Do you have enough faith to be an atheist?

 I seldom recommend books before I read the entire book, but I'm going to make an exception. I have started reading I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek. If you enjoy apologetics as much as I do, you need to read this book! The information found in this book makes it a must read for anyone who wants to be able to defend their faith when challenged or who have their own doubts about some aspects of Christianity.

The authors begin the book by examining the importance of truth and how absolute truth has taken a hit in our postmodern world. They address some of the early writings of skeptics who deny that absolute truth exists and show why their  beliefs were wrong. In our pluralistic society the demand of many is that we be tolerant of everyone's beliefs. The authors point out how intolerant these people are, especially towards anyone expressing Christian beliefs. For me, that one chapter was worth the cost of the book.

As they go into the next chapter, the authors begin to look at the beginning of our universe. The material they present here is incredible. I have many apologetical books in my library, but this is adding to my knowledge of the cosmological argument for the existence of God more than I would have imagined. The book points out that even many agnostic scientists now acknowledge that the beginning of the universe is more closely related to the biblical account than any other theory that has been advanced.

This is as far as I have read. Future chapters will examine the reality of miracles, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the problem of evil in the world and much more. I am excited to read what the authors say about these things.

One of the things I appreciate about this book is that, while it covers very important subjects, it is written so that anyone can follow along. Some books written by philosophers and theologians are so academic that they are not very readable to the average person. This book is not like that. At the same time, it is not so simplistic that it offers no meat to the reader. 

If you want a book that will help you defend your faith when challenged, I can not recommend a better book. If you want a book that may help answer some questions you have, this may be the book for you. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm pretty excited about this book! I think it should be in every Christian's library.

Has God let you down?

 Some of the saddest people I've met in life believe that God let them down in their time of need. Perhaps they prayed for a loved one to be healed, but no healing took place. Maybe a child of theirs fought addictions, and, despite many prayers, never overcame that addiction. Some who felt they were in a wonderful relationship suddenly learned their spouse was involved in an affair and planning on leaving. How could God let that happen? Others suffered financial reverses making it difficult to enjoy their old age. They had done nothing wrong, but their finances were lost due to the misdeeds of others. In all of these cases it's easy to question God. Where was He? Didn't He care? Why didn't He answer my prayers? It's not fair. The end result of all this is that these people believe God, if He even exists, cannot be trusted.

I've never got that far in my thinking, but there have been times I wondered why God didn't seem to respond as quickly or in the way I thought He should. What I've learned is that God never fails us. Sometimes we are unable to see His working in our lives. Certainly, there are many times He does things differently than we might have preferred. It's easy to forget that in His perfect wisdom He sees things in our future we are unable to see, He doesn't always give us the answer we might want right now because He knows of a better way to respond that will serve us better in the future.

While God will never fail us, others will. The church has failed many people. The church fails us, and we want to blame God. It's not God who failed us; it's the imperfect people who make up the church. I hate to admit that people have left the church because I failed to serve them as I should have. Sometimes I didn't meet their expectations, whether fair or not, and they chose to walk away. Sometimes the church lets people fall through the cracks. We become so busy with "church" things that we fail to see people when they are hurting. Failing to have their hurts recognized, some will decide the church has nothing for them and leave. And, let's admit it, the church doesn't always respond well to folks who don't meet their expectations. I'll never forget the church that fired their pastor, while he was in a hospital bed, because his unwed daughter became pregnant. Yes, churches can be that insensitive, and then they wonder why people leave.

Pastors can also fail you. It seems there have been so many pastors this year removed from ministry because of sexual misconduct. Others fail their congregations by their emotional immaturity or by failing to preach sound doctrine, Some fail due to pure laziness. The list goes on.

God will never fail you, but His church and His church leaders sometimes will. The good news is that for every toxic church and minister there are many who are faithful to serve and to preach the Good News. If a church or minister hurts you, don't lump all churches and ministers together. Find a good one and serve and worship God there.

Pete Rose and the MLB Hall of Fame

 "Charley Hustle" was one of the most exciting players to watch in baseball. He played with a passion not often seen today. He ran out every hit. His head first slides were legendary. It was amazing to see him watch every pitch into the catcher's mitt. He was an integral part of the Cincinnati Reds Big Red Machine. It is unlikely that his record of 4,256 hits will ever be matched. Despite his record achievements in baseball he was banned from the Baseball Hall of Fame for betting on baseball while a player and manager.

He accepted a permanent ban from the Hall in a plea agreement with MLB probably thinking that in time they would reverse the ban. He was wrong. He died without his name being included with the other great baseball players. Since it was a lifetime ban, and he passed away this week, perhaps it is time that he is inducted into the Hall. After all, a lifetime ban should end when a person's life ends, shouldn't it? Perhaps Pete Rose as a person doesn't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, but his accomplishments certainly do. I doubt there are many saints in the Baseball Hall of Fame. I would imagine that at least a few included in that hall lived questionable personal lives. They are there because of their accomplishments in baseball, not because of their moral purity. Few achieved more than Pete Rose.

I am not for one minute condoning or approving his betting on baseball. I am saying I wish the MLB had seen fit to allow him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame while he was still alive. He gave so much to baseball as a player and manager. He holds so many records and won so many awards, and yet his accomplishments are not recognized in the HOF. I hope MLB will see fit to rectify that now that Pete is gone. How long do you punish a person for a mistake?

Actually, this post is not really about Pete Rose. It's about loving people while they are alive. Having conducted many funerals over the years I am always amazed at the number of people who send flowers to a funeral. How much better might it have been if they had given their flowers to their loved ones while they were still living. People say so many kind and loving words about the deceased; I'm sure they would have loved to have heard those comments while they were living.

I want to kiss my wife every morning and before we go to bed at night. I want to tell her I love her every time I leave the house and many times during the day. I want to tell my children and grandchildren how much I love them. I want to give them special memories that will outlast me. I want those people who are special to me to know how special they are while we both are alive. I want to give my flowers while we are alive.

Do you need to give some flowers this week to someone special in your life? Is there someone you need to show how much you appreciate them? Give those flowers. Speak those words of appreciation, Show them how much you love them.

Worship leader needed

North Madison Baptist Church in Madison, IN is in need of a worship leader. This person needs to be familiar with both traditional and contemporary music, be able to plan and lead worship and have a vital relationship with Jesus Christ. This person will also need to be able to play a musical instrument such as piano or guitar. Due to health reasons we do not have a regular pianist.

The church will celebrate its 175th anniversary in November of this year, but we are basically in a restart mode. Like many churches, our attendance has not recovered since Covid. I served as the Transitional Pastor of the church for about a year before accepting the position as pastor about two months ago. I am convinced that God has great things in store for this church so this is an opportunity for someone to be part of building something great for the Kingdom of God.

If you believe God is leading you to serve as our worship leader, please respond to this post. I would be glad to meet you and share my dreams and thoughts about the future of this church. 

Dealing with doubt

 Even the strongest of Christians may have times of doubt. Billy Graham tells the story of a period in his life when he began to question some things he was preaching. At a conference he was asked to lead early in his ministry he walked into the woods near the conference center and began to ask God if the Bible was really true. After a period of time he rose to his feet absolutely convinced that the Bible was true, his faith was true and his calling was to preach the truth. Perhaps his most famous line after that experience was "The Bible says...."

Studies find that nearly 60 percent of young people leave the Christian faith after their 15th birthday. A number of reasons have been identified, but one of the major ones is that no one is willing to answer their questions. They may have serious questions and doubts about Christianity, but they find their church is not a safe place to ask those questions or express their doubts. One 17-year-old girl told me that was the case in her youth group. She asks a lot of tough questions and spends much time reading her Bible, but she said when she asks questions in the youth group she is either ignored or given simplistic answers that really do not answer her questions. Unfortunately, this is too often the case.

Churches must be a safe place for people to ask their questions. No person should be made to feel ashamed for expressing doubts about their faith or for asking questions. In fact, questions should be encouraged for they show the person is thinking critically about Christianity, and answering the questions may help them solidify their faith.

There are two warnings when we attempt to answer people's questions or address their doubts. One, we don't want to make up answers when we don't know the answer. Young people are especially tuned to such answers and can see through them. It's far better to admit that we don't know and we will attempt to find the answer and respond to them at that time. There will also be some questions we will never be able to answer, and we need to honestly admit that. Here is where the faith factor of Christianity comes into play. But, we don't want to fall back on that response too often. There may well be an answer to the question that we can find with a little research.

The other warning is that we need to understand the purpose of the question. As someone has said, behind every question is a questioner. We need to know the questioner so we can understand what is behind the question. If a six-year-old child asks, "Who made God?" that is a much different question than if it is asked by a university biology professor. In the first case, the child is probably asking out of genuine interest. In the second case, the question may well be asked as a challenge to Christianity or being asked because the professor is honestly seeking God and needs answers to some of his questions. Our answer would be the same in both cases but would need to be framed differently. It's important to know the questioner and the reason behind the question before answering.

Jesus asked a lot of questions, and He was not afraid of questions. We need to be like Him. Don't be afraid of questions but respond to them truthfully, biblically and with grace.

Ministry challenges today

In 2021 I published an e-book titled Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade? It had been a few years since I had published a book, and I didn't realize how much the publishing world had changed. It was nearly impossible to find a publisher willing to look at any book that did not come to them from an agent, and it seemed many agents were more interested in the author's social media followers than in the content of a book. I finally gave up and released it as an e-book with Amazon. Of course, the problem with that is that same year 2.3 million self-published e-books hit the market. It's easy for these books to get lost in the shear volume of available books.

I wrote this book because pastors and churches are facing new challenges as our society continues to change. Ministry today is much different than when I first began as pastor in 1981. While there is nothing new under the sun, the issues people now face are much more in the open than they were in the recent past. The church is constantly being challenged to address issues that previous generations of pastors never had to face. If we are to speak a word of hope to our culture we must understand these challenges and think about how to best address them.

The book contains chapters on several of the bigger challenges facing today's church. Issues such as racial reconciliation, mental illness, poverty, addictions, suicide, sexual issues and many more are included in the book. I tried to bring some of the latest studies into the discussion of each topic and show how the church can speak to the issues lovingly and, at the same time, be true to what Scripture teaches.

I seldom promote my books on this blog because that is not the purpose of this site. However, like I said earlier, so many e-books are published each year they can easily get lost in the crowd. This book sells for only $6.95 and is available on your Kindle devices. If you think it might be helpful to your ministry you can find it here. Thank you.

Why do people attend a church for the first time?

 Sam Rainer recently shared on his Facebook page research done by Church Answers to determine what would be a reason someone would begin to attend church regularly. It mostly goes along with previous studies done over the past few years.

    To grow spiritually                    32%

    Someone invited me                  22%

    God told me to go                      20%

    Spouse wants me to go              17%

    Other                                          16%

    Life crisis                                    16%

    Family connection                      15%

    To meet new friends                    13%

    Preaching quality                        10%

    Good music I like                        10%

    Programming for children            7%

Notice that the bottom three are often the things churches think will draw in new people. What their study found was that these things may cause transfer growth from other churches, but are not the primary attractions for unchurched people.

Another question asked in the research was why people attended the church they currently attend, and the number one response was because someone invited them (41%). Other studies consistently find that the ones most effective in inviting others to attend church is not the pastor, but friends and family of the one being invited.

When I served as a Resource Minister I often heard complaints that the church wasn't growing, and the pastor was usually the one blamed. I heard it so often that I finally began to push back and ask the one complaining how many people he or she had brought into the church. The answer I usually received was...none. As I pointed out to one person, their pastor had been at the church for two years; they had been members there for three decades and yet not one person attended that church because they had invited them. Our meeting ended rather quickly at that point!

Church growth is the responsibility of every member. I am not familiar with a single study that does not find that a large proportion of people would attend a church if someone they knew and trusted invited them. We can, and should, do everything we can to make the church attractive to first-time guests, but if we expect them to show up we have to invite them. There's nothing wrong with having a first-rate youth and children's ministry. There's nothing wrong with having a worship service that will allow people to experience God. Certainly, our preaching should be theologically sound and relevant to the needs of people, always pointing them to Jesus Christ. But, if we are not inviting people to our churches, none of these things will matter.

Who will you invite to your next service?