Reservation for Two

There's a couple that have been attending our church. Retired from first careers into owning and operating a functional cattle ranch nearby, they have been married 34 years. Several months ago, I went to their home to visit them. They've been very faithful in attending the worship service since then. She's lost; he's a Christian. Until last night. I wish I were eloquent enough to describe to you the spiritual celebration we had in that living room. And the celebration spread for the remainder of the evening, as members of our congregation arranged Sunday School connections, and made preparation for Sunday (I'll be out-of-town when they are presented to the congregation). Until late in the evening I was sharing this good news with members of our church as we worked to welcome this new sister in Christ. It is always a great thing to witness Christ bringing a new member into the family. Always. But there's just something special about seeing a family united in their faith. I grew up going to church at just the right time to be exposed to films like "A Thief in the Night" while at an impressionable age. Thinking about the return of Christ often conjures up in my mind glimpses of Patty Myers wondering where her husband went. Whatever your eschatological convictions, we know that eternity will separate husbands from wives... ...but not in this family. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

The Myth of Hard-Hearted Southern Baptist Conservatives

Disaster Relief

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is the third-largest disaster relief organization in the United States of America. Normally people don't crow about the bronze medal, but consider who comes in ahead of us: The American Red Cross (ARC) and The Salvation Army (TSA). Disaster relief items get top billing for those two groups, while for Southern Baptists it is decidedly secondary to the propagation of New Testament churches. Still, can you imagine ARC or TSA being on the receiving end of the tongue-wagging, finger-pointing lectures that Southern Baptist conservatives receive about not caring for hurting people, all while we're dishing out upwards of 90% of the meals that ARC feeds people in disaster situations? I don't think so.

Poverty Assistance

Yesterday, while I was at the dedication of a new disaster relief unit, teams from FBC Farmersville were making repairs to the houses of two impoverished families in our community. Of course, this will slip entirely under the public radar (OK, except for this blog post). The government had no role in it, so it will not appear in their statistics. We did not alert the media to come take pictures of us being generous. In a very "Matthew 6" kind of way, we quietly and simply went about doing good.

I do see changes in the way that Southern Baptist churches assist the poor—changes reflective of overall shifts in our ecclesiological paradigm. Once upon a time with regard to missions, benevolence, etc., our paradigm was more-or-less to invite people to pay for someone else to do it. Now, although we still collect money, individual church members desire to be more involved hands-on: thus, the kind of event we had on Saturday.

Polls have indicated that conservative evangelicals are among the most generous people on earth. Southern Baptists fit into that category for these purposes. But, because Congress didn't get to vote on things like our ministry on Saturday and because nobody's political coalition got to take credit for it, people chastise Southern Baptists as though this kind of ministry were not going on every week across the nation.

The Eternal Gospel

Of course, I'll grant that the Southern Baptist apparatus emphasizes evangelism over the meeting of physical needs. That's exactly how things ought to be, and I will not apologize for it. If a person is going to Hell, it matters not whether he goes from a neat little Habitat house or a slumlord tenament. Southern Baptists perform a lot of ministry to physical needs, but such ministry is subservient to our efforts to share the gospel.

Ben Cole has observed on his blog:

If Southern Baptists would commit to issues of social justice with the same rallying cry that founded the Cooperative Program for the task of world missions — namely that we can do more together than we can apart — we might find the good and pleasant blessing promised of God when brothers dwell together in unity.

I'm glad that Ben has a heart for helping people. We all benefit from that spirit. But Southern Baptists are already committed to appropriate issues of social justice. I don't know that our approach has been any less effective than LBJ's forty-year-and-counting War on Poverty and whatever else the government is doing to address "issues of social justice." The image of Southern Baptists as disengaged from the plight of hurting people is simply unfounded, unsubstantiated liberal stereotyping (i.e. liberals are the origin of it, whoever may be repeating it). And one can understand the need for the stereotype, because if liberals cannot convince themselves that they are the more-enlightened, more-compassionate among us, then what do they have left?

I'm all in favor of us doing more. Let's become #1 in Disaster Relief. Let our churches be even more involved in ministering to physical needs. But frankly, I agree with Nathan Finn that our greatest need for improvement is in the area of sharing the eternal gospel, not the social gospel. I'll guarantee you that a good number of the people working on houses for us yesterday have never personally presented the gospel of Jesus Christ to anyone. But we're working on that.

Now I'll be accused of "triumphalism." :-)

This Weekend

This weekend was wonderful. The Intercession Sunday was one of the best things we have ever done. Allow me to sketch out the day for you:

1. We began with baptism—always a good start.
2. We sang for a while, and John did a great job.
3. Testimony: One of my foremost objectives for the day was to have a serious, hopeful service focused on the power of God to address our problems, but to do so in a way that was theologically honest. Two families in our church stood up together and gave a joint testimony to the power of God. Eleven years ago, the McGuires and the Jameses both discovered that their children had leukemia. Our church ministered to both families at precisely the same time. These two families kept up with each other on the phone and in person, praying with one another weekly. The McGuires' little girl was healed—full remission. Justin James died. These two families stood and glorified a God who is able to work powerfully both in situations where we get what we ask for and in situations where we do not. There was not a dry eye in the house.
4. Sermon: My big mistake was in scheduling myself to speak immediately after that testimony. I was quite choked up in the early service. I preached from John 9 and 2 Corinthians 12. In both cases, people asked God for healing. The godliest, holiest, and most believing of the two was the one who wasn't healed. Yet the emphasis in both passages is upon the power of God. In the case of the man born blind, God demonstrated His power by healing the man. In Paul's case, God demonstrated His power by not healing him. Our prayer ought to be that God will show Himself powerful in our lives, however that might happen. Let us never throw in the towel and act as though our God is weak. Let us remember that God demonstrates His power in many ways.
5. Prayer for the sick: We invited all of those who wanted prayer for any physical illness to remain seated while the congregation stood. I encouraged members who were standing to go to someone seated, ask them for what they wanted prayer, and to pray for them. This took about four minutes.
6. Prayer for relational, emotional, financial, employment, etc., problems: We provided index cards throughout the pews. I invited all of those who had a problem in one of these areas or who knew someone who had a problem in one of these areas to write out the specifics on a card, bring it to the altar, and place it face down. I assured them that immediately after the service I was going to shred the cards without reading them. The floodgates opened. I saw some people bringing cards two or three separate times. After everyone had brought all of the cards that they wished to bring, I led us in prayer for the needs represented there.
7. Prayer for spiritual healing: Using the same index cards, I invited people to bring cards for anyone they knew who was lost or in rebellion against God. I also invited them to come to the altar and pray for anyone they wished or for their own spiritual awakening. Also, our pastors stood at front to receive any who wished to make public commitments.

So far, it has been a thoroughly positive experience. It touched many people in our church to see how many needs there were. Our people felt closer to one another having prayed for one another's problems. Of course, we still await word of how God has answered the prayers we lifted up on Sunday. May He demonstrate Himself powerful and bring glory to His name!

So, there's a report from the weekend. Regular blogging will resume later this week, once this week's service is safely planned well.

Speaking of regular blogging, I find that I'm a much, much better pastor the past few days since I'm not blogging. I'm not giving it up, but I'm seriously considering expanding the number of contributors to Praisegod Barebones. That would keep the site consistently running but would prevent any one person from being overburdened. First Baptist Church of Farmersville runs about 330 in Sunday School and has three pastors. That's big enough to keep me really busy but not quite big enough to have the luxury of delegating out a whole lot of stuff. God called me to preach, not to blog, so I'm looking for a way to remain faithful to my calling while continuing to pursue this little avocation that I have come to enjoy so much. I have a couple of people in mind already...folks who do not already have a blog but ought to. I'll let everyone know what I come up with.