Category: theological rant

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Public Servants.

Here’s my fear.  By posting something during this administration, following this speech, and during this congress, you might think I am trying to make a political statement in favor of one party over the other.  Rest assured that I think the elephant in the room has acted just as much like a jackass as anybody.

I want this, though, to be less of a statement, and more of a question.  I am not going to pretend that I don’t have an opinion. I do. But my question is simple: when the President says the federal government is going to cut spending, why doesn’t he (or any one of the members of any of the other parties represented) take a voluntary pay cut?  Commit to earing the same amount as a middle school science teacher during your 4 years, and I’ll believe that you are serious about balancing the budget.

Because what I saw tonight on the live stream of the State of the Union Address was a room full of $900 suits and $4,000 diamond broaches.  And it’s tough to hear you over the ticking of your Rolex.

Let me reiterate that even the suits that were sitting down most of the night were still custom-tailored. This is not a dig against just one party.

When my church went through their budget crisis last year, the first people to take a pay cut (by choice) were the senior teaching pastors.  And they announced that in front of everyone.  That’s leadership.

Want to gain back the trust of this American?  Simple.  Put your money where your mouth is.

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Freestyling on Church Hunting.

We are open to suggestions, as long as those suggesting don’t take it too personally if we don’t go to (or try out) their church.  Here’s some rough idea of what we are looking for: We are ok with PCA churches, Sovereign Grace churches, Acts 29 churches, and other theologically conservative, reformed type churches.  If we could go to any church on the planet it would be Tim Keller’s church in NYC, so that tells you an ideal to shoot for.  I want a church that has a missions focus driven by the gospel.  To be honest, culturally or politically conservative churches kind of scare me.

Also, since we are going to be living in Holly Springs, distance is near the top of the list.  I like the idea of a community to get plugged into.  I don’t want to drive 45 minutes to church.

Now for some things that will immediately turn me off about a church:

  1. If they don’t do background checks on ALL childcare workers.  I know you know everyone that works with children and have since they were kids… but I don’t know them.  I wouldn’t drop my kid off at a daycare without certification, and I am not going to drop them off at your church nursery either.  Those places without background checks are magnets for pedophiles.  All they have to do is pretend they like Jesus.
  2. If the sermon focuses more on making me a better person than pointing me to a better person (Jesus).  I don’t need self-help.  I need saving.
  3. If I get even a hint of “God will bless you if you give” from your church, I’m out.  God has blessed me in Christ, so I give.  Never the other way around.

We are looking forward to finding a new church, but we hate to be leaving a church here in Asheville that is amazing.  But God is big enough to have more than one amazing church.  I’ve been a member of THREE amazing churches, during and since college.

Bring on number 4.

Where should we go to church in the Triangle?

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The Most Significant Thing.

After a great weekend leading the music at a conference in Atlanta (and thereby missing the second big snowstorm of the season in Asheville), I am overwhelmed again that God has called us to be on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ.

The conference this time around was “Preview”–so named because we use it as a way to give a select group of hand-picked soon-to-graduate students a preview of staff life.  Except that in this fantasy-land preview, staff life includes the region paying for them to stay at a wonderful hotel (meals and everything covered).

And though we use it as a way to recruit new staff, this conference (in the two years I have attended) has served each time to be a fantastic re-hashing of my own personal call to ministry with Campus Crusade.  Roger Hershey, the speaker for the weekend (and a guy who’s been on staff with CCC for 37 years), cut me to the heart when he challenged us to be about not only loving Christ, but about the amazing privilege of mobilizing students to go to the ends of the earth.  Possibly the most significant thing any of us could be about in this life is the mobilizing of people toward fulfilling the great commission.

And you and I get to do that every day.  Thank you for your gifts, prayers, and heart to see God move on the college campus.

How are you mobilizing people to fulfill the great commission?

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If Dave Matthews Had it All…

“If I had it all, tell me what in the world would I sing for?” (one potentially offensive word involved, 3/4 of the way through the song)

Well, Dave, it depends entirely on how you got it all.  People that earn it all tend to be a bit paranoid about losing it.  And that causes them to stop singing entirely.

On the other hand, people that are freely given it all are the ones that keep singing about it.  We can’t seem to help ourselves.

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Tim Tebow, Abortion, and the Gospel.

I’ll be honest, I’ve gone every direction on this one. (and before we get into it, none of the directions I have gone or will go represent the views of my employer or anyone else)

In case you haven’t heard, Tim Tebow is at the center of a firestorm regarding a pro-life advertisement set to run during the Super Bowl on Sunday.

I started out frustrated that the Christian right-wing was building their soapbox again. Before you freak out and think I am OK with abortion, hear me out.  Abortion is murder.  But so is hating pro-choice people.   Furthermore, it is such a politicized issue that you can’t tell the red tape from the genuine issues without an answer key.  And while I think abortion is a cut-and-dried issue, I don’t think that solving the crisis is as simple as legislating it.  There are hearts involved that need changing.  And there’s almost no fact more biblically true than “laws don’t change hearts.”

Then I started to read more about it, and have gotten pretty frustrated at the pro-choice lobby (which is really showing itself to be more pro-abortion than pro-choice, as astutely pointed out in a great article in the Washington Post yesterday).

Here’s the bottom line, for me:  I am glad that God has called some Christians to the front line of the abortion issue, because it is clearly taking a life when you abort a baby.  And taking lives in the numbers we are currently is nothing short of a holocaust.  But even in saying that, I am potentially alienating folks who otherwise might listen to the gospel.  You don’t have to be pro-life to become a Christian. (Although, if you are persuaded that the Bible is God’s word, it’s tough to remain in favor of abortion in any way. The Bible is not silent on the issue.  John the Baptist worshiped Jesus from within his mother’s womb.  Pretty strong argument for personhood.)

God has called me to be about one thing: proclaiming the gospel, over and over.  And part of the gospel that I proclaim is that I am not right. What bothers me about many pro-life lobbyists is that they argue from a position of “I am right, you are wrong.”  That type of finger-wagging and pretentiousness will never change anyone’s opinion.  Jesus met with the most heinous sinners of his day, and all of them (with the noted exception of the religious right-wing, who I’d argue are the worst of the sinners) were drawn to him.  We could learn much from his approach.

Now, I haven’t seen the ad by Tebow and Focus on the Family, but here’s my hope: I hope they lobby to individuals and not to Washington.  And I hope they don’t start from a position of finger-wagging, but of humility.  Even if we are right in the argument, we don’t have to win the philosophical debate.  Our acceptance, worth, and value are not tied to our ability to save the babies.  Jesus, after all, is in control.

What do you say? Is this a hornet’s nest I should have avoided? Why or why not?

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