentum starts with you. Read More

Pastors: Why Your Local Influence is More Essential than a National Platform

Pastor A has a top-ranked podcast, a book deal from a well-known publisher, and 150,000 Twitter followers. Pastor B is the treasurer at the local Rotary Club, is the assistant football coach at the middle school, and recently joined a bowling league. Both pastors have influence. Both are doing God’s will. Both enjoy their callings.

I will make a bold statement: Pastor B’s local influence is ultimately more vital to church health than Pastor A’s national platform. I certainly don’t want to diminish the power of a national platform. Many church leaders use such influence to the glory of God. I also don’t want to imply that those with a national platform neglect the potential of their local influence. Many church leaders manage both local influence and a national platform. However, I do believe it is more important to consider what you do for those directly in your path, those God has placed in geographic proximity to your ministry.

So, what is the difference between local influence and national prominence? Why would local influence be more essential to your church? Read More

Also See:
Pastoral Ministry: Not a Call to Make the World a Better Place

31 Roles and Responsibilities For Teens

I like a busy youth ministry. I like when kids come in and have a job; that’s why I don’t do everything. I leave things undone on purpose so kids will have something to do when they get to the church.

I believe in the economy of youth ministry. Youth Ministries are like small cities. When people are working and invested there is less crime, less blight, and less vandalism. Same is true for our ministries. More kids who serve weekly or monthly there are less complaints, less griping, less boredom, and more vision.

Here are some roles I have given out over the years. Some were a natural part of my youth ministry and some I created because I had students gifted in that area. By the way, nothing on this list is sacred or proprietary. If you can do it a student can do it with a little training and mentoring. Read More

The Context of The Great Commission is a Miracle

As the saying goes, “familiarity breeds contempt.” The more accustomed we are to someone or something, the easier it is for us to be unimpressed. We can even become cynical.

This can even happen for Christians when we think about the Great Commission. Most people who have been following Jesus for more than 5 minutes know about this passage in Matthew 28:19–21. Jesus deputizes his disciples to make disciples of all nations and teaching them to obey everything he commanded them. This is why churches prioritize missions, equipping, church planting, and revitalization work.

But an honest conversation reveals degrees of discouragement, apathy, and inactivity in this area. Why? I think part of the reason is, we’re so familiar with the Great Commission that we may be overlooking something massively important about it. Read More

3 Solutions to the Most Common Evangelism Obstacles

When people find a great new restaurant, golf course, retail store, or ice cream shop, they will go to great lengths to let others know about their discovery. Word-of-mouth advertising takes over and things can go viral. You’ve seen it happen, I know.

One of the primary purposes we have as Christians is to share the good news of Jesus with others. The Great Commission is clear: We are to make disciples, and that process takes place when we introduce people to Jesus’ redemptive work on their behalf.

Lifeway Research found that more than half (55%) of Protestant churchgoers say they haven’t shared their faith with anyone in the past six months. A majority of churchgoers (56%) say they pray for opportunities to tell others about Jesus at least once a week, with 23% praying for such moments every day. More than a quarter (27%) say they rarely or never pray for those opportunities.

Many believers don’t step out in faith and share what they’ve discovered about Jesus for a number of reasons. As a leader, you can help them share the Good News. Here are three reasons why people don’t share their faith, and solutions to help them tell others about the most important message in the world.... Read More

The Pandemic May Be Ending, but the Church’s Fight Is Just Beginning

A hybrid church is needed to reach, engage, and serve more people.

Americans are trading their masks for their sunglasses as vaccine numbers rise and COVID-19 cases drop. But many pastors are wondering: will the public’s renewed fervor for the outside world include a return to church?

This question centered discussion during the second installment of Barna’s forums last week. Pastors and Christian leaders in South Florida, Kansas City, Columbus, and Dallas-Fort Worth gathered to learn how members of their local communities are practicing their faith and how the pandemic changed their engagement with the church.

Charlie Dates, pastor of Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago, shared early in each forum that, when the pandemic first hit, members at Progressive asked him if they could call off their congregational fast that had begun before the crisis struck. But as they persisted in the fast, many realized that they needed such a spiritual practice more than ever before. They began to find new ways they could minister to their hurting community members by partnering with others to distribute meals, Instacart codes, and laptops for virtual schooling.

“These are things that we should have already been doing,” Dates said. “But God has given us the blessed privilege of trouble.”

The COVID-19 pandemic was difficult to navigate, but it wasn’t the only challenge Dates and fellow pastors faced over the past year. Political unrest and racial tensions escalated. Unemployment and isolation rattled individuals and families alike. And shifting to digital church services and engagement not only presented a technological challenge, but, for many pastors, this transition revealed a theological tension: what role should digital spaces play in the gathering of believers?

The “blessed privilege of trouble” may not feel as painful as it did during the pandemic’s height, but pastors now reckon with this question in a new context, wondering if their pews will ever fill as they once did. Read More

Also See:
5 Cultural Shifts We Must Understand to Reach Our Neighbors

SBC Polity Gives People in the Pews the Power to Stop Corrupt Leaders

This week at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, attendees will ask for change from the top. But regular members also bear responsibility.

I come from a long line of freedom-loving religious nonconformists. I can trace my lineage back to Swiss Anabaptists who fled Europe for Pennsylvania in the late 1600s, and I grew up in an unaffiliated congregation in the same commonwealth 300 years later—working and worshiping under the certain belief that God had endowed me with “certain inalienable rights.” I’ve also spent my adult life ministering in churches descended from English Baptists (whose exact relationship to continental Anabaptist groups is best left to historians).

Today, I live in Virginia, where Thomas Jefferson drafted the 1777 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom that eventually gave us the religious liberty clause of the First Amendment—a proposal spurred in part by Virginia’s state-sanctioned persecution of Baptists.

Despite this pedigree, I find myself perplexed by my fellow Baptists, who seem to think that our soul liberty—the belief that the individual is directly responsible to God in all matters of faith and conscience—stands opposed to our communal responsibilities. During the pandemic, for example, tension between individual rights and the common good emerged as religious liberty issues. When civil authorities placed limits on large gatherings, including church worship services, Baptistic pastors like John MacArthur cited soul liberty and local church autonomy as their reasons for opposing such measures. Read More

Also See:
SBC Executive Committee Vote Shocks As Abuse Survivors Urge ‘Immediate Action’

6 Factors That Set Up Ministry Workers and Volunteers for Success

First and foremost, we understand that ministry leadership involves a dependency on the Holy Spirit. Still, learning management skills and information can equip us with tools to help our church or organization.

In a survey of 14,500 U.S. workers, Harvard Business Review reports that employees say they work best when.... Read More

7 Suggestions for Pastors on Their Way to Church

I don’t know how long your drive to church is, nor do I know the specific location of your church. You may drive to church alone to get there early, or your family may come with you—but, either way, I encourage you to adopt one or more of these “on the way to church” strategies.... Read More

Also See:
5 Mistakes Pastors Make with Church Finances

7 Keys to Preaching to a Camera

If you are a pastor like me, you have spent your whole ministry preaching to a room of people. You feel their energy (or lack thereof), you can read body language to know if they are engaged, you know if you are going too long, if you are connecting or not and then covid hit.

And now, you preach to a camera in an empty room.

What was a relational part of your ministry now feels like a disconnect. You wonder, who is on the other side of that camera, how engaged is your church as they sit in their pajamas, am I connecting with them, are they following along.

While this is a new challenge for a lot of pastors, it is not a death blow. It is a pivot but one you can still utilize to reach people.

Here are 7 keys to preaching to a camera in an empty room.... Read More

Helping Children Cope With Trauma: 8 Important Steps

Unfortunately, daily news and headlines are filled with tragedy, disasters and violence. Despite our best efforts, we can’t always spare children from hearing about or experiencing tragedy. Yet those of us who minister to kids can have a huge impact in helping children cope with trauma and grief.

Tough circumstances are hard to watch and hard to deal with, even for adults. Because we can’t completely shield children from being exposed to tragic events, we need to be proactive in helping them process their thoughts and emotions.

How should we be helping children cope with trauma? I’m by no means an expert in this area, but I’ve learned a few things along the way. (Of course, always use the lens of “age-appropriateness” with each of these tips.) Read More

Good and Bad Reasons for Taking Small Group Attendance

A debate runs between small group pastors and sometimes senior pastors about whether to keep small group attendance and why. While it can be difficult at times to get relational small group leaders to accomplish the task of keeping small group attendance, here are some benefits to taking weekly small group attendance. Read More

Eight Ways God Protects Us From Ourselves

There will never be anyone who does more harm to your life than yourself.

Just by bringing sin into your life, you’ve done more damage to yourself than anyone else possibly could.

When we think of turning to God to protect us, we usually think of how God provides cover from external threats. But fortunately for us, God does great things to provide us with protection against the terrible things we would do to ourselves. Here are just eight ways God protects us from ourselves.... Read More

No Need for a Special Language for Prayer or Worship

At the very beginning of the first English Book of Common Prayer, the 1549 Prayer Book, we find an essay titled “A Preface.” In this essay are articulated several key principles of Anglican prayer and worship. These principles are rooted not only in the teaching of the Holy Scriptures but also the practice of the early Church Fathers.

And moreover, whereas s. Paule would have suche language spoken to the people in the churche, as they mighte understande and have profite by hearyng the same; the service in this Churche of England (these many yeares) hath been read in Latin to the people, whiche they understoode not; so that they have heard with theyr eares onely; and their hartes, spirite, and minde, have not been edified thereby.

In this passage the essay is referring to Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 14. It is to the same passages in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians to which Article XXIV is also referring. “It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the Primitive Church to have public Prayer in the Church, or to minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understanded of the people.”

The essay goes on to further state:

Yet because there is no remedy, but that of necessitie there must be some rules: therfore certein rules are here set furth, whiche as they be fewe in nombre; so they be plain and easy to be understanded. So yt here you have an ordre for praier (as touchyng the readyng of holy scripture) muche agreable to the mynde and purpose of the olde fathers, and a greate deale more profitable and commodious, than that whiche of late was used. It is more profitable, because here are left out many thynges, whereof some be untrue, some uncertein, some vain and supersticious: and is ordeyned nothyng to be read, but the very pure worde of God, the holy scriptures, or that whiche is evidently grounded upon the same; and that in suche a language and ordre, as is moste easy and plain for the understandyng, bothe of the readers and hearers.

The language used in public worship should be not only one that the people understand and can profit from hearing, but it must also be a language that is most easy and plain for the understanding of both the readers and the hearers. It must be a language that members of congregation and any visitors can readily understand. It should not require a particular level of education or literacy.

The essay contains this caveat:

Though it be appointed in the afore written preface, that al thinges shalbe read and song in the churche, in the Englishe tongue, to thende yt the congregacion maie be therby edified: yet it is not meant, but when men saye Matins and Evensong privatelye, they maye saie the same in any language that they themselves do understande.

In our private devotions, in our own nonpublic reading of the Daily Offices, we however, may use any language that we ourselves understand. We can pray in Tudor English, Latin, Spanish, French, Japanese, and so on.

We hear banded about in some quarters of the church that Anglicans should use a sacred language in their services of public worship. We should use Tudor English and some Latin. 

As we can see this notion is contrary not only to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the principles of The Book of Common Prayer, but it is also conflicts with the practice of Christ himself, the apostles, and the early Church fathers. When Jesus taught and prayed in public, he spoke in Aramaic, the language in common use in the part of the ancient world where he carried out his earthly ministry. There are indications in the New Testament that he may have also been familiar with Greek, the lingua franca of the Roman Empire. It was also the language spoken in the Jewish Diaspora. The apostle Paul, born in Tarsus and raised in Jerusalem, spoke Greek and conversed with Greek philosophers in Athens. The early Church fathers spoke Greek or Latin, whichever was the language commonly spoken in their part of the ancient Mediterranean world.

We do not find any passages in the Bible, which suggest that we should use a special language in our services of public worship. While the Jews may have avoided uttering the name of God, this practice does not set a precedent for the use of such language in our services. Jesus spoke of God in intimate terms and taught his disciples to do the same. His choice of words reflect the kind of relationship that we enjoy with God. It is not the language of the throne room but the presence chamber.

In some church traditions what may be described as a hieratic language, a priestly language, would evolve. The evolution of this kind of language in these traditions, however, has nothing to do with biblical teaching or apostolic practice. It reflects the prevailing influence of the culture of the time. In the Coptic Church ancient Coptic and the Western Church Latin would become such a language, essentially turning public services of worship into something that resembled magical rites. It led to the decline of common prayer and corporate worship. In the Eastern and Oriental Churches the practice of praying and worshiping publicly in a tongue that the people understood, however, was retained.

Should we then eliminate the use of Tudor English from our services of public worship? Not at all. However, it does mean that we should limit our use of that language when it becomes an obstacle to hearing and understanding God’s Word; to joining with understanding in the prayers that we offer and praying them from the heart; and to following Jesus’ teaching about long, wordy, repetitious prayers.

In The Church at Prayer and the World Outside (London: James Clarke 1923), Percy Dearmer notes that “Jesus condemned all ostentation in prayer.” He criticized the Pharisees for their long prayers. Dearmer further notes that Jesus “condemns vain repetitions and all methods which assume that men will be heard for their much speaking.” He writes:

This seems to exclude such practices as the daily recitation of the Psalter, the rosary, those long litanies which are mainly the repetition of the names of saints or of epithets applied to S. Mary, much extemporary prayer, and all long and tedious services. It suggests that the words used in public worship should be few and well chosen.

It is notable that the use of a special language for prayer and worship is itself a form of ostentation.

God who knows our needs before we open our mouths is not impressed by the length of our prayers, by the wordiness of our prayers, or by our use of archaic and unfamiliar words, phrases, and grammar patterns and obscure honorifics. What matters to God the most is that our prayers are heart-felt. They are genuine—the real deal.

Earlier in the same book Dearmer makes an important point. The words that we provide for people to use in private devotions and public worship “are repeated with little thought of their meaning, till prayer degenerates into patter.” What should be the prayer and worship of the heart deteriorate into perfunctory ritual. The performance of such ritual will not improve our standing with God. It will not earn us merit that we can cash in at a later time. Rather it falls into the category of what Jesus describes as “vain repetitions."

This does not mean that we should not use written forms of prayer. It does, however, mean that we should pray them with understanding and from our hearts. Ideally they should serve as a springboard to our own spontaneous prayer. They are like the formal patterns with which we may begin a conversation. Prayer, after all, is a conversation with God. It is a two-way conversation. We speak and God listens. God speaks and we listen. For the latter reasons our prayers, private and public, should include periods of silence for attending upon God and listening to what God is saying.

Our prayers should be humble, unpretentious, and respectful, offered in the spirit of Christ. They do not, however, require that we use a special language in order to exhibit these qualities. 

We do not dishonor God when we pray and worship in the language that we learned at our mother's knee. When the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples in the upper room, they spoke in the languages of the nations of those who overheard them proclaiming the might acts of God, They did not proclaim God's deeds of power in an unfamiliar or unknown language. In that act, one of God's deeds of power, God anticipated the day when all the nations of the earth will worship him, each in its own language. In that act we have more than a hint of how God sees our use of a special language, an insider language, a language that excludes outsiders, in our worship of him. 

"When I Use a Word": Humpty Dumpty on Evangelicalism

Few words have come to be more worthless than the word “evangelical.” The current political climate has leached out any theological meaning the word might have, and replaced it with political content. This makes certain conversations in the Episcopal Church (TEC) difficult. The moment you say “evangelical,” your listener has been led down certain thought paths to other words like “bigot” and “racist.” There are people with evangelical theological convictions who are bigots and racists, and Evangelicals have used the Bible and a twist on theology to support their racism, but there are no necessary connections between those theological convictions and bigotry and racism.

It is the theological convictions that I and others who share them want various parties in TEC to understand. It is hard to shake the notion these convictions are not actually understood by many clergy and lay people in TEC. Perhaps a new word is needed to cover these convictions, but either way, the desire is that decision makers, administrators, preachers — anyone who interacts with those of us who have these convictions — will take them into account, and not run roughshod over them (and us).

David Bebbington’s Quadrilateral remains an excellent starting point to understand these core theological perspectives. The four sides in question are Biblicism, Crucicentrism, Conversionism, and Activism. Naturally, there is a wide range of content these words have across the spectrum of people who share them. It would not be possible to give a definition that would satisfy all, and I have my own sense of the essential content of each. For example, the idea of Biblicism for someone on the Fundamentalist (another unhelpful word) end of the theological spectrum will be very different for someone on the “Progressive evangelical” (two unhelpful words put together) end. The essential point would be the place of the Bible in the whole Christian life — belief and practice. Read More

Antipathy toward Evangelicalism in the Episcopal Church predates this century. It goes back to the second half of the nineteenth century and to the Catholic Revival in the then Protestant Episcopal Church. At one time the Episcopal Church had a vibrant Evangelical wing. The Oxford Movement would spawn the Ritualist Movement and the Ritualist Movement found fertile soil in which it might grow in the Episcopal Church. The church's Evangelical wing and its Ritualist wing would clash over a number of key issues. The Ritualist wing, having gained the ascendancy in General Convention, enacted legislation that imposed its opinions on the Episcopal Church and led to the formation of the Reformed Episcopal Church. By 1900 there were no Evangelicals in the Episcopal Church. The 1970s saw a brief revival of Anglican Evangelicalism in the Episcopal Church, the kind of Evangelicalism that emphasizes the Bible, the cross, conversion, and the use of direct action to achieve desirable ends such as reducing poverty and spreading the gospel, but it was overshadowed by the Charismatic Movement. 

While Episcopalians of other stripes have been openly contemptuous of Anglican Evangelicals, they begrudgingly acknowledge that Evangelicals are better than they are at planting new churches. Anglican Charismatics, cousins to Anglican Evangelicals, share their enthusiasm for starting new congregations. Without these elements the Episcopal Church has floundered  in its church planting efforts. Since the 1980s church planting has seen a precipitous decline in the Episcopal Church. 

In the first two decades of this century a segment of the US population which identifies itself as Evangelical has become deeply involved in politics to the extent that its political views have become its religion. As a consequence Evangelicals who adhere to historic Evangelical emphases have distanced themselves from this brand of American Evangelicalism and explored alternative names for themselves. Unfortunately this brand of Evangelicalism, if it can be called Evangelicalism, has become associated in the public mind with Evangelicalism. What was open contempt for Anglican Evangelicalism in the Episcopal Church  has turned to outright hostility as Episcopalians mistakenly connect Anglican Evangelicalism with this brand of American Evangelicalism in their minds. Americans who claim to stand for Anglican Evangelicalism but show the influence of this brand of American Evangelicalism have contributed to this distorted view of Anglican Evangelicalism. 

C. S. Lewis’s Role in The Lord of the Rings

Origin Story

J. R. R. Tolkien always acknowledged that C. S. Lewis played a huge role in encouraging him to finish writing The Lord of the Rings. He was equally insistent that Lewis had no influence on the actual content of The Lord of the Rings. On this second matter, Tolkien may not have been entirely honest with himself, or perhaps, he may simply not have been very self-aware.

The Lord of the Rings was a sidetrack from Tolkien’s real writing project, the mythology of his created world of Middle-earth. That mythology is a collection of tales that spans thousands of years from the creation of his imagined world down through several ages. Tolkien never quite finished his work on this mythology which he called The Simarillion. When he died, he left a trove of disordered manuscripts that his son, Christopher Tolkien, devoted his life to editing into a publishable form.

Tolkien embarked on writing The Lord of the Rings in response to a prompting from Stanley Unwin, the publisher of The Hobbit, that he should write another hobbit book. The Hobbit had met with some financial success for the firm of Allen & Unwin, but more to the point, Tolkien had reaped a modest financial reward from his children’s story. Money was always an issue, so Tolkien began to write. The hobbit stories of Tolkien represent significant departures from the kind of mythological and legendary stories that Tolkien had been writing for The Silmarillion. The Hobbit has a different kind of plot. Read More

Should Women Preach Or Lead In The Church? Maybe…

While being interviewed by key leaders for a teaching pastor position, an elder asked me whether I was a complementarian or egalitarian. I confidently stated that I was a complementarian, and than began down the long list of women pastors on my spiritual journey. The group looked more and more uncomfortable the further I went until the lead pastor finally interrupted, “Are you sure you are complementarian?” I immediately realized my mistake, “Oh, I’m sorry, I meant egalitarian.”

You could fill the air lead the room, it would have been better if I’d said I was a satanist. Elders suddenly remembered they had urgent appointments elsewhere, and staff had an urgent need to get back to their offices. Soon the group dwindled to me, the lead pastor and one clueless staff member who was still hoping for a free lunch. The pastor, who’d invited me to the interview, looked like I’d kicked him a few inches below his gut. He gave me a quick tour of the building and then invited me back to his office. Once inside I tried to ease the tension with a joke, “Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?” He apologized profusely and admitted he should have vetted my theology of women (Is that a thing? Feminology?) before dragging me through the inquisition. We agreed to remain friends, knowing we’d never work together at a church.

And that’s how I learned the difference between complementarian and egalitarian.

My views have continued to morph, however, in the years since. After a lifetime of study, experience, thinking and prayer I have finally decided I am both complementarian and egalitarian, I’m a complegalitarian. Read More

Are Christian Teens Influencing or Being Influenced by the World?

Are you encouraged or discouraged about teens? If you’re a teen, what is your perception of your peers? Are you hopeful or pessimistic? A global study on the state of teens was just released from One Hope. In their report focused on U.S. teens, we find reasons to be encouraged and causes for concern.

Spending time reflecting on what teens believe and do ought to help shape the way we pray for them and relate to them. I’ll process five sections of the report: Christian practice, struggles, social media, sexuality, and the meaning of life in teens’ lives and then draw some conclusions. Read More

The American Mosque: More Suburban, Less Conversion

As “mosque planting” and “unmosqued youth” increasingly resemble patterns in the church, evangelical experts reflect on implications for faith and witness.

The American mosque increasingly resembles the American church.

New data released in the US Mosque Survey 2020 reveals a plateau of conversions, a shift to the suburbs, and a challenge with “unmosqued” youth.

“Muslims and their mosques are becoming more integrated into American society,” said Ihsan Bagby, the lead investigator, “and more adjusted to the American environment.”

Released every 10 years, the survey aims to comprehensively dispel misconceptions about the locus of Muslim community in the United States.

How might the findings guide American evangelicals? Read More

Image Credit: Islamic Center of Murfreeboro/Archnet