It’s a common enough complaint, so much so that I doubt many would challenge the underlying assumption. Get the right band playing the right songs, the right hipster telling the right jokes, the right technology creating the right ambiance and soon you’ll be adding campuses all across town. My precious wife calls it “big screens, skinny jeans and fog machines.” We of the small churches are quick to grumble, and to lay the blame at the feet of church growth gurus and brand managing hirelings.
There is plenty of blame to go around. No doubt those gurus and hirelings should take some of the blame. Perhaps we of the small churches might want to take some responsibility as well, since we are quick to grumble and such isn’t known to draw crowds. There is, however, one group that often slips under the radar- the sheep who flock to such places. Could it be that one key reason that most cities and towns are overrun with mega-churches is because most cities and towns have citizens demanding such churches?
Bill Hybels lit this fire decades ago when he sent his soldiers to the highways and byways around Chicago asking unbelievers what they didn’t like about church, and then set about to construct a service devoid of those pesky things. It didn’t take long for others to realize the same approach would work with an even easier demographic- believers. Tired of preaching that convicts? We’ll get rid of it. Had enough of the whole accountability thing? Just come and go as you please, and we promise no one will bug you. Prefer church camp music to church music? No problem, just Kum ba yah.
Sheep, not surprisingly, prefer that which demands the least of them, and so demand hirelings that will meet their demands. Of course the hirelings are guilty too. But we shouldn’t forget that while you can lead a sheep to meat you can’t make it eat. One veteran shepherd friend of mine pointed out that even those who leave one one inch deep church because of its one inch deep weaknesses tend to move down the street to 2nd Inch Deep Church of What’s Happening Now. We grumble about what we’re being fed, and then line up to get some more.
The cycle will not be broken until both sheep and shepherds get on the same page. Pastors must be committed to preaching for the Great Shepherd rather than to the flock. And flocks must insist that their shepherds lead rather than follow. They must not be satisfied with the thin gruel of shared observations wittily delivered, demanding instead the demanding but freeing Word of the living God. Pastors need to have a deeper faith in the power of the Word, and a deeper faith in the hunger of the sheep. Sheep must have a deeper faith in the power of the Word preached.
We all need to realize that we cannot get more by expecting less, whether of our shepherds or of our sheep. We are to spur one another on to righteousness, to encourage one another in the race as together we run to the Good Shepherd.
Dear Dr. Darwin:
There is an interesting angle on teleology that is rather like tossing a bat to see which team is up first, in the reverse. You may not remember that children’s game. One captain tosses the bat to the other who wraps a fist around the bat. Tosser captain then wraps his fist around the bat just above the catcher captain. They crawl up the length of the bat until the last one to be able to get a grip wins. We do this in a backwards sort of way when we try to get at why we believe what we believe.
Your great contribution to western civilization was not an explanation as to why so many of us believe in God. Your contribution was to make it seem less silly not to. Marx and Freud, Feuerbach and Nietzsche explained to us why we believed in God. God was, in one way or another, a coping mechanism. He was either a way to deal with our suffering, our weakness, even our ennui. We made God, according to these men, because he met a need. You, on the other hand, took away a need.
Before The Origin of the Species, atheism suffered from one great weakness. It could not account for everything. Indeed, it could not account for anything. The “God hypothesis,” however much we might not like it, was the only explanation we could come up with for the existence of the universe, of ourselves. All other options forced us into a crude variation of rabbits out of a hat, flies out of rotten meat, something out of nothing. You, of course, did not answer that because you cannot answer that. Instead, you did a little slight of hand, and gave us not something from nothing, but everything from a very little something. Take as a given the material universe in its most basic form, add the magic dust of random selection and survival of the fittest, and out of the soup we crawl.
Now that we have no need of God to explain ourselves, we find ourselves as gods. Indeed while your fashionable intellectual Olympians waxed eloquent about why we might construct gods for our well being, they missed why they might seek to kill Him for their well- being. They, and you, want to live in a universe wherein you will answer to no one. God must die, because God is our judge. You did not land on Galapagos as a dispassionate, disinterested observer of reality, intent only on discovering truth for truth’s sake. You fled there as surely as Adam fled before you, that you might hide your shame from your Maker.
I’ve got to hand it to you, not as a scientist, but as a marketer. You belong not with the intellectual giants of the 19th century, but with the mythical grifter who made the Emperor’s new clothes. You constructed out of hole cloth (pun intended) a suit that was suitable for all men in rebellion against their maker. You’re no scientist, you’re an entrepreneur. You saw a market need, and you met it, with this bizarre tale that we were once monkeys and grew up to be something else, that birds were once fish.
Of course by now you know this has done you no good. If Marx were right, that we feel the need to believe in God because He offers hope for a better life in the beyond, that doesn’t, of course, mean there is no God who offers hope for a better life in the beyond. I want there to be a candy bar in my pocket. That I have this desire will not make the candy bar in my pocket cease to exist. Our wanting to believe in something, in short, will not drive that something out of existence. Thinking otherwise we call the fallacy of Bulverism. Worse for you, wishing something doesn’t exist doesn’t, of course, make it go away. I wish I weighted about forty pounds less than I do. Wait just a second. Nope, all the pounds are still there. Which means, in turn, that your desire that God not be will not kill Him. You cannot cover your eyes and make Him disappear.
You knew this all along. You suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. For what may be known about God was plain to you, because God has made it plain to you. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that you are without excuse, just as all those who embrace your folly are without excuse. For although you knew God, you neither glorified Him as God, nor gave thanks to Him.
There’s the rub. You wrote The Origin of Species so that you would not have to acknowledge God. And in so doing you slapped Him across the face. You took His creation, the one wonder of the world, the great shouting symphony of His glory, the great dance of the spheres, and you called it a burp, a stumble, lint in a dryer. He, as you now know well, is not amused.
You have encouraged our species to forget its origin, and so God has given us over. We have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. We are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. We are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful. We invent ways of doing evil. All this, so that you could fool yourself into thinking each night as you went to sleep, that you could escape the wrath of God. May God in His grace topple your folly, so that more of our species might escape His wrath. May God in His grace reveal to us not just our origin, but our end. May we believe His promise that those who repent and believe shall inherit eternal life. And those who refuse, will be consigned to the outer darkness where there shall more weeping and gnashing of teeth, just like you.
In the King’s Service,
Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr.
There was some reason for optimism, even in the darkest days of COVID. Pastors with whom I spoke (admittedly a small sample size) all affirmed two things. First, despite not meeting live and in person, giving did not go down. For several churches, giving increased, as did virtual “attendance.” Second, perhaps based on the first point, they all were confident that when their doors re-opened their pews would be filled. The hope in the sails of these pastor friends wasn’t just the ongoing giving of the saints. It was the conviction that absence would make the heart grow fonder. Surely people would miss, even hunger and thirst for face-to-face interaction, to shake hands and to hug. Surely when the doors opened the floodgates would open. Not so much.
While I’m sure some churches are bursting at the seams at their IRL meetings (IRL= in real life for those of you too young or too old to know), many haven’t come close to pre-COVID numbers. Why? Virtual church turned one of the greatest appeals of the contemporary church up to 11. People want a worship experience. People want an engaging sermon. And people want to be left alone. While our hearts might not be quite so stirred by the band while we’re watching from our couch at home, the message can still grab us. And on that couch at home, no one will grab us. No one will make us feel awkward. No one will expect anything of us. No one will judge us.
Without scorching anyone for closing or for staying open during COVID, we should all be able to agree that we should be coming together. We know that because God commanded it. Hebrews 10:25 says we mustn’t forsake gathering together as is the custom of some. Have you been the some? Stop. You don’t know what you’re missing. The solution to the problem of COVID and church, meeting virtually, has become the problem. The solution is to jettison the solution.
Is it going to church more inconvenient? Of course it is. Will you, if you go back, miss out on some sleep? Probably. Are you more likely to catch something? Almost certainly. Can you get the same thing online? Not on your eternal life. When we embrace inconvenience, when we miss out on some sleep, when we expose ourselves to danger for the sake of the body, the body becomes stronger. Every member of it.
And to you churches. Go get the sheep. The Good Shepherd doesn’t allow the one sheep to wander off, so long as they can still have face time via Facetime. No. He goes and brings back the one. I know it’s scary. I know the sheep are skittish and you don’t want to drive them away. But face it. Being a shepherd is always scary and sheep are always skittish, and they are already away. You need to drive them home. Do you believe the Bible? The same book that says we mustn’t forsake the assembling together of the saints also says that the elders will give an account for their flocks (Hebrews 13:17). Let’s be shepherds, undershepherds under the Shepherd. Let’s love the flock face to face.
Some of our deepest challenges as believers involve dealing with the sins of others, particularly those whom we love. Whether it is a relative struggling with addiction, a best friend unfaithful to his spouse, or a loved one embracing sexual perversion we often feel caught between our genuine love for the sinner, our concern for the victims and our genuine revulsion at the sin. The bromide “Hate the sin, love the sinner,” while at least infused with a touch of wisdom, doesn’t typically answer all the hard questions.
When confronted with tough moral calls it’s often wise to slow down and define our terms. First, let’s consider what it means to attend a wedding. Attending a wedding is not at all like attending a concert, or going to a movie. First, when we attend a wedding we are endorsing it. There is a reason for the “publishing of the bans”- that part of marriage ceremony wherein the officiant asks for reasons the two should not be married. If we “hold our peace” we are in fact affirming the legitimacy of the wedding. Secondly, when we attend a wedding we are there to serve as witnesses of the vows. We are a legal party to the proceedings, with a call to see that the vows are kept. Is that something Christians should be doing?
It is true enough that there are plenty of reasons why Christians are called to object to some heterosexual marriages. Those unbiblically divorced are not in fact free to marry, and Christians should not attend such weddings either, for the same reasons. The argument isn’t that both parties are sinners, and therefore we shouldn’t go. All those who marry are sinners. The question is, is the wedding itself biblical?
Which brings us to our second term, “wedding.” One could argue that my original question is moot for the simple reason that there is no such thing as homosexual weddings. You can no more witness a homosexual wedding than you could draw a square circle. Weddings are between men and women. That said, those participating in these events believe they are participating in a wedding. Our attendance, no matter how well intentioned, encourages them in their delusion. Which is one key reason why they so object to our not attending their weddings, or our not beautifying them with cakes and flowers. If we won’t admit that the naked emperor is dressed to the nines, the state will be called and we will be ruined.
Homosexuality is at one and the same time like other sins and unlike other sins. It is like other sins in that it is forgivable, and a sin for which Jesus died. After all, such once were we (I Corinthians 6:9-11). While the behavior is rightly revolting, those caught up in it bear God’s image and are not beyond the reach of grace. It is unlike some sins, however, for two reasons. First, it is gross and heinous sin. The folly that all sins are equal has done great damage in the church and in the world. All sins are cosmic rebellion and are due the eternal wrath of God. But that doesn’t mean they are equal. Second, unlike most other sins, this is a sin that its practitioners insist is no sin at all. Greed is wicked, but we don’t have parades celebrating it. This is a sin that in our day glories in its shame. Do we really want to join in that glory by attending their “weddings?”
I know it is difficult. I know it is painful and can divide families. I know it makes us look to the world like bigots and haters. But that, friends, is a shame we truly can glory in, for He promises us blessing (Matthew 5:10-12). This doesn’t, of course, mean we abandon homosexuals, or have nothing to do with them. Jesus often met sinners where they were. But He always called them to come to Him. He calls us to do the same.
It isn’t at all unusual, when I am scrolling through twitter to see someone tweet some version of this simple but poignant idea- I miss RC. These are people who, like me, benefitted from his teaching and were charmed by his way. I, on the other hand, also miss my dad. I miss him as dad.
Other people, on the other hand, have from time to time, looked for imagined dirt. Some have even imagined they have found it. Some years ago, while he was still with us, I received a private message from someone asking if it were true that my father had secretly adopted some heretical idea and that my relationship with him was strained because of it. Such was what he had been told. Of course my father had no secret views. Neither, I would argue, did he have any heretical views. And, finally, my relationship with him was never in the least strained.
Many have wondered over the years how we avoided strain. After all, we did, from time to time, disagree. Perhaps harder still is the fact that I lived in his shadow. It’s true and we all know it. But there is no good reason to resent it. We shared the same basic convictions. We both wrote, spoke and preached. But, as I have noted before, to say that we did the same thing is like saying a paper airplane and the space shuttle are both man-made flying machines.
There are rare times that I bristle at being under his shadow. I get a smidge annoyed, for instance, when the rare nugget of wisdom that drops from my lips gets attributed to him. I’ve found, however, a pretty good solution to such moments- repentance. I ask my heavenly Father to forgive me for the folly of wanting credit for the things He gave me. And the truth of the matter is, the way my heavenly Father has given me things has mostly been through my earthly father. I don’t just live in his shadow- I am his shadow. That is, any wisdom that comes out of my mouth went into my mind because I was learning from him. And of course, coming from my mouth it is less substantial than coming from his.
God didn’t put me on this planet to make a name for myself, nor to increase the fame of my father. Rather He put me here to pursue His glory. When I preach, teach or write I am not seeking career advancement or attainment. I am instead seeking to serve the kingdom, and its King. It’s true that because of my love and respect for him, I hope always to make my father proud. But I want him to be proud of my fidelity, not my skills.
For many years my father and I had a ritual, a liturgy if you will. Just before he was about to get up and speak at our national conference I would whisper three words into his ear- tell the truth. And ever since when I walk toward a pulpit, sit before a microphone or put fingers to a keyboard I hear him saying the same thing to me. That’s the truth. And that’s why it’s such a blessing living in the shadow of love. I’m perfectly comfortable in his shadow, because there we are together, in His shadow.
