Between two Memorial Days

Later today my wife and I will attend a service of quiet memory.  It will be a Memorial Day celebration held at a local American Legion Hall.  We will, with others, consider the heroic sacrifices of our service men and women who, over the years and wars of our nation, have given their all in the name of our nation.  

It is hard to call this a celebration because as Ronald Reagan said a memorial represents “a tear in the fabric, a break in the whole.  They gave up two lives.  The one they were living and the one they would have lived.”  We look back on the fallen as heroes, with a wholesome nostalgia that inspires us to do our part for home and country. 

The past is a memory painful to recall.  The lives we remember were tragically cut short of their potential.  As precious as these memorials are they will always be painful and marked with one over arching question, “Was it worth it?” This is a question that can only be answered in the abstract; yes, freedom is worth the blood of a nation’s sons.  But “Is it worth it?” is harder to weigh against the tears of an orphan or a widow. 

In the present we call today, will you obey the law that requires you to stop and remember?  In December 2000, Congress passed a law requiring Americans to pause at 3 p.m. local time on the last Monday in May for one minute of silence or prayer to remember and honor the fallen.  Being without penalty or consequence it’s more of a national suggestion than a law.  It represents 1/525,600 of our year. Memorial Day is more about the long weekend, summer vacations, cookouts and sales than the 60 seconds of silence.  For most the memorial part of the day is a footnote not the focus.

Today we will hear about the sacrifices of the past and how they secured our present freedom, and preserve our national rights for the future.  But it seems that future is somewhat in doubt.  We are a deeply divided nation and after each national election one side or the other talks about leaving.  We could make a long list of reasons, some very solid some farcical, as to why this nation is marching toward ruin and may not last.  Could it be that Memorial Day recalls the sacrifice of those who died in what will one day be a lost cause?  Memorial Day in the future tense is not a sure thing.

Do not imagine that I am dishonoring the service and sacrifice of men and women in uniform.  Mine is a military family, I number three uncles, a brother-in-law, and a daughter who served in the Navy; a brother, two nephews and a son-in-law who served in the Army, and a son and son-in-law who are active duty Navy.  When I think of the loss of life for military personnel it is a heart issue.  We need the perspective of Memorial Day.

Today we are between two Memorial Days. 

Yesterday, I participated in an altogether different Memorial Day, a memorial that is without the shadow and clouds that haunt today.  I was given a bit of unleavened bread and a sip of wine.   The words of the Apostle Paul came to me again.  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. _{I Corinthians 11:26}

These words bind all time together in a moment.  For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup in the present.  The Lord is with me in the moment.  Not just for the second or the minute that I take to remember.  There is in this moment and every moment the abiding and lasting presence of the Lord.  

This moment is also about the past, you proclaim the Lord’s death. The past historical event comes into this moment.  In time and space the Creator became man and as the ancient church said, “Who (Jesus), for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again…” As to the question was the sacrifice worth it? The answer is a resounding, “Yes!”  In fact, we know that “for the Joy set before Him He endured”… it was not just a worthy sacrifice it was worth the joy. 

As for the future, “you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes”.  In this Memorial I remember the past in the present and anticipate the future.  I love my country, but I know this is no eternal kingdom.  There will come a day when the United States of America will only be a note in history.  Not so the Kingdom of God and its Messianic banquet.

Between two Memorial Days we stand.   Both are filled with love and respect and admiration.  But only one fills the past, present and future with un-bounding hope and adoration.  To those who died we offer our respect and love, to the One who died and now lives eternally we give our worship and ourselves.

Maybe the cause of the decline of the American church is the way we try to grow the church.

Is it possible that the decline we are seeing in the church is the result of the way the church is conducting its ministry?

For the most part our approach to how we should do church is to produce great services or programs and then attempt to attract a crowd.  Sometimes that crowd is made up of non-believers, but more often than not the crowd we attract is made up of believers from other congregations.  Attendees of congregations that offer less in terms of services or programs are “ripe for the picking”.   So, we try to find that right combination of music, speakers, video, humor or experience so that those who visit will want to return. 

While this may offend folks on each end of the spectrum the contemporary church and the traditional church are in this way almost identical, they cater to those they want to have in their pews or chairs.  They both have their niche that they want to attract so they design their services and programs to appeal to that niche.   For some, that niche is the casual, cool, young adults that are pretty hip, laid back and appreciate a good concert.  For others the target is the person who likes a tie with their coat and admires the glory of the KJV.   Build the building, plan the service and implement the program, then let your niche know that you are there and they will, hopefully, come.  

My comments are not to target one group or the other.  It is happening across all boundaries of American Christianity.  “We are doing what you want so if you come and see it and like it, then you will join us” is the near universal creed.  I recently read of a very liberal congregation that was hoping to stem their decline with outreach ministry to LBGT, illegal aliens, and other ‘disenfranchised’ people.  I know of another church whose claim to fame is its declaration of the 1611 KJV, the only Bible.

I remember when the buzz was “felt-need, focused” ministry.  We were told to find out where people felt a need, fill that need with a program or ministry and these people would fill our churches.  One church plant went to an area where there was a perceived lack of adult sports and recreation activities so they built their ministry on a church softball team.  When softball season was over the church fizzled.  In Leadership Journal there was a cartoon of people taking the VCRs to church.   The sign out front read, “Meeting our community needs, we’ll program your VCR”.

The problem is a consumer mentality is insatiable.  It never says, “You have spoiled me now please stop.”  The result is that we have to dumb down content so that those who do not know anything about the gospel or want to can engage.  At the same time believers do not grow deeper in their faith because the church is consistently doing the latest, faddish thing to keep attracting larger and larger crowds.

Paul prophesied about it this way: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,” (2 Tim 4.3 NASB) There is always a teacher that will say what people want to hear.

The attraction model is based on giving people what they want.  We pattern around their wishes in order to achieve attendance, in hopes that they will see that Christianity fits their lives (contemporary) and needs (relevancy).  “Christianity fits your life and makes your life better” is the theme.  Which, by the way, is almost the perfect opposite of Jesus’ call to come and die with Him. 

As a result, we have a church that has become more and more secular, at times indistinguishable from the world. Shallow, knowing less and less about the Word of God and the practice of holy living.  Bored instead of standing in wonder at the God of the universe those in attendance become to the church what a food critic is to a restaurant.  The church finds itself on a treadmill desperately trying and failing to compete with Internet preachers, the latest Christian artist release, and with the allurement of the carnal world.  As I have said time and again, “We can’t out Disney, Disney World.”

Is there an alternative?  Yes, it is to return to the command of the Lord and as we go make disciples.   But that begins with the most difficult and painful step of dying to self that includes our agenda and wishes.

Finding courage to talk about money in church.

In the back woods and swamps of Florida there is a method of predicting a child’s career while they are still very young.   A toddler is placed in a room alone while his parents and grandparents watch through the window.  In the room on a low table are left three items, a Bible, a stack of money and a bottle of wine.  If the child picks up the Bible it indicates he will become a godly man perhaps a minister or a leader in his church.  If he picks up the stack of money it is evidence that he will become a capable man of business.  And if he picks up the bottle of wine it is an indication that he will become a man who dedicates his life to pleasure.

Voted most likely to be a Televangelist

On one such occasion a young couple called the family together, arranged the requested items on the coffee table and left their toddler in the room alone.  With great anticipation the parents and grandparents watched to see the little fellow’s future.  The little fellow without a moment’s delay walked over, picked up the Bible and then looking around the room secretively picked up the money and put it in the Bible.  He then put the Bible under his arm, walked over, took the bottle of wine and toddled off.  The parents were perplexed wondering what this would mean for their child, but the grandmother began to cry.   She looked at her children and with tears running down her cheeks said, “This is bad!  This is really bad.  He is going to become a televangelist.”

We laugh at this because of the stereotype associated with televangelists and their scandals.  The dirty dealing, corrupt, disingenuous conman on TV with big hair, a big Bible and promises of God’s blessing has become a cultural icon of American popular opinion. Jim Bakker and the PTL scandal of the mid 1980’s had a profound impact on you and your ministry.  You may have never read his books or attended his conferences or watched his TV shows, but what happened 35 years ago reshaped the way the church has thought, talked and addressed the questions of stewardship.

In the backlash of the televangelist indignities, preachers and churches have become reticent to talk about money.  I recently surveyed preachers asking how often they specifically preached about stewardship.  On average there is one sermon every 16 to 18 months.  The people in our congregations handle, use, spend or earn money every single day.  But as Christian leaders we only talk about the subject every year and a half on average. 

The typical church member gives, on average, 2.5% of their income to the church.  Sometimes as ministry leaders we complain when we see that our congregations make decisions about ministry based on self-centered agendas rather than on mission or ministry focused vision.  Additionally we, as leaders, complain about our churches not having the will and resources to take our ministry to the next level.  Perhaps our people are selfish about the vision of the church because we have failed to teach them the practice and discipline of self-sacrifice. 

 

The real value of teaching faithfully, Biblically and boldly about giving is not the resources that come into our ministry.  The real value is the spiritual maturity and change that happens in our people when they learn to sacrifice and give.  We can’t complain about the failure of our people to practice a spiritual discipline we don’t talk about. 

We have become so afraid that we will be labeled as a moneygrubber or that we will be charged with “preaching for the money”, so we steer clear of the subject almost entirely.  That is neither Biblical nor wise.  When we fail to speak frankly, passionately, and Biblically about stewardship we rob our people of the specific relationship they can enjoy with God.  We become focused on pleasing men rather than God.  We perpetuate a church that is crippled by the vices of selfishness and greed.  We restrain the work of the Holy Spirit, as He would confront us with our sin of loving possessions more than the lost.  We weaken our ministries and limit their effectiveness.

It is past time for us to speak Biblically about stewardship.  There will be people who will be offended.  So let them be offended.  There might be people who will leave and find another church.  We are better off without them.  People may say ugly, untrue things about our motives and us.  If our motives are pure God will not be bothered by their comments.

God has blessed the Church (Christian people) in America with resources unlike any time in the history of the church.  Why did God give us such great resources?  No doubt it is so that we can use these to advance the gospel around the world.  To those of us to whom much has been given much will be expected.  Call your people to give for the change it will bring in their lives and for the purposes of the kingdom around the world. 

At the intersection of great talent and a humble spirit

Let me offer a disclaimer.  When it comes to music I stink really bad.  In ninth grade after three years of band my teacher was exasperated that I could not do a four count.  I was about to fail band.  He made me the following offer.  “If you promise never to sign up for another band class, I will give you a passing grade!”  DEAL DONE

 

I know are real cowboy now!

I like music but my taste has been described as odd.  Only on my MP3 player can you find a mix of Gregorian chants, military marches and Celtic worship songs with, “Brick house”, “Frankenstein”, and “She blinded me with Science”.  In fact, my MP3 player has more spoken word tracks than songs. (Psalms, Acts, Mark, two secular books, and a lecture on public speaking) 

When I speak about music and musicians it is not from a technical or artistic point of view.  Also, I NEVER endorse anyone or anything for compensation.  If I recommend something it is because of a heart-felt conviction and not because I am being compensated. (With the exception of my own book of course)  Having said that, I want to recommend to you the music and ministry of Kevin Rowe.

I met Kevin at a ministry clinic last week.  (I will write more about that awesome clinic in the near future)  I was one of the speakers and Kevin was doing the music thing playing guitar and singing.  I got the chance to visit with Kevin and get to know him a little better than just watching him on stage.  Kevin is a remarkable combination of talented musician, humble servant, and dedicated man of God.  I have met more than a few musicians that were all about being the star.  Kevin was all about pointing people to Christ.  His story is one of failure and grace and is worth hearing if you can get him to tell it.  But the hero of Kevin’s story is always Jesus.

His musical style is a fusion of Christian, County, and Rockabilly.  Kevin’s music would fit fine in a worship service on Sunday morning or at a church concert some night of the week.  But I believe the best use of his talents would be an outreach for your church in a secular venue like a park.  Kevin can be a great bridge for evangelism if you live and serve in an area with a strong country music following, which is pretty much everywhere.  At the very least, I strongly recommend you contact Kevin and get his album PS and enjoy some great music. 

Now I have to find a place for Kevin’s music somewhere between Pachelbel's Canon in D and the Talking Heads Burning down the House.

To contact Kevin you can use his webpage: http://www.prodigalsons4god.com/

Or email him at: prodigalsons4god@yahoo.com