Humility and a Gay wedding cake

What would I do if I was a baker and a gay couple asked me to bake a wedding cake for them?  That is not going to happen; I am not a very good cook.  My Ramein Noodle Venison Stew Surprise was described a “snasty” by my daughter.  What ever it means snasty is not good.  Not being a baker or cook I need to be careful about pronouncements of what a Christian baker ought to do.   Additionally, as far as I know no baker will answer to me for anything other than perhaps how much I like his or her pastries.  So I will attempt to keep from offering judgments on someone else’s servants.

However, I am disturbed by a development that has occurred within the Christian community as our faith and convictions come into contrast with the convictions of others in the marketplace and society as a whole.  I get an uneasy feeling when I hear Christian individuals or organizations asserting their rights, legal rights, artistic rights, civil rights, etc. etc.  My problem is that we assert and cling to our rights as if they are the most important possession we have.   We must not be flippant about our legal standing and the importance of our freedoms.   But I believe that this is the wrong hill to die on.  Let me offer my opinion on the matter. 

In a growingly divided, secular, and post Christian culture winning a victory for our rights as Christians on moral grounds will become less and less likely.    But it will continue to create a division across which it will become more and more difficult to bridge separation and share the Gospel.  The moment we frame the conflict in terms of our RIGHTS we have lost both the cultural battle (it is not an even playing field) and the opportunity to be a witness of the grace of Christ.

I make a habit of reading the Gospels frequently.  It is my practice to read them at least once a year.  While I am not a scholar I am amazed at how much or rather how little Jesus talks about asserting our rights.  He talks a great deal more about face slapping than rights demanding.  He also tended not to work within the political system to accomplish His ends.  Prior to His trial you can count on one hand all of Jesus’ comments about political leaders and you will not need all your fingers. 

Paul, who is very clear of the immorality of homosexual behavior, in Colossians 3 gives some good advice for those of us who are employed: Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.  Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.  Many early Christians were slaves to pagan masters.  As such they may have been required to do things they would rather not do.  But Paul calls for sincere service toward these heathen. If I imagine that everyone who walks through the door of my shop as my earthly master then I have to take a humble attitude toward him or her.

And don’t forget that God is smart enough to know our hearts.  Remember the case of Naaman the Leper who was healed.  As a follower of the one true God he had a dilemma.  In 2 Kings 5 we see: “In this matter may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.”  He (Elisha) said to him, “Go in peace.”  To bake a cake for a gay couple doesn’t mean that I endorse gay marriage any more than Naaman’s bowing in the Temple of Rimmon means that he worshiped that snasty pagan god. 

Jesus was a friend of sinners.  Tax collectors who betrayed God’s chosen people to women with promiscuous reputations Jesus was a friend of sinners.  Who has a better chance of having the conversation with the gay person who will face the moment of crisis? The person who says, “My religion will not let me work for you,” or the person who builds a relationship with them.  It has been my experience that gay people are some of the unhappiest people I have ever known.  They tend to be hurting deeply and I believe that pain can be an opportunity to share the love of Christ, but not if I have presented myself as in some way being superior.

We all must follow our own convictions, but it is my earnest opinion that a person marked by humble grace will have a better chance of speaking truth into the life of a sinner, than a person (no matter how correct they are) that demands their rights and their convictions be respected. 

How not to waste $100 Billion Dollars.

Last week we looked at the $100 Billion dollars that the church in America spent on buildings with only negligible results.  How do we make sure that we do not contribute to that pattern?   How can we avoid reckless spending for buildings that may not accomplish anything?

There are two things we need before we even begin to talk about any spending of God-given resources.  These come to us in the form of two questions.  Question #1: Why has God put us here?  Question #2: What are we doing about it?

That first question is about the mission of the church, which generally speaking is to make disciples. We must develop, teach, and live an understanding of the Mission of the Church as the God-given calling for the church. A conviction that the church and therefore any funds will fulfill God’s calling is profoundly powerful.  Or more simply put everyone in your congregation needs to be able to explain why you exist.   That statement needs to be repeated frequently and talked about often.  If your mission statement is small, tepid, weak or selfish your giving will be as well.  A well- developed mission statement is not a luxury it is a necessity.  It is not enough for this sense of vision to be in the heart and mind of the leaders it must permeate the congregation.  “We exist to accomplish this in the kingdom of God, if you are not fully committed to that perhaps you need another congregation” is not too strong a statement. 

The second question is about what we are doing to accomplish God’s calling and purpose for us.  We need folks to say, “Here is what God is doing in my life and I am going to share it.”  That will create in your congregation an authentic excitement and enthusiasm for the church.  It is evident that the will of God for this people, at this time, is being fulfilled.  What tools do we need for EVERY PART of the congregation to be effective in accomplishing God’s calling for the whole congregation?

This leads us to a fundamental shift in the way we think about our buildings and for that matter everything else about the congregation.  If we see all the assets of the church to be dedicated to the purpose of equipping the people of God to go and make disciples that function will result in a different form.  But for the last few generations we have seen the objective as having people come to our building to be entertained and/or educated with the goal that they might become disciples.  This has resulted in our current situation. This second option is neither Biblical nor effective. 

Making disciples can be done in ways that do not require us to pander to the latest fad in the church-industrial complex.  Focusing our resources to maximize our disciple-making efforts for kingdom impact is the only way we can reverse the trend of the declining church in our culture. 

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.” Luke 12:48

This passage ought to strike terror in the hearts of every church leader but especially for those of us in American Churches.  According to data from the U.S. census Bureau and The Barna Group, in 1991, 49% of the people in the US attended church.  I realize that the term “attended church” is somewhat vague.  By 2006 that number had dropped to 47%.  I honestly have my doubts about those percentages. In surveys people tend to over report their attendance.  Additionally, attending four times a year is a little different from attending four times a month.  Percentage of people attending church is a little difficult to count.

It is easier to count spending.  During that same period of time churches in the U.S. spent approximately 100 billion dollars on church buildings. (That is a stack of $100 dollar bills 63 miles high.)  This does not include salaries for staff, programing, operational costs, transportation or education and training.  Strictly the cost of buildings was $100,000,000,000 with a net loss of 2% in attendance. Let’s play a little game. 

·      We will pretend that we were in the business world.  We have been part of a management team that has spent $100,000,000,000 of stockholder money and are now reporting to the board of directors a 2% decline. What would our employment future be? 

·      What if we were a defense contractor having spent $100B on a weapons system that was 2% less effective than the system it replaced.  What would happen to our contract?

·      What if we were tenant farmers who spent $100B of the farm owner’s money on equipment and all we have to show for it was a 2% reduction in grape production?  What would the farm owner do to us?

May I suggest this in not a game?  There are people in the world who have never heard the gospel.  I was once told that over all, 1% of U.S. church giving goes to foreign missions and only 1% of foreign mission funds are directed toward unreached people groups.  There are an estimated 5,574 unreached people groups in the 10/40 window.  What if during those 16 years the churches in the U.S. had directed $180 million dollars toward each of those people groups?  What difference would that have made in the church worldwide? 

I am not saying we should have no church buildings; they can, in fact, be helpful tools for ministry.  I am not saying that all building projects are evil.  I have lead congregations I have served and other churches in building campaigns.  But before we spend one penny on a new building we need to remember that a church building is a tool.  We must remember that its sole purpose is to facilitate the equipping of the saints for the task of making disciples.  There is much more to say but I am still struggling in developing my understanding of the intersection of the ministry of the church and the role of buildings.  I am, however, certain that we have been given much, have not managed it well and will one day be required to give an account.

We can’t out-Disney Disney!

As the church we will never be able to out-Disney Disney, but that is not to say that many churches will not try.  This past week in my travels I passed a church that had a large children’s building.  It was the typical big-box, ugly, metal building but was decorated to attract children and likely their families to the church. Emboldened on the building were the words, “iKids Worship, Fun, Games.”  It was less like Disney than a Crazy Ed’s fireworks in Tennessee from 45 years ago.  It is attractional ministry geared for kids.  I have no doubt that the church and the leaders are faithful sincere people and they are motivated by a high commitment to Christ and His Kingdom.  The attractional model of ministry is the template that dominates our churches.  It goes something like this: have a space, put together excellent programing and gathering events, draw a crowd, preach to the crowd, hope the crowd grows, expand and repeat.  It was what I was raised on and taught.  The variation between highly traditional and highly contemporary churches is not that great; it is more a matter of style and preference.   The growth strategy that 60 years ago attracted youth to the church basement for the “World’s Longest Banana Split” (a bunch of ice cream in a rain gutter) is the same strategy that has an arcade, climbing wall or bowling alley in the youth center.  Please do not use the argument of pragmatism, “We can attract more teens with the new stuff.”  If numbers are the matrix I can get more teenage boys with free pizza and wings served by Hooter girls than you can with a climbing wall and have a devotional afterwards. 

Here are three failures of the attractional model for the church:

#1  It is non-biblical.

We need to distinguish between non-biblical and anti-biblical.  For this case non-biblical will mean those things that are neither commanded, nor forbidden, nor even mentioned for the church in the Bible.  Examples of such things would be printed Bibles or even buildings for that matter.  Anti-Biblical things are those specifically forbidden, such as sexual license or suing fellow Christians.  Jesus never commanded His people to go build a facility and then attract people to come.  The great commission is rather specific about the means by which the church fulfills its command.  Non-biblical things are not inherently evil-I believe air conditioned and heated places for worship are good things.  But what we have to a great degree done is completely ignore the Biblical model and rely solely on the non-Biblical, attractional model.

#2  It is non-effective.

In the big picture the attractional model is non-effective.  If the goal of the Christian community is to be salt and light in the world the American church is failing.  I hate to use this term but it is the one that works best: We are losing market share for the hearts and minds of America.  According to the Washington Post it is predicted that the number of people who identify as Christians (just over 250 million) will remain the same for the next 30 years.  During that time people who identify as “no religious affiliation” will nearly double from just over 50 million to over 100 million.[1]  While church attendance numbers are reported to be holding their own it is doing so in a population growing away from the Christian faith.  I personally doubt that attendance is static; my observations convince me that attendance is in decline.  Most of the “growth” that is occurring in the American church is transfer growth.  People move from a church that has air hockey in the youth room to a church that has a climbing wall in the youth building.  The shift is from the church with a music team on stage to a church that has a concert event every week.   The result is the American church is losing its saltiness and is much less the light of the world.  While this may build a few big churches it is pretty bad at reaching the lost, but is best at producing nominal Christians.

#3  It is non-disciple making.  

Finally, the attractional model is not good at making disciples.  If a disciple is a person who loves, follows and lives like their master our churches are not making disciples of Jesus. For a generation we have been spending massive amounts of time, energy, effort, and resources on building these attractional churches.  We should assume that the result would or should be evidence of discipleship.  The evidence points in the opposite direction.  The use of porn by Christian men mirrors the national average and the use of porn by Christian women is actually higher than the national average for women.[2]  The divorce rate for nominal Christians is about 20% above the national average.[3]  If you compare the states with the highest numbers of churches and the churches with the highest number of out-of-wedlock births you find that the Bible belt is also the Un-wed mother belt.[4]  In fact, no state in the Bible belt is in the bottom half of the nation in the rate of out-of-wedlock births.  Perhaps to attract people to our weekend services we have offered a cheap grace.  We have enough of the Bible to preach against porn, divorce and sexual promiscuity, but not enough discipleship to avoid participation.

I do not have all the answers; I may not have even one answer.  But I do know that denial is never a good solution.  But pretending that if we were able to out-Disney Disney and draw larger crowds we can fulfill the great commission is simply denial. 

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[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/04/03/what-america-will-look-like-in-2050-less-christian-less-white-more-gray/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.82f9373311e2

[2] https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/pornography-use-among-self-identified-christians-largely-mirrors-national

[3] https://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-divorce-rate.html

[4] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/unmarried/unmarried.htm

https://www.movoto.com/blog/opinions/most-religious-states-map/