A group called the Alliance Defense Fund is encouraging pastors to endorse a presidential candidate from their pulpits. The leaders of this movement say they are trying to provoke a legal battle over the Internal Revenue Service restriction which, as a condition of churches’ tax exemptions, prohibits them from endorsing political candidates.
I have been a pastor for 38 years and I have never endorsed a candidate for president in any church I have served. A member of New Hope asked me recently if I would vote for a certain presidential candidate. I said, “They put curtains around the voting booth so that no one will know how I am voting.” There are some good reasons why I won’t endorse any political candidate for any office.
The main reason is that I want to be the pastor of all the members of New Hope Baptist Church. The Bible in Romans 14:19 tells us to “aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.” That is what I want to do: aim for harmony. Getting us divided over presidential candidates or any other candidates would promote disharmony and would keep us from building each other up.
Brent Walker, director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty wrote that pastors endorsing political candidates from their pulpits would “politicize churches more than it would Christianize politics.” I agree. We don’t want our church to pursue something as fleeting as a partisan political agenda when our purpose is to create a spiritual community that loves God and each other and reproduces followers of Jesus Christ.
Churches exist to enrich people’s spiritual lives, not act like political machines that issue marching orders to voters. Our church is tax-exempt because we are a spiritual community, not a political block. I am more interested in keeping our spiritual harmony than in keeping our tax exemption, but let’s keep both.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Halloween and All Saints' Day
Halloween means so many things to so many different people that some Christians are perplexed about how to observe it, if it should be observed at all. More and more Christians are rediscovering the ancient connection between Halloween and All Saints’ Day.
In the seventh century, All Saints’ Day was first observed to honor all those who had been designated as saints but did not have a particular day dedicated to them. In the ninth century, All Saints’ Day was placed on the calendar on November 1. The preceding day, October 31, which had been observed as the Celtic festival of Samhain, was renamed All Hallows’ eve, or Halloween. (Hallow is an archaic word for saint.) Around the year 1000, the church began to observe All Souls’ Day on November 2.
More and more churches are reclaiming Halloween’s relationship with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, and are using it as a time to acknowledge the power of death and celebrate our victory over death through Christ. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54b-55).
Drawing on the apostle Paul’s use of “saints” in the New Testament, most Protestants consider anyone who belongs to Christ a saint, not just an individual who has been recognized by the church for living an exemplary life of faith. Many churches use November 1, or the Sunday closest to that day, as a day to remember and celebrate their members who have died over the past year and to celebrate the victory their loved ones have won over death through Christ’s death and resurrection. When the Lord’s Supper is celebrated, the living are reminded that, at the Lord’s Table, they share that “mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won.” (I am indebted to Pastor Steve Lytch who wrote a Sunday School lesson about Halloween for thethoughtfulchristian.com.)
On Sunday, November 2, New Hope Baptist Church will observe All Saints’ Day in our morning worship service. We will celebrate the Lord’s Supper and remember church members, family, and friends who have died during the last year. Worshippers will be invited to come to a table with a light-of-Christ candle in the center and light a small candle in memory of someone who has died. Please be with us to reclaim this important celebration of our loved ones’ victory over death through Christ.
In the seventh century, All Saints’ Day was first observed to honor all those who had been designated as saints but did not have a particular day dedicated to them. In the ninth century, All Saints’ Day was placed on the calendar on November 1. The preceding day, October 31, which had been observed as the Celtic festival of Samhain, was renamed All Hallows’ eve, or Halloween. (Hallow is an archaic word for saint.) Around the year 1000, the church began to observe All Souls’ Day on November 2.
More and more churches are reclaiming Halloween’s relationship with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, and are using it as a time to acknowledge the power of death and celebrate our victory over death through Christ. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54b-55).
Drawing on the apostle Paul’s use of “saints” in the New Testament, most Protestants consider anyone who belongs to Christ a saint, not just an individual who has been recognized by the church for living an exemplary life of faith. Many churches use November 1, or the Sunday closest to that day, as a day to remember and celebrate their members who have died over the past year and to celebrate the victory their loved ones have won over death through Christ’s death and resurrection. When the Lord’s Supper is celebrated, the living are reminded that, at the Lord’s Table, they share that “mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won.” (I am indebted to Pastor Steve Lytch who wrote a Sunday School lesson about Halloween for thethoughtfulchristian.com.)
On Sunday, November 2, New Hope Baptist Church will observe All Saints’ Day in our morning worship service. We will celebrate the Lord’s Supper and remember church members, family, and friends who have died during the last year. Worshippers will be invited to come to a table with a light-of-Christ candle in the center and light a small candle in memory of someone who has died. Please be with us to reclaim this important celebration of our loved ones’ victory over death through Christ.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Radiant Over the Goodness of the LORD
For several days now I have been “radiant over the goodness of the LORD.” Fleda and I experienced a blessing when we traveled to Columbia, South Carolina last week for the annual homecoming service and covered dish lunch of Greenlawn Baptist Church. I was amazed at how connected we felt to people who were our church family 25 years ago. This was our first church after I graduated from seminary with my doctorate in theology. They remembered us and we remembered them in so many positive ways. It was good to share memories and to reconnect after all these years.
“I am a part of all that I have met.” I don’t know who said those words, but they come to mind as I think of how I was called to serve a suburban church in 1974, went through many joys and sorrows leading that church, and left to come to DeLand, Florida in 1983. The experience shaped me in some ways that I can identify and in others that I cannot see. The people of that church are still in my heart after all these years. I have a deep sense that through it all God was at work for good.
Bob Hubble was our host in Columbia. He picked us up at the airport, rented us a car, set up a drop-in for us to have some time to talk to those who came to see us, took us out to dinner, and then suffered a heart attack and missed the homecoming worship service. He had triple heart bypass surgery on Tuesday morning and called me on Wednesday night just as we at New Hope were going into our prayer time. Do we not live in an age of medical miracles? God is so good.
I listened this morning to Boyd Frank’s message to New Hope recorded last Sunday. He spoke about Jesus as our Good Shepherd and told of how God had surrounded him with care when his first wife died at the age of thirty. His conviction of the loving presence of God in a time of trouble, born of his own experience, enlarges our trust in God’s goodness.
We are living with uncertainty these days because of America’s economic crisis. Whatever is going on in your life, don’t let your heart be afraid. Keep your eyes on the goodness of God. Live out the prophecy of Jeremiah: “They shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD” (31:12).
“I am a part of all that I have met.” I don’t know who said those words, but they come to mind as I think of how I was called to serve a suburban church in 1974, went through many joys and sorrows leading that church, and left to come to DeLand, Florida in 1983. The experience shaped me in some ways that I can identify and in others that I cannot see. The people of that church are still in my heart after all these years. I have a deep sense that through it all God was at work for good.
Bob Hubble was our host in Columbia. He picked us up at the airport, rented us a car, set up a drop-in for us to have some time to talk to those who came to see us, took us out to dinner, and then suffered a heart attack and missed the homecoming worship service. He had triple heart bypass surgery on Tuesday morning and called me on Wednesday night just as we at New Hope were going into our prayer time. Do we not live in an age of medical miracles? God is so good.
I listened this morning to Boyd Frank’s message to New Hope recorded last Sunday. He spoke about Jesus as our Good Shepherd and told of how God had surrounded him with care when his first wife died at the age of thirty. His conviction of the loving presence of God in a time of trouble, born of his own experience, enlarges our trust in God’s goodness.
We are living with uncertainty these days because of America’s economic crisis. Whatever is going on in your life, don’t let your heart be afraid. Keep your eyes on the goodness of God. Live out the prophecy of Jeremiah: “They shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD” (31:12).
Friday, October 3, 2008
What It Means to Be Saved
Arthur Burns, Jewish economist and a man of influence in Washington circles, offered a provocative prayer before an evangelical audience:
“Lord, I pray that Jews would come to know Jesus Christ, And I pray that Buddhists would come to know Jesus Christ, And I pray that Muslims would come to know Jesus Christ, And, Lord, I pray that Christians would come to know Jesus Christ.”
When I read those words in a sermon by Mark Buchanan, I realized that the prayer is also mine. “Lord, make us Christians here at New Hope Baptist Church come to know Jesus Christ.” To be saved is to be more than casual admirers. It is to know Jesus so well that when we come to a difficult decision or a conflict with someone or face a tragedy, we have his teachings in our heads and his Spirit in our hearts and react with obedience.
In 2006, five Amish girls, aged 6 to 13, were shot and killed by a man in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who then killed himself. The event stunned the world. But what happened next stunned the world all the more: a whole community not bent on retaliation, not shouting with anger or collapsing in despair, but standing with quiet dignity and deep calm. The community was quick to forgive. They even established a charity fund for the killer's family. We saw a people face the worst and become their best.
What does it mean to be saved? It means being freed from our sins and being given eternal life. It also means being given freedom and power, here and now, to live a life transformed by obeying Jesus.
I would rather be in a small church that is coming “to know Jesus Christ” than in a large church with lots of resources that is challenging no one to take up a cross and follow Jesus. Please, let us be a church whose members are learning to see every personal struggle, every conflict, every joy, and every sorrow as an opportunity to live out the teachings of Jesus.
“Lord, I pray that Jews would come to know Jesus Christ, And I pray that Buddhists would come to know Jesus Christ, And I pray that Muslims would come to know Jesus Christ, And, Lord, I pray that Christians would come to know Jesus Christ.”
When I read those words in a sermon by Mark Buchanan, I realized that the prayer is also mine. “Lord, make us Christians here at New Hope Baptist Church come to know Jesus Christ.” To be saved is to be more than casual admirers. It is to know Jesus so well that when we come to a difficult decision or a conflict with someone or face a tragedy, we have his teachings in our heads and his Spirit in our hearts and react with obedience.
In 2006, five Amish girls, aged 6 to 13, were shot and killed by a man in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who then killed himself. The event stunned the world. But what happened next stunned the world all the more: a whole community not bent on retaliation, not shouting with anger or collapsing in despair, but standing with quiet dignity and deep calm. The community was quick to forgive. They even established a charity fund for the killer's family. We saw a people face the worst and become their best.
What does it mean to be saved? It means being freed from our sins and being given eternal life. It also means being given freedom and power, here and now, to live a life transformed by obeying Jesus.
I would rather be in a small church that is coming “to know Jesus Christ” than in a large church with lots of resources that is challenging no one to take up a cross and follow Jesus. Please, let us be a church whose members are learning to see every personal struggle, every conflict, every joy, and every sorrow as an opportunity to live out the teachings of Jesus.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)