A Thank You List

For the last seventeen years my privilege in service to our Lord has been ministering as a pastor to the people of First Calvary Baptist Church. Here’s my not all-inclusive Thanksgiving list.

1. I thank the Lord for the honor that is mine to preach to a people hungry to hear God’s Word. I stand before kind and humble persons who return week after week knowing I am the one in the pulpit. They open their Bibles expecting to hear from God and trust me to deliver it.
2. I thank the Lord for a church that welcomes to our assembly people from every skin tone, social status, and walk of life. Our church sees people made in the image of God, loved by the Father, and saved by the blood of Jesus. All differences fade into the background as we worship, learn, and live together.
3. I thank the Lord for a church comprised of generational Christianity. When we gather together for worship, you will find believers who measure their years in single digits, teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. All believing the same gospel, worshipping the same God, and pursuing the same Christlikeness.
4. I thank the Lord for a church that loves to sing, and since I love to sing, I love to sing with you. Our church embraces old hymns and new texts and tunes. Our church sings with passion and anticipates lifting our voices together toward heaven and toward each other in help and hope.
5. I thank the Lord for nursery staff, ushers, technicians, and administrative personnel who function mostly behind the scenes. We rarely notice them when their jobs are done well, but we quickly discover the significant void when we are without them.
6. I thank the Lord for Bible teachers at every level. God has given our church teachers who instruct all across the spectrum, from two-year-olds to our eldest members. Our teachers range from those just learning the craft to those who have taught the Word of God for seventy years. We are blessed.
7. I thank the Lord for small group leaders. These precious servants of our Lord open their homes week after week to welcome brothers and sisters-in-Christ to gather together to connect, care, converse, and chase so that individual Christians in our church might grow in their discipleship.
8. I thank the Lord for the rich heritage and solid foundation on which our church stands. We have our challenges, but our challenges are not doctrinal. We continue in the same direction the believers before us were headed, and by God’s grace, the same direction those who follow us will head.
9. I thank the Lord for the ministry in our church that I know nothing about - phone calls and text messages made to a Christian sister, coffee with a Christian brother, meals shared with the lonely, gospel conversations with unsaved family or friends, and acts of kindness that prompt our Lord to smile when he sees.
10. I thank the Lord for a church that prays for me. So many say to me, “Pastor, I pray for you.” I believe you, and I thank the Lord for you. You love me enough to know I am incapable on my own, so you ask our Lord to do what I cannot do.

As Paul wrote, “we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

As always I welcome your feedback and any ideas you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Hollywood's Immorality Problem

Maybe they were right.

My home church preached the Bible without apology. On occasion my home church preached a little more than the Bible. The result was my mom and my sister, my girlfriend and her sister, my friends’ sisters and mothers didn’t wear pants. We guys had tapered haircuts that prompted a state trooper (who wanted to talk to me one night on the shoulder of an interstate highway) to ask me if I was in the military. We didn’t dance, and card playing was out though Uno and Rook were in.

And we didn’t go to “Hollywood movies.”

In the 1970s and 80s the pastors at my home church and the traveling evangelists who visited us for a week of revival meetings and the preachers at the summer camps I attended railed against going to the theatre to watch any and all of the recent releases. The last movie my mom and dad took me to see was the Walt Disney film Escape to Witch Mountain, a G-rated flick about two kids with special powers. I was ten-years-old. My parents never took me back and restricted me from going ever again.

I missed the release of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Return of the Jedi. I did not see Close Encounters of the Third Kind on the big screen. Raiders of the Lost Ark looked really cool, but I’d have to wait for its VHS release. I wouldn’t be calling Ghostbusters to rid my creepy dungeon basement of things that go bump in the night, and Marty McFly would have to go Back to the Future without me. And while my mom made me an E.T. costume for a party, I had no frame of reference for Elliott’s alien friend because I never saw the movie.

Hollywood movies were off-limits to my family and most of my friends because my pastors preached against it and the rules at my Christian school forbad students from attending. I never took a girl on a date to a movie, never spent a Saturday morning at a matinee, and have no frame of reference for a double feature. One of my buddies did sneak out and see Star Wars with some friends. He was suspended for two weeks from my Christian high school.

The nearly universal response from my friends to preaching against the evils of the theatre and Hollywood movies was mocking and debate. We demanded they justify to us the difference between watching a movie in a theatre and watching it at home later on a video tape or cable movie channel. Frankly, they had trouble answering some of our attacks, but they stuck to their guns. They told us Hollywood was a cesspool. They told us we might find good, even wholesome, entertainment every now and then, but the collection of filth far outweighed the singular examples we might offer. They told us the money we spent on “good” movies only supported the making of “bad” movies. We scoffed at their exaggerated and hysterical explanations of the Hollywood lifestyle. Most flatly rejected their warnings.

Fast forward to 2017. The #MeToo movement is naming names, and some of the biggest names in Hollywood find themselves in the crosshairs of angry victims. Megastars are telling stories of what they had to do to get a job on the screen or what was done to them. People you’ve never heard of are coming out against Hollywood kingpins, and the kingpins aren’t denying the charges. The wannabe stars could have said no but at the risk of forfeiting their careers.

Who is surprised by this…Bueller? Bueller?

The six main characters on the sitcom Friends had a total of 85 sexual partners over 236 episodes. Followers of Grey’s Anatomy offer a “sex chart” to keep track of who is hooking up with whom. A Seinfeldepisode shows Jerry and George, two characters in their 30s, discussing and rubbernecking at the cleavage of a 15-year-old. Sexual violence is an expected feature on Game of Thrones. The Lifetime Movie Network is in love with the “babysitter becomes the married man’s obsession” theme or the “high school hunk becomes the play toy of the frustrated housewife.”

Can we agree, Hollywood is a swamp?

To quote Darrell Harrison, “So, um, lemme get this straight. Hollywood generates billions of dollars in revenue, from films and other media, that glorify and promote sexual deviancy, yet is collectively horrified to learn of the real-life sexual deviancy of the individuals who produce such media?”

I am not advocating we kick any kids out of their Christian schools if they go see The Last Jedi over Christmas break. Further, I won’t judge you if plan to see Justice League or if you got your latest Marvel Comics rush over Thor: Ragnarok. I think this falls under your Christian liberty. I will say this to you – the people who made these films do not share the values of our Savior. Intentionally or not, their Christless, humanistic, shifting morals message comes through loud and clear. You will be impacted. The only question is to what extent and in what way. You can’t sit through thirty minutes of The Big Bang Theory or two hours of Wonder Woman and not have the muck from the swamp left on you. It is naïve to think otherwise. You will need to exercise the full range of your Christian discernment every time you walk into a theatre or every time you plop on the couch for the next episode of your favorite series. To do anything less puts your conscience and your holiness at risk.

My Christian friends, remember the instruction of the apostle, Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse (Philippians 4:8 MSG).

As always I welcome your feedback and any ideas you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Weeping with Those Who Weep

I don’t want to write about murders in the church.

From its earliest days the American church has gathered in meadows, in barns, and buildings to meet with the Lord Jesus. Among the group of fellow believers we feel safe. These are our brothers and sisters who share a common love for our Lord, each other, and our community. For a few hours each Sunday the problems of living in a sinful world remain outside our walls as we experience of bit of heaven’s glory in prayer, singing, and hearing from God.

It’s only been a little over two years since a killer entered the midweek prayer meeting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. He killed 9 that evening. It seems like a distant memory.

Last Sunday another killer passed through the doors of a small Baptist church in Texas and virtually decimated the entire congregation in satanically driven hatred. 27 dead and scores more wounded by injury and scarred by trauma perpetrated on family, neighbors, and friends.

Every Sunday morning before the church arrives at our building, I pray for the safety of God’s people who will gather that day. When we come together this Sunday morning, I will pray again. We are vulnerable not merely because we are a church but because we are human beings living in a world dominated by a murderer and a deceiver (John 8:44). Yet, we are not paranoid to gather together because we are confident in the promises of our Lord to bring us to himself (John 14:3) and we assert the testimony of Paul that “to die is gain.”

So, I will see you this Sunday not in defiance of the human haters but in defiance of the usurper to God’s throne. I will gather my family with yours because my confidence in my Lord is greater than my fear of Satan.

In recent Sundays Protestant churches across the globe sang Luther’s A Mighty Fortress Is Our God in celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. We do well to remember a portion of it.

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and pow’r are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us;
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

Brothers and Sisters from Texas,

Your faith is now sight. Your eternal rest will not disappoint. While your deaths leave us bewildered, weeping, and cautious, your life with Christ makes us hopeful. Would to God my last acts on earth before joining you in the presence of our Lord were joyful singing and trusting prayer before I breathe my last.

Until then.

As always I welcome your feedback and any ideas you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Christians Do Not Celebrate Death

Wait. What? Americans will spend more than$15 billion on candy, costumes, and decorations this Halloween, including $350 million on Halloween costumes for…wait for it…their pets. Yep, all across America Fido and Fifi will roam the neighborhoods as UnderDog and Jerry.

Some Christians have strong opinions about celebrating Halloween in any fashion. That’s completely understandable. They argue Halloween is a pagan festival in which Christians should have no part. Other Christians see the day as part of American culture; any connections to evil or spiritual darkness are the exception and not the norm. To them wearing an amusing costume and passing out candy to neighborhood children is simple fun. Wherever you land, there is a point at which all Christians should agree.

“I don't begrudge dress-up, can't complain about meeting neighbors and candy, but there's something sick about death as a decorating theme.” R.C. Sproul, Jr.

Dead figures swinging from front yard trees, decapitated bodies across the lawn, and the Grim Reaper silhouettes are the accepted Halloween trimmings in nearly every neighborhood. Otherwise sane people dress as vampires, It the clown, or the Headless Horseman either to scare the unsuspecting or to make a joke. And the zombie craze…

Can we Christians agree that decorating ourselves or our homes with elements of death denies the very core of our Christianity?

Death is our greatest enemy. Over and again the Bible tells us what we know by experience, death is coming for all of us. Abel died. Adam died. Seth died. They all died. The Bible tells us “It is appointed for man to die once” and “Death passed upon all men.” Death is part of God’s judgment upon humanity for its open rebellion against Him since the Garden of Eden. Why would anyone want to dress their little boy as a deliverer of death or their little girl as one who has already died? There’s something wrong with that.

Jesus conquered death. The celebration for Christians must be the victory Jesus achieved over death. As Paul wrote, “O Death, where is your sting?” Because of Jesus’s death on the cross, death no longer reigns in the human experience. Where man brought death by his sin against God, Jesus brings life by His obedience to God (Romans 5:19). Christians always celebrate life. We mourn at every death and every expression of death.

If you so choose to welcome later today to your front door the children and families in your neighborhood, have the best treats you can give away. Be the smiling, happy, generous guy or nice lady all the kids talk about in school on Wednesday. Meet and talk with your neighbors who never seem to have the time other nights of the year when you are trying to build a bridge that leads to gospel conversations. Just do not applaud death or any of its agents.

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

The Church at Prayer

We believe in the importance and power of prayer for the life of the church. We value corporate prayer in large settings like a worship service, in our church-wide small groups, when some gather midweek, and at special occasions like our upcoming 12-Hour Prayer Emphasis. Among the many benefits, we believe corporate prayer promotes unity and benefits from our unity.

In a recent adult education class we considered many ways to pray for our church. The list* appears below. What would you add to the list?

• Pray for the regular preaching of God’s Word.
• Pray for our witness of unity in diversity.
  Pray for our evangelism and for conversions.
• Pray for our daily lives this week at work and at home, that we would do good, honor God, and commend the Gospel.
• Pray that we would see relationships in the local church as part of what it means to be a Christian.
• Pray that we would understand the need to make our relationships here transparent, to tell embarrassing things about ourselves and ask awkward questions.
• Pray that we would expect conversations with other church members often to be deep and often theological in nature.
• Pray that we would think it important to encourage each other with Scripture.
• Pray that we would see part of being a Christian as being a provider and not a consumer.
• Pray that we would not see service in the local church as being primarily about meeting our own felt needs by utilizing our giftedness but about bringing God glory.
• Pray that we would not see it as unusual when our lives become increasingly centered around the local church.
• Pray that we would see it as unusual when a member’s life seems to keep church on the periphery.
• Pray that we would see hospitality as an important part of being a Christian.

As always I welcome your feedback and any ideas you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

* The list above is from Living As a Church, a Core Seminar at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC.