Church 2024

For decades now some have predicted the end of the church. Such people have evidently never read Jesus' words that the gates of hell will not destroy the church. The church will never die, but we will admit that the church is struggling right now. It is going through a transition that is bringing about changes that many find frightening. These changes threaten how people view the church and have understood it for many years. It is a transition that the church needs and will weed out the pretenders from the true believers.

The Baptist preacher, Vance Havner, once said that many churches start at 11:00 sharp and end at 12:00 dull. Truer words have never been spoken. Worship in too many churches consist of singing a few songs to our hymnbooks and following an order that precludes the Holy Spirit from doing anything. Songs, a couple of prayers and listening to a talking head is not worship. There is little recognition of Almighty God in many of our services. Everything is designed to get everyone out in an hour so as not to interfere with their plans for the remainder of the day. For many church members, attending the service allows them to mark that off their to-do list so they can get on with the important things on their schedules.

Worship is changing in many churches. Hymnbooks are being replaced by more modern music. Organs are being replaced by guitars, drums and other instruments. Worship is becoming more lively. Even traditional Baptists are sometimes seen with their hands in the air worshiping God. (Shocking, I know!) The Holy Spirit is given time and space to move in people's lives, and, as a result, people's lives are being changed. 

Sermons are changing as well. As a younger person I sat in services where a red-faced, sweating preacher stomped and snorted from one side of the pulpit area to the other. I don't remember that he ever said anything especially worthwhile, but he was sincere. Today, as I preach, I tell stories that illustrate what the Bible text is teaching. I'm more of a teacher in the pulpit. I want my listeners to have a better understanding of what the Bible teaches is the way to a rewarding life now and eternal life in the future.

The church is changing in the way it does discipleship as well. While Sunday school classes can still be found, many churches offer small groups and short-term Bible studies in addition to their traditional Sunday school classes. People who attend these additional studies tend to grow more as disciples than those who simply attend whatever is offered on Sunday morning.

I have to admit that I do not know how these changes will eventually impact the church. I wish I was a younger person because I doubt that I will live long enough to see the final result of these changes, but I am excited about the future of the church. The changes will drive out many of the make-believers sitting in our pews today, or it will convert them to true Christianity. Rather than the church dying out, these changes will strengthen it and make it a much more formidable force in the world drawing people into the Kingdom of God.

To those who love the Lord, I say to you, hold on. You're about to have quite a ride, but when you get to the other side you are going to realize it was worth it!

Clarity in preaching

 I'm currently reading Souls in Transition by Christian Smith and Patricia Snell. The book describes their findings about the religious and spiritual lives of young American adults 18-23. The book is filled with statistics from their research, which makes for slow reading, but it also includes comments from personal interviews conducted with many of the ones they studied. Among the many interesting findings is that many of the young people struggle to know what they believe about religion, Christianity and their faith, if they profess having faith. Among the more common statements is that it's probably important to believe something, but it doesn't matter much what a person believes since all the major religions essentially teach the same thing. I couldn't help but think of a popular phrase among people in that age group: whatever.

Of course, anyone who has done even a brief study of the various religions know that all religions do not teach the same thing. They hold doctrinal beliefs that differ in many ways from other religious groups. What these young people are doing is simply parroting things they have heard from their peers, college professors, liberal pastors and entertainers without taking the time to study the issue for themselves.

This is also a reflection on the preaching they may have heard as children growing up in church. Too many churches focus more on entertaining young people in an effort to keep them coming and not enough time teaching them biblical truths. As these young people grow older they enter young adulthood without a clear understanding of God, Jesus Christ, the plan of salvation and other doctrinal truths. This makes they an easy prey for anyone interested in undermining their faith.

Like many young people, I was raised in the church but became less involved in my teen years. As a nineteen year old I went away to the Navy and became even less involved in church. It wasn't until my mid-20s when a crisis hit my life that I became more interested in returning to the faith of my childhood. Fortunately, I had a childhood faith to return to. Many young adults today don't which accounts for their spiritual confusion.

Churches need to make discipling children and young people a priority. Pastors need to be unafraid to preach clear, biblical, doctrinally-sound sermons. What I'm reading about young adults is equally true for many of our older members as well. Many who have sat in our pews for years struggle to articulate an understanding of biblical truth. They also need clarity from the pulpit about the Christian faith and its beliefs.

If we don't want our young people growing up with a "whatever" belief about God and His teachings for our lives we must commit to preaching clear messages each week that helps our people better understand God and what He has to say about our lives, both here and in eternity.

Tell the story

 Jesus told a lot of stories when He spoke. We call them parables, but they were stories. They were used to help make His teachings better understood. He used common things such as sheep, fig trees, water and more to teach deep theological truths. Sometimes I think we preachers spend too much time explaining what a word meant in the original Greek or Hebrew and not enough time telling stories.

Young people, the ones most churches claim they want to reach, enjoy stories they can relate to. It's why they go to movies and watch their favorite programs on TV. Even much of their music contains a storyline that they can relate to. 

As you might imagine, I include a lot of stories in my messages. I'm convinced that the stories help people better understand the theological truths I'm giving them. Sometimes, these stories are humorous; other times they are serious, but they are always told for the purpose of clarifying a truth.

I tend to be pretty transparent when including myself in a story. I don't want people to think I have everything figured out, and I'm living without any challenges in my life or faith. I've spoken honestly about being diagnosed as clinically depressed back in the 1980s and spending a year on medication and in therapy before escaping from that dark cloud. Every time I've shared that story, people have come to me thanking me, sometimes in a whisper, for sharing that experience. I've talked about financial problems we've had in the past, what it took to get out of that and how we would not have got in that mess if we had been treating our finances according to biblical teaching.

Such stories let people know that their challenges and doubts are experienced by all people, and they are not a lesser Christian for having them. They also let spiritual seekers know that coming to faith in Christ doesn't require that all their questions have to be answered first or they have to get their lives straightened up before becoming a Christian.

Just remember when you are telling stories to tell the one that matters most: Jesus Christ lived, died on the cross and was resurrected so that all who believe in Him could be forgiven of their sins and enjoy the promise of eternal life.

Sermon planning

 When I served as a pastor I began planning my sermons out at least a month in advance. I had a title and a text which I would give our pianist who selected the music for each service. This gave her time to prepare a worship service that complemented the message. I am now serving my third church as the Transitional Pastor, and I have done the same thing in each of these churches. This allows for a better worship service because everything is connected.

Notice I said I have a title and a text. I know where I am going with the message, but I usually don't have the message prepared yet, but I can tell you it's much easier to prepare the actual message when you know what you are going to preach compared to when you get to Saturday night and you still haven't decided on a sermon for the next day. I've preached a few "Saturday night specials," and they aren't fun.

Eventually, I was able to plan out my sermons at least a quarter in advance. Again, this was just with a title and a text, but this helped me be even better prepared. For instance, when I pastored I would preach through a book of the Bible or a major section during the summer months. Knowing in advance which book or section I would cover enabled me to purchase needed commentaries or other Bible helps well in advance. This strategy also gave me an opportunity to explore a section of Scripture in more detail which, in turn, helped the congregation become better informed about what the Bible taught. An additional benefit was that it prevented me from skipping over the "hard" teachings of the Bible. Let's face it, there are some passages many preachers would just as soon avoid, but when you are committed to preaching through a biblical book you can't avoid those passages. (For total transparency, I still have not preached through the Song of Solomon.)

There are still some ministers who insist they never prepare their sermons in advance but depend upon the Holy Spirit to direct their words when they stand to speak. I've heard a few of those sermons, and I would not want to blame the Holy Spirit for them. Listen, He can lead you in preparing your messages a month in advance the same as He can lead you in preparing them on Saturday night or Sunday morning.

While I am a big advocate for planning your preaching in advance, I recognize events may require the minister to change the schedule. For instance, the Sunday after 9/11 I did not preach the message I had planned for that Sunday. Instead, I prepared a new sermon that addressed the events of 9/11 and tried to speak to the fears and concerns many people had at the time. Here is where the Holy Spirit can lead us in a different direction, and it's important that we are sensitive to that leading.

Whether one is a bivocational pastor or a fully-funded pastor, he or she struggles with time constraints. Planning your sermons in advance is a great way to save time in your busy schedule. While it takes time to plan a preaching schedule, you will save much more time by doing so.

My first Sunday

 Yesterday was my first Sunday as the Transitional Pastor of North Madison Baptist Church, and it felt so good being back in the pulpit. After all, it had been a whole 4 months or so since I had preached! It just felt good sharing God's Word with the people and having the opportunity to speak an encouraging word to them. I found out I picked a busy week to start...we are the host church for the American Baptist Men's meeting tonight and there is a leadership meeting on Tuesday. Nothing like hitting ground running.

At the American Baptist Men's meeting I am going to share a video and the story of a pilot who was scheduled to fly the plane that was flown into the Pentagon building on 9/11. He was bumped off that flight the morning of 9/11 by a more senior pilot. It is a powerful and moving story. I heard this pilot speak at a meeting I attended while on vacation in Florida. I had to buy his DVD and will be showing that tonight. I encourage all men living in the Madison, Indiana area to attend this meeting. It will be at 7:00 at North Madison Baptist Church starting at 7:00. There will be pie and coffee after the meeting, and you do not have to be an American Baptist to attend. I would love to have every man in the Madison community to come and hear this story.

Finding truth

When President Donald Trump first stated that Covid 19 came from a lab in Wuhan, China the news media among others attacked him for misleading the public and for using anti-Asian hate language. Today, The Department of Energy, the director of the FBI and other agencies have concluded that Covid 19 did in fact originate from that lab, and that China has done everything it can to prevent the investigative work that reached this conclusion.

When the pandemic began we were told that if everyone remained in place for two weeks the virus would go away. Much of the nation was shut down, but this proved to be a lie. We were told everyone had to wear a mask as that would prevent the spread of Covid 19. We were not allowed in public buildings, airports and other facilities unless we wore some type of mask, but this was later debunked when it was finally admitted that masks did little, if anything, to prevent the spread of Covid. Vaccines were rushed to the market under emergency approval that would supposedly protect one from the disease or cure those who already had it. Military personnel, doctors, nurses and others who refused the shots were fired from their positions. Then we were told the vaccines were not enough but that booster shots were also needed. Not surprisingly, many who received the vaccines and boosters continued to get Covid. President Biden has been faithful in getting the vaccines, boosters and wearing a mask. He's had Covid twice now that we know about. We have been told repeatedly to "follow the science," but it seems the science has consistently misled us.

The only things related to Covid-19 that we can know with certainty is that millions of people all over the world died from this disease. Families have suffered greatly. Some individuals and pharmaceutical companies have profited greatly.

Russell Blaylock, retired neurosurgeon, wrote a blistering paper titled "COVID UPDATE: What is the truth?, that was published in Surgical Neurological International journal. His article begins by stating:

"The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most manipulated infectious disease events in history, characterized by official lies in an unending stream lead by government bureaucracies, medical associations, medical boards, the media, and international agencies....We have witnessed a long list of unprecedented intrusions into medical practice, including attacks on medical experts, destruction of medical careers among doctors refusing to participate in killing their patients and a massive regimentation of health care, led by non-qualified individuals with enormous wealth, power and influence.

"For the first time in American history a president, governors, mayors, hospital administrators and federal bureaucrats are determining medical treatments based not on accurate scientifically based or even experience based information, but rather to force the acceptance of special forms of care and 'prevention' - including remdesivir, use of respirators and ultimately a series of essentially untested messenger RNA vaccines. For the first time in history medical treatment, protocols are not being formulated based on the experience of the physicians treating the largest number of patients successfully, but rather individuals and bureaucracies that have never treated a single patient...." (Blaylock RL. COVID UPDATE: What is the truth? Surg Neurol Int 2022;13:167.)

Actually, this post is not about Covid-19 and the lies we have been told since it first appeared on the scene. It is about truth. We live in a time where we struggle to believe anything we are told. We have been misled so often from so many people and organizations we thought we could believe that it is difficult to believe anything. Where do we find truth?

In John 17: 17 we find Jesus saying "Your word is truth." Earlier in the book of John Jesus tells His disciples, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." I believe it was Leonard Sweet who once wrote that he was asked if he believed in truth. He responded that he not only believed in truth, he knew the One who was the truth, Jesus Christ.

I have lived nearly three-quarters of a century, and I have found that the only source of truth I can consistently believe is the Bible. For over 40 years I have preached the Word of God knowing that it is true. If you are a skeptic or non-believer who insists on believing that the Bible contains errors do not bother writing me trying to convince me I am wrong. You are wasting your time. I have found it to be true time and again. And the One the Bible points to from Genesis to Revelation, Jesus Christ, is the truth personified. He is our Savior, our Redeemer, our Deliverer, the one who made it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins and be adopted into the forever family of God.

For those of you who are pastors and preachers, you have the privilege every week of proclaiming truth to your people. In a world of lies and "mis-spokes" they are hungry for the truth. Preach the Word! Without apology. It is in the Scriptures where they will find the truth.

 

Study to show yourself approved

 As most regular readers of this blog know, when I began my pastoral ministry in 1981 I had no education beyond high school. As the bivocational pastor of a small, rural church I frankly did not expect to pursue an education, but over the years I managed to graduate college and earn both a masters and a doctoral degree while continuing to serve in ministry and working full-time jobs. With online classes being offered by many schools today it is far more doable that when I started my educational pursuit. However, not everyone can, or probably should, follow the route I did.

Some churches will not consider calling a pastor without a formal degree while others, especially in smaller, rural churches, may look upon formal education as a hindrance. My life-long work with bivocational churches and pastors has convinced me that the need for such ministers will continue to grow, and many of these individuals will lack a formal seminary education. However, this should not negate God's call on their lives nor should it excuse any unwillingness on their part to learn and preach sound doctrine to their congregations.

Much of my early preaching came from what I had learned from pastors I had sat under from my childhood up. While much of it was sound, in some cases I was passing on the traditions long believed within my tribe that were not necessarily biblical. As a denominational minister for 14 years who visited in different churches almost every Sunday I heard my share of similar sermons. 

Paul challenged Timothy to study to show himself approved. This is sound advice for all of us called into ministry. That does not mean that all must get a formal seminary education, but there are other ways to study the Word before we preach it.

My library has a large collection of commentaries and Bible study help books written by respected Bible scholars and theologians. It also includes several books on apologetics and systematic theology. I have a Bible study software program on my computer that gives me access to far more material. These help me prepare sermons and Bible studies that are doctrinally sound. Another section of my library includes large numbers of books related to pastoral and church ministry and leadership. A third section contains books that focus on the Christian lifestyle. These books have been collected over 40+ years and have helped me develop into the minister I am today. I have never looked at these books as a cost but rather as an investment to help me fulfill the calling God placed on my life.

Some pastors use their lack of formal education as an excuse to let the Holy Spirit lead them in what they will preach each week. I'm not sure I would want to blame God for some of the sermons I've heard! Saturday night specials can be dangerous. The fact is that in the times in which we live we have an abundance of material to help us prepare biblically sound messages that will enrich the lives of our congregations and teach them what the Bible says. It only requires that we spend the time in study and preparation.

Ministry today

 In 1981 I was called to be the pastor of a small, rural church. For several years I functioned much like the pastors I had growing up. Our challenges were about the same as the churches in which I was raised. My sermons were probably very similar to those I had heard growing up. In time I began addressing some of the social issues that my pastors would have avoided, and when 9/11 occurred I realized ministry, like the rest of life, would be forever changed. However, at the time I could not have realized how much it would change because at the time I doubt that many of us understood how much our world would change. Today's churches must be able to speak to issues previous generations never faced. Failing to do that makes us irrelevant to the culture in which we live.

A few months ago I published an eBook that addresses some of those issues. In Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade? I focus on some of the challenges today's church must address if it is to reach our generation. Some of these are not new, racism, poverty, mental illness, for example. While these are not new, they are issues much of the church has largely ignored. Other issues I write about in the book are newer challenges for the church such as gender dysphoria, sexual issues, the rising number of suicides, the growing violence in our society, and several others. In the book I try to help the reader understand why it's important for the church to understand each issue and suggest ways to address them in a positive, biblical manner.

These issues are tearing families apart and causing untold damage to individuals. Society presents its worldview to each of these topics; the church must present a biblical worldview to them as well. Yet, studies find that many churches never speak to any of them. We often act as if these issues don't exist. Even thinking about preaching on many of them makes pastors uncomfortable. The worldview of our culture is being heard. Do not the people in our congregations and communities deserve to hear what the Bible has to say about each of them even if it makes us uncomfortable?

The problem with publishing an eBook is it can get lost in the tens of thousands of such books published every year. This book is finding an audience because it is helping pastors and individual Christians understand how to speak to these difficult issues. You can order it for your Kindle device for only $6.95.

Pastors and politics

I did not watch the Democrat convention last week, and I am not watching the Republican convention this week. It's not because I don't care for politics or have strong political beliefs. It's because of the divisiveness of the two parties. I know what each is going to claim at their conventions so why bother watching them? While I will vote in the upcoming election, neither candidate is especially appealing to me. It bothers me a great deal that this nation cannot produce better candidates than what we've had the past few elections.

As a minister for the past 40 years I have tried very hard to stay out of partisan politics. Several years ago my Dad ran for a local office and asked to put a campaign sign in my yard. I refused. I explained to him that I would support him and vote for him, but as a pastor I would not endorse a candidate for either party. He was not happy with me at the time, but a few years later I think he understood why I took the stand I did.

After I resigned my pastorate the church called an interim who took a very strong political stand for one political party. My father had spent his life voting for and working for the other party. A few months into that interim period Dad called me shortly after lunch one Sunday. He explained that during the sermon he got up and walked out of the church. He had listened to that minister extol the current president and rail against the other party for as long as he could take. Dad said he sat in his car in the parking lot shaking so bad he couldn't drive away for several minutes. He said he went to church to hear about God, not for the minister to promote his political views. Dad never returned to that church but began attending another church more interested in preaching the gospel than it was in promoting partisan politics.

I think about Dad's experience often when I read some of the posts by pastors, Christian authors and other Christian leaders. Some of these people I once held in high esteem, but I have to admit that has been lessened by their political posts. Some are strong Trump haters, and their posts on social media reflect that hatred. Others are strongly critical of Democrats and speak very ugly about them and their leadership. While it is one thing to address policies it is another thing to attack personalities, especially with the venom I often read. During the last election I had to unfriend some people because of the ugliness of their political posts. As this election draws closer I fear I will have to do the same this time. 

We need to remember that half of our congregations will hold to similar political views we have while the other half will support the views of the opposing party. As pastors we must address moral and ethical issues, but we do that without dragging in our political views. 

Should Christians be involved in politics? Absolutely! I would love to see more Christians run for political office and pastors to speak to the moral issues that affect our nation. I have not failed to vote in any election since becoming eligible to vote, and this year I will vote for the candidates I believe best reflect my values and beliefs. At the same time, I do not believe that Christian leaders, such as pastors, should engage in partisan politics. My fear is that the more we talk about politics the more we dilute the Gospel message we are called to proclaim. And we cause people like my Dad to be unable to hear the Gospel for the campaign slogans we are proclaiming from our pulpits and our social media sites.

Preach to the lives of your people

When I was serving as a Resource Minister I would visit in different churches in my area of responsibility. A pastor was called to one of the churches for which I had responsibility who was a PhD student at a nearby seminary. I visited one Sunday morning to join them for worship. To this day I am convinced he repeated a lesson from one of his doctoral classes. I could tell from the looks of the people sitting around me that many of them had no idea what he was talking about. The sermon may have been theologically sound, but it said nothing to the lives of this rural congregation.

Whether Jesus was speaking to a crowd or to individuals he spoke to the things that was important to their lives. To the woman caught in adultery He spoke words of forgiveness and repentance. To the woman at the well He spoke of relationships, the one thing she had been seeking all her life, and the relationship He offered was one that would never fail. To Lazarus' sisters He offered hope. When He spoke to the religious leaders He addressed their hypocrisy and challenged them to turn from their rituals and law-based religion to a living faith in a living God. Every message was not only theologically sound but also addressed real life needs of real life people. We who stand in the pulpit each week can do no less.

As a pastor I gave every sermon I prepared the "so what" test. More than once I tossed a sermon that I realized didn't really speak to what was happening in people's lives at that time. Yes, everything in it might have been true, but so what did that matter if it didn't pertain to people's lives?

To be a pastor one must know his or her people, and that only happens when the pastor leaves the office and spends time with those being served. When I first began my pastoral ministry I spent time in people's homes, in their hospital rooms, in their barns to get to know them. I went fishing with them and even went with one coon hunting. The better I understood their lives, their hopes, their fears, the better I could speak to them in my messages.

It's equally as important to know what is happening in the lives of the unchurched persons in your community. Just as we need to exegete Scripture, we need to be able to exegete our community. At least 80 percent of every county in the United States is unchurched. How well do you know the lives of that 80 percent in your area? Without knowing their lives, how will you effectively minister to them? After sharing this with a church the pastor asked how he could know what the lives of the unchurched were around them. This church was in the middle of a residential area  with houses surrounding the church building. I looked at him and responded, "Walk up and down the streets and talk to the people you meet. Go into the local cafes for a coffee or lunch and talk to the people there." He looked at me like that was something he had never considered!

There is a book called Never Eat Alone, Expanded and Updated: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time. It's a book about networking, building relationships, to help one be more successful in business and life. What's true for careers is also good for ministry. The more time we spend with others the better we will be able to speak into their lives.

Staying true to biblical teaching

The church faces many challenges in the coming years, but I believe one of the biggest challenge will be to stay true to biblical teaching. In our PC dominated world today anything that doesn't fit with the beliefs and values of the majority are challenged and often resisted. We regularly see conservative speakers uninvited to speaking engagements because a vocal minority rise up in protest. Business owners who do not toe the PC line are threatened with boycotts and worse. GOYA is only the latest to feel the wrath of liberal politicians, celebrities and other left-wing radicals who want to destroy this Hispanic-owned food company.

Some denominations and churches abandoned biblical teaching years ago in an effort to appease the PC crowd. Those who continue to hold to biblical authority can expect pressure to conform its teachings and values to that of the unchurched community. We must resist that pressure even though there may be a price to pay in doing so.

The Bible is the Word of God. It is authoritative in everything it says. No church, no denomination, no individual has the right to change its message. Rather than changing the message to match the lifestyle, we need to change our lifestyles to match the Scriptures.

One of the reasons we see the chaos and difficulties in our nation today is that we have drifted far away from those biblical teachings. Without absolute truth and absolute morality everyone is free to do whatever they please, and as we have seen in recent months that can only lead to chaos, division and lawlessness.

Our pulpits must be faithful to preach the truth of God's Word without apology. Not everyone will like that, and that may include some of our strongest leaders in our churches. For me, if I am given the choice of offending God or the chairman of the deacons with my preaching, I'm going to offend that deacon. The worst he can do to me is cause me to be fired, but I would rather experience that than have to stand before God and explain why I failed to stay faithful to His Word. We must love people enough to teach them the truths contained in the Scriptures.

The church stands in a unique circumstance right now. Many churches who began to broadcast their worship services during the pandemic reported that their viewership exceeded their normal worship attendance. That tells me that our current situation has caused some people to seek answers to their questions about what is happening in our world. These are individuals who hunger for truth and want something solid upon which they can base their lives. The Gospel provides that firm foundation, but they will only know that if we are faithful to proclaim it to them. If all we can offer is spiritual mush that comes from some denominational office or a concoction that contains a lot of humanistic philosophy and personal opinion that is hooked to a Bible verse to give it credibility, they will not hear what they need most.

Pastors, commit yourself to boldly preaching the infallible Word of God. Lay leaders, encourage your pastors to do so even if it makes you uncomfortable at times. The Word of God has been silent too long in too many churches. It's time to change that.

Laying the foundation

Obviously, each of the parables of Jesus are important. They all contain truths that we need to know if we are to live a life that is pleasing to God. However, one parable stands out to me more than the others. It is one I have probably referred to more in my sermons than any other. It is the story Jesus told of two men who built their houses, one on a foundation of sand and the other on a foundation of rock. When storms came, the house built on sand collapsed. When the same storm came upon the house built upon the rock, the house stood because it had a solid foundation. In the parable, the house represents the person's life. Jesus is teaching us that our lives need to built upon something that can withstand the storms of life.

Right now, we are going through a storm. This pandemic has taken many lives and shut down our nation and much of the world. Businesses have closed, and some are unlikely to reopen. People have lost their jobs, and the stimulus checks they've received won't do much to keep food on their tables or pay their bills. Churches have been forced to hold their services online or in their parking lots with strict guidelines to follow. Schools have closed in most states for the year. We are about six weeks into a lock down, and people are starting to protest the restrictions that have been placed on them. Some states are beginning to lift some of their restrictions to slowly return things back to normal, but no one knows what normal will look like post-pandemic.

This storm is going to cause a lot of lives to collapse. Those who collapse will do so because of the foundation upon which their lives were based. This is true of Christians as well as non-Christians. Being a Christian is no guarantee that your life is built on something solid that will support you in a storm. Many believe that foundational rock is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I've preached that as have many other pastors, but I think it goes even deeper than that. In addition to our relationship with Christ we need to hold to a sound theology.

Some who love Jesus have a theology that is a mile wide and an inch deep. They may go to heaven when they die, but when the storms of life come against them they have nothing that will help them withstand that storm. They lack the theological depth they need to withstand the storm.

In too many churches, sound theological preaching and worship has been replaced by feel-good sermons and entertainment. We want to crowd as much entertainment into our services as we can in order to appear "relevant," and to ensure that people are not inconvenienced too much we end with a 10 minute sermonette that lacks any theological depth. As people drive home from the service they might talk about how good the service was or how much they liked the new worship song, but there isn't a lot of discussion about how the sermon answered some question they had or touched them in a significant way.

Many people are trying to determine how this pandemic will affect the church when it ends. I believe one of the impacts the church will feel is that people are going to be looking for churches that provide theological depth to what they are doing. People are hurting, and they are afraid. They want something solid in their lives they can hold onto when the next storm comes. I believe many will seek a place where they can get the theological grounding they need for themselves and their families.

Pastors, I encourage you to examine your messages to ensure they contain the theological depth your people need. They are trusting you to provide them with the theological truths that will strengthen them for the days ahead.

Prepared for Sunday's sermon

Most church attenders expect their pastors to be prepared to preach on Sunday morning. They expect the pastor will have studied the Scriptures, prayed over them and crafted a message that will speak to their spiritual and physical needs. These expectations are valid, but how many of them will have prepared themselves to hear the message? While some might complain that a minister does not know how to preach, how many of our church members know how to hear? If people rush around getting ready to go to a worship service, come in at the last minute, frustrated with one another, how much value will they receive from the worship service or the message? The same is true with the person who constantly glances at his or her watch wondering how much longer the service will last.

It's important that people come with hearts prepared to worship and to hear the message that will be preached. You are there to encounter God, not to check off a box on your weekly spiritual to-do list, and it's important that each of us are prepared for that encounter. The Puritans understood this and one of their preachers, Richard Baxter, explained how one should receive the message. He wrote

Come not to hear with a careless heart, as if you were to hear a matter that little concerned you, but come with a sense of the unspeakable weight, necessity, and consequence of the holy word which you are to hear; and when you understand how much you are concerned in it, it will greatly help your understanding of every particular truth....

Make it your work with diligence to apply the word as you are hearing it....Cast not all upon the minister, as those that will go no further than they are carried as by force....You have work to do as well as the preacher, and should all the time be as busy as he...you must open your mouths, and digest it, for another cannot digest it for you...therefore be all the while at work, and abhor an idle heart in hearing, as well as an idle minister.

Chew the cud, and call up all when you come home in secret, and by meditation preach it over to yourselves. If it were coldly delivered by the preacher, do you...preach it more earnestly over to your own hearts....

I have often joked that Sunday dinner in many Christians' homes is roast preacher. How much better would it be if that dinner time was used as an opportunity to reflect upon and discuss as a family what God might be saying in the message just heard? Could we not benefit from spending time after the service meditating on the message to learn what God is saying to us personally? Where do I find myself in the message, and how should I respond to that?

Several years ago, before I went into the ministry, I heard a preacher share the story of the Good Samaritan, a text I had heard preached many times. The thing that caught my attention was that he said that, at different times in our lives, we all are each of the characters in the story. Sometimes we are the robbers, sometimes we are the one beaten up, sometimes we are the ones who pass by without offering help, sometimes we are the good Samaritan and sometimes we are the innkeeper. I have thought about that message many times since then, and at different times in my life I have found myself playing one of those roles. For over 40 years that sermon still speaks to me and challenges me.

Sermons will have their greatest impact on those who have prepared themselves to hear them, are willing to spend time meditating on them and then applying them to their lives. As pastors we need to help teach people how to be prepared each Sunday to worship and to receive the message.

When people are not taught the basics

When Jay Leno was host of the Tonight Show he often did a man-on-the-street interview. He would ask random people various questions about current topics or issues to get their responses. He would ask questions about how our government is structured and other questions pertaining to our way of life. He would ask historical questions or ask people to identify certain current leaders. The answers were often amusing because they were so wrong. It's not amusing now because these people are now holding political offices and their ignorance does not bode well for the future of our nation. People running for political office are finding a lot of support from people with this same lack of understanding of political and economic realities, and they are getting this support.

It wasn't too long ago that no socialist could hope to hold political office in the US. Today, they do, and more are running for office. Socialism is popular today because young people were not taught the history of socialism and its failure every where it has been tried. Civics stopped being taught in schools years ago, and today young people do not know how our government is structured or how it is supposed to work. Many of them can't understand why it would be tragic for our nation if the Electoral College was removed because they don't know why it was put in the Constitution in the first place. They don't know the three branches of government and how each branch works, and these people are now assuming leadership positions within these branches. It's bad enough that such people are seeking office; it's even worse that unaware people vote them into office.

Unfortunately, it's not much better in the church world either. We have many people sitting in pews week after week who do not understand basic Christian doctrine. If asked, they would struggle to explain what they believe and why they believe it. Their lives and worldviews are not much different than that lived by the unchurched because they have not been taught how to think and live as Christians.They are like the people the apostle Paul referred to when he wrote that they should now be given meat but instead they must still be fed milk because they are not mature enough to handle the meat of the gospel. What's the cause for this? They have not been taught the Word of God.

In another age sermons sought to make men God-centered in their thinking and how they lived. Today, many messages are man-centered. They address how one can find peace and happiness in life. We hear much about the love of God but little of His wrath. Messages often focus on how God can provide the help we need to face our circumstances but often ignore addressing our duties towards God such as worship and service.

Writing this I am not suggesting that our sermons should beat up our listeners. I've sat through some of those and you probably have as well. I am suggesting there must be a balance in our preaching. Yes, we should encourage people to turn to God for the solutions to life's challenges. The Bible encourages that, and so should we. But, we also must not ignore the warnings we find in Scripture and the demands Christ made on those who would follow Him. These too must be proclaimed.

For me, preaching through large sections of the Bible ensures the balance I seek in my messages. There will be the comforting passages that most ministers prefer to address, and there will be the challenging ones that many of us would prefer to ignore. But, we ignore them to our congregation's peril. When we commit to preaching through these larger sections, even complete books of the Bible, we cannot ignore these difficult passages.

When it comes to elections, let's vote for the candidates who are able and willing to honor our Constitution and work within its confines. In order to do that we must ensure that we are informed as to their values and beliefs and vote accordingly. When it comes to our religious life, let's make sure that we are preaching the whole counsel of God. For the person in the pew, make sure you are receiving everything the Bible teaches and seek to understand how to apply it to your life.

Spiritually immature Christians

This past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to speak to a gathering of Church of the Nazarene pastors and staff in Indianapolis on bivocational ministry. This was a continuing education event for them, and I was honored to have been invited to be one of the speakers.

Although my focus was on bivocational ministry, during the seminar I veered off into another issue. Those who know me understand that is not unusual! I can chase rabbits with the best of them! I just believe that if something comes into my mind while I'm addressing something it may be that it is a word someone present needs to hear. In this case it was around the issue of spiritually immaturity and the biblical illiteracy that affects so many believers today.

Throughout my ministry I've heard pastors complain about the lack of biblical understanding found in so many of the members of their congregations. What I said to this gathering of pastors is that if they have been in their church for more than three years, and they are complaining about how their people do not know the Scriptures, that is their fault. John Maxwell often says that for the first three years you can blame your predecessor for all the church's problems, but after three years they belong to you. I think there is a lot of truth in that.

As a Resource Minister for 14 years I was in a different church almost every week. My wife and I would leave some services talking about how shallow the message was. There was no meat. There was very little Scripture and even less application to how the Scripture spoke to today's world. The people were being given milk and not meat, and in some cases it was 2% milk, watered down so much that it barely qualified as milk.

Perhaps one reason I spoke about this at the pastor's gathering was because of a book I am reading now, The Pastor as Public Theologian: Reclaiming a Lost Vision by Kevin Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan. The authors point out how in the past the pastor's primary role was to be a theological teacher to the church and community, but now with all the expectations that people place upon the pastor that role has diminished in many churches. Too often, theological depth has been replaced with a feel-good message that may tickle the ears but has no power to change lives. We have given theological teaching over to the academic world and to the "experts" and given pastors the task of doing "practical" ministry. With this kind of separation it is no wonder that many believers are so weak in their faith.

Pastors are to proclaim the "whole counsel of God," and that requires that we take our listeners into the depths of Scripture. Of course, in order to do that we have to set aside time to study the Scriptures ourselves and prepare messages that are theologically sound and address real needs of people. We have to help them develop a Christian worldview, think biblically about the issues and challenges they are facing, and be ready to defend their faith against the critics and unbelievers they will face throughout their lives. We are losing our young people because we have not done that. Multitudes of others see nothing in Christianity that appeals to them because they cannot see any difference in the lives of Christians than what they are experiencing in their own lives.

I'm only half-way through this book so I don't know what advice the authors will offer, but I would encourage pastors to review the past six months of their sermons. Were they messages that challenged your people to go deeper in their faith? Did they challenge your people to think more theologically about some issue? Did they contain the meat necessary to promote genuine growth in the lives of your people? If not, what do you need to do differently in 2020?

Truth in a world of untruth

I understand why many people have abandoned their telephone landlines. I would guess that 90 percent of the calls I get on our home phone are from telemarketers. Most of these are recorded messages so I don't even get the enjoyment of messing with them. The same is true of the majority of emails I get. Most of them are scams. I used to have most of them go immediately in my deleted folder, but when I had to get a new computer a couple of months ago I've had to start over again marking the junk. Since Apple doesn't care about scam emails and does not give a means to automatically mark them, even the ones I avoid on my computer show up on my I-Pad, and I have to delete them again. When I got a new phone a few months ago that is one reason I didn't get another I-Phone. Most of the junk emails I get do not show up on my Samsung.

Add to this the dishonesty we see in the media. During the last presidential campaign Trump kept pointing out the dishonesty in the press. Few people had the courage to say the things he kept saying, but as people began watching the news they soon could see the way news stories were being spun to reflect the liberal bias many in the news organizations had. The same could be said of conservative news organizations. The American public were not being given the news; we were being given the slant on the stories the news media wanted to present. This is not a recent phenomenon that began in the last presidential election. In 1996 James Fallows, then editor of U.S. News and World Report, wrote a fascinating book titled Breaking The News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy in which he showed how the media doesn't report the news; it makes the news by deciding what's newsworthy and what's not. Doing this controls the information the American public receives and what it never hears about. This is not a book written by some conspiracy buff but one written by a person who has had the inside seat in national news reporting for many years. It's a book I highly recommend.

We all know the dishonesty that exists in advertising. All you have to do is watch an advertisement for any fast food place and compare the sandwiches you see in the ad with the ones you actually get when you eat there!

We are bombarded with dishonesty and untruth every day. It's no wonder why many people wonder if what they hear from the church and its leadership is true or not. We have created a culture of disbelief, and that culture exists even within the church. Many people look at sermons the same way they look at advertisements. They assume we are spinning the message to make our brand look good, and many are not buying it.

As preachers of the Gospel we have to speak with absolute integrity and honesty. It's essential that we begin our messages upon the foundation of the infallibility of the Word of God. In a world that spins every message we cannot begin our message by casting doubt on what the Scripture says. I shudder every time I hear a so-called Christian leader say that we have advanced beyond what was known in biblical times, and our messages need to change to reflect that advanced understanding. These false prophets only THINK they have advanced. The Bible we hold in our hands came to us from God, and no one has advanced beyond Him! His words are eternally true.

When I began as the Transitional Pastor at one church about two years ago I told the congregation in my first message that every sermon they would hear from me would be based on the belief that the Bible was the infallible Word of God. If I don't believe that then I have nothing to preach because my opinions are no more valid than anyone else's. It's only when I stand upon the integrity of God's Word that I have anything of value to say.

In a world of spin, in a world in which we are surrounded by untruth, it is imperative that the preacher boldly proclaim the Word of God as truth. It is only when we do that can the Holy Spirit take those words and begin to change the hearts of people.

When you straddle the fence

While driving yesterday I listened to a small snippet of Mueller's testimony to Congress. I heard one Republican and one Democrat ask questions, and that was about all I could take. This evening on the news I listened to their take on the testimony. It appears to me what I thought since the report was made public is correct. Mueller's report was written in a way that would allow both sides to claim victory. The president claims that it makes clear that he is completely innocent of all charges while his enemies are certain that there is information within that report that will make impeachment possible. In the end the American people have what we always have when the government involves itself in almost anything, a complete waste of time and millions of dollars, both of which could have been better used to do something that would actually benefit people.

Frankly, I am disgusted by both sides over this entire issue. The Democrats will continue their search-and-destroy mission until the election, knowing that impeachment will never happen, but hoping that it will win them enough votes to win the next election. The president and his supporters will continue to claim victory and charge the Democrats with being on a witch-hunt. Neither side will give in, and neither side will make any effort to work together to address real issues facing the people of our nation. It's all about winning elections, and lining their pockets with money. By straddling the fence with his report, Mueller made both sides feel good and gave them ammunition for the next election, but accomplished nothing of real value.

Unfortunately, we see this too often in ministry, both in the local church and in denominational work as well. The apostle Paul warned young Timothy there would come a time when people would have itching ears that would seek out teachers who would teach warm, comforting fables rather than the Word of God (2 Tim. 4: 3-4). Such people have always been around, but they are certainly found in many of our churches today. Many pastors have told me they could not preach on certain topics in their church or they would lose their jobs. These fence-straddlers might keep their jobs, but they are feeding their congregations poison that will destroy them spiritually.

Denominations can be guilty of this as well. They avoid certain topics as long as they can, and when they can avoid them no longer they try to find a compromise that will satisfy everyone in the hopes of losing no one. Their compromise often does the opposite. It frustrates everyone, and people and churches still leave.

Many years ago the church I pastored had a youth minister who decided to have a youth revival. He rented a tent we put up on the church property and invited a couple of his seminary classmates to help with the revival. One evening they put on a skit. One of the adults in the church was sitting on the back of a chair representing a fence. He was undecided whether or not to become a Christian. Our youth minister played the role of Satan who kept offering him all the pleasures the world had to offer if he would not become a Christian. One of the young minister's friends played the role of Jesus, and all he said throughout the skit was "I love you" with his arms outstretched. After three turns by the devil and Jesus to persuade the man to choose which one to follow, the man on the fence said, "I think I'll just stay on the fence." When he said that the individual playing Satan put his arm around him and said, "That's good because I own the fence." When he said that the hair on my arms stood straight up and I almost came out of my seat!

It's true. Satan does own the fence. When we compromise the Word of God, when we fail to proclaim the truths found in Scripture we are playing right in the devil's hands. When we refuse to take a stand on moral issues trying to placate both sides we are straddling the fence and doing the devil's work. Satan's first temptation to mankind was to cause them to doubt what God had told them, and when we stray from God's Word we are also creating doubt in people's minds.

The church needs ministers who will preach the Word of God boldly and with authority. Billy Graham was never afraid to proclaim "The Bible says...." when he preached, and people's lives were changed. We need that same boldness in our pulpits today. We don't need people who want to straddle the fence leading our churches and denominations; we need ministers who believe something, who stand for something and aren't afraid to preach with Word of God without apology.

Stretch yourself intellectually

There is an old story of a farmer who wanted to enter his mule in the Kentucky Derby. People assured him the mule could never win the race to which the farmer agreed. He said, "I just thought the association would do him a lot of good."

Proverbs 13: 20 reminds us that "He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm." I remind myself of that when I tackle a difficult book or listen to a lesson that is especially challenging.

I often download podcasts to listen to while I'm driving. One of my favorites comes from William Lane Craig. Craig holds two PhDs and is a research professor at Talbot. He is a Christian philosopher and apologist who has debated some of the best known atheists around the world. No less an authority that J. P. Moreland has said that Craig is among the top one percent of practicing philosophers in the Western world. I love to listen to his podcasts, but there is one problem. Some of what he says goes right over my head! To say he thinks on a different level than I do would be an understatement. Still...I think the association does me a lot of good.

Last year I read On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision. The subtitle explains the premise of the book. It was written more for the lay reader and not for the academics for whom he normally writes. It was an excellent book containing a lot of information I used in various sermons.

Yesterday I broke down and finally purchased Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, a much more academic book of his I had been wanting to read for some time. I was just concerned it would be so far over my head that it would be waste of time for me to even begin reading it. It may be, but we never advance if we are not willing to stretch ourselves intellectually.

Much has been said in recent years about the decline of the Christian mind. Years ago as a pastor I became concerned that the Sunday school material we were using had been so dumbed down that it was of little value. For 14 years I attended a different church almost every week due to my ministry responsibilities, and so many of the messages I heard contained very little substance. Much of the preaching one hears on TV is all fluff. Christians need to be challenged to think, we need to be stretched with biblical truth that will make us more bold in our faith and more confident in what we believe.

Many of our people do not have a Christian worldview because they've not been taught how to think as biblical Christians. They don't know what they believe or why they believe what they claim to believe. There was a time when the pastor was the local theologian, but this is not the case in many churches today. Pastors have been reduced to community activists, social workers, and counselors leaving little time to study the Scriptures in-depth.

Christian people need to hear theological truth from the pulpit to strengthen their faith. They need pastors who will dig deep in the Scriptures to mine out those truths and present them boldly and with authority. For that to happen, those of us in leadership positions must be willing to stretch ourselves intellectually.

I'm excited to continue that stretching in my own life with this new book, but I have a feeling it will be slow reading!

How the post-truth culture impacts the church

Many now say we have moved from a postmodern society to a post-truth society. Postmodernism believes that there is no absolute truth. According to postmodern thinkers you can have your truth and they can have their truth, and both can be true even if they contradict each other. Elementary logic teaches that cannot be correct, but why let logical thinking stand in the way of a worldview?

But now we have slid into becoming a post-truth society. This philosophy doesn't necessarily discount absolute truth, but makes it less important than one's personal preferences. If the facts supports one's preferences and opinions, good, but if not then thost facts are considered offensive. This mindset has become so pervasive in today's culture that in 2016 a major dictionary named "post-truth" as its word of the year.

We certainly see plenty of evidences of post-truth thinking in today's political arena. One freshman House member was recently called out for her factual mistakes. She responded that moral truth was more important than factual truth. To her, and countless others of her generation, facts are not important if they get in the way of their preferences. Unfortunately, this is only one example of this type of thinking coming out of Washington today.

Post-truth thinking is also seen in much of the discussion around gender issues, sexual issues, the latest decisions regarding abortion, and many other topics impacting our nation today. In each of these issues many refuse to let facts stand in the way of their preferences, and anyone who dares talk about the facts will be accused of offensive language and attitudes.

Unfortunately, we find this same mindset in too many churches. To preach the Word of God is to offend many people. These people do not go to church to hear what God has to say about how we live our lives; they go to have their preferences approved. How many times have you heard someone say, "Well, I know the Bible says..., but I THINK or I BELIEVE...?" At that point you know they don't really care what God's Word has to say on any topic because if it contradicts their preferences they are going to reject it anyway.

This is why it is so difficult to help our church members grow as disciples. It's why so many churches and denominations cannot take a biblical stand on the issues of the day. Too many of their members elevate their personal preferences over the clear teaching of the Scriptures.

What do we do in the midst of a post-truth culture? In the political and social arena we must refuse to allow people to ignore the facts. Just because someone says they believe one thing doesn't mean the discussion has ended. We need to keep insisting that the truth be heard whether people want to hear it or not. We also need to stop electing people to office who want to pass laws based on their preferences while ignoring the facts of the matter.

In the church we need to keep preaching and teaching the truth. We need to be clear about what the Scriptures say about the social issues of the day. Some won't like it because it will violate their preferences, and some may even leave. But, if the church cannot take a biblical stand for truth what organization will? The church has been called to be a light in the midst of darkness. I don't think anyone can deny our society is growing darker. It's time we let the light of truth begin to shine.

What is truth?

When Pilate asked Jesus Christ, "What is truth?" he was asking the most important question he had ever asked. Unfortunately, he didn't stay long enough to hear Jesus' answer.

This is a question that is being asked a lot today. The media is called out for its fake news. The White House is often challenged by statements coming from the spokespeople there. People in Congress, from the leadership to its incoming freshmen, struggle to understand truth and its importance to a society.

Perhaps no one elected to office in recent history has generated more interest that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an incoming freshman from New York elected to the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, much of the interest surrounding her has been the fact that she is a Democrat Socialist who struggles with the truth and with how the American system works.

During a 60 Minutes interview she was challenged by a statement that she had made that earned her four Pinocchios from the Washington Post. She responded that being morally right was more important than being factually right. What? Even CNN criticized her reasoning. Perhaps she doesn't know that one can be both morally right and factually right. In fact, I would argue that you can't be morally right if you are not factually right. The ends do not justify the means. Let me quickly state that anyone can make mistakes and say things that later prove to be not true, and to be fair, the same thing happens from Republican speakers as well. The problem is that she makes such errors on a fairly regular basis, and it doesn't seem to bother her.

Perhaps she just enjoys the attention. More than one person in the public eye has said that the only thing worse than bad press is no press at all. Or maybe she just doesn't know the truth because, like many of her generation, she has been misinformed.

In a 2016 article in The Washington Times it was noted that one-third of millennials believe that during his time in office George W. Bush killed more people than Joseph Stalin. Although exact numbers are not available, most historians believe Stalin was responsible for the deaths of 20-60 million people. The article also stated that one-third of millennials had never heard of Vladimir Lenin, and another 25 percent of them viewed Lenin favorably. A stunning 42 percent had never heard of Mao Zedong.

When one stops to realize that American Civics is no longer taught in most schools anymore and, evidently, neither is world history we can see one reason why this nation is in the trouble it's in today. We have a nation of young people who do not understand what makes this nation unique and how it functions. These are now being elected to the highest offices in the country by voters who evidently do not care if they are qualified for those offices or not.

As upsetting as this is, the same thing is happening in many of our churches today as well. Every study of persons identified as Evangelical Christians find that many are uninformed of basic biblical teaching and principles. Many seldom, if ever, read their Bibles, pray, or do anything that would help them grow as a disciple. Younger people in particular are ill prepared to defend their faith when they leave home for college or the work force.  We have failed to pass the faith on to young people in a way that will enrich their lives and prepare them to live in a world that rejects that faith.

It's time that the church becomes serious about teaching truth to our people. The Bible is the truth. It is the Word of God. Preach it. Teach it. Without apology. Without compromise. We don't need to know what some pop psychologist says about life's issues. We need to hear what the Bible says about them. Teach the morals and ethics found in Scripture. You will run into people who don't like the truth. Preach it anyway! You will run into snowflakes who will have their feelings hurt. Love them, but preach the truth anyway! If ever there was a time the church needed to stop playing games and standing for the truth it is now.