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Worn Out- Our Sunday Roundtable- Session 2, Week 9

In 2004, I began pastoring a little city church in the Deep South. Some seventy years prior to my arrival, the fellowship there had survived a significant church split that hewed the church in two and left an open wound that still festered in the memories of some. The church had been planted in the early 1900s in the neighborhood of a bustling textile mill and ministered to the salty, plucky, rough and tumble folks living in the shotgun shacks lining the streets around. The mill families that walked to church on Sunday were a poor, hard-working, brass-knuckled bunch. They were joined in worship by people who drove in from nice homes on the hill; folks in linen suits and chiffon dresses whose manners were genteel and whose speech was erudite. Both classes of people loved Christ but they found it hard to love and appreciate each other. There was little fellowship and a lot of tension. One of the happenings that lingered long in people’s memories as having contributed to the open hostility that would eventually split the church had to do with clothing. The stately families from up on the hill began bringing bedsheets to church with them. Before sitting down, they would cover the pew with the sheet. When asked why they would do such a thing, they remarked rather demurely that they did so to protect their clothing from the soot and grime the factory workers had left behind. While it was true that many in the congregation came to church on Sunday wearing what they’d worn to work the night before, it was also true that they often didn’t have anything else to wear. While it was true that covering the pew in a bedsheet was tactless and insensitive, it was also true that it was important to these folks to give God their best by wearing their best. In all, it was a mess.
I would love to know what the Apostle Paul might have written in an epistle to that little mill town church, but I think I can guess. He would have argued for humility, unity, and grace and would have scolded them for being so petty when the world around was lost and dying.


When it comes to the matter of what type of dress is appropriate for worship and whether or not church services should become more casual and informal or cling to a more traditional decorum, I confess to being a little worn out on the question of what to wear. It’s not true to say that it doesn’t matter – of course it matters. Nonverbal expression is just as important as verbal and clothing says a lot. It’s also not true to say that God only looks at the heart. God looks at it all and wants it all to reflect reverence for His word and a desire to please Him. That said, is there a standard and a code in all these things and are we crazy enough to try and adopt an approach? Is the sanctuary a living room or a throne room or both? Are we with our Abba Father in our jammies or before the King in our finest raiment or both? Now, to be clear, I don’t think it’s a top 20 issue, but I do think it opens up a fruitful line of discussion. We’d love to know what you think! Please take a moment to read the link to this week’s article and then come as you are to the roundtable discussion this Sunday morning at 8:30am upstairs in the Family Life Center. There’ll be hot coffee and a homemade treat!

Click here to read this week’s article

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Commanded to Share? – Our Sunday Roundtable- Session 2, Week 8

It’s not only God who loves a cheerful giver. What parent’s weary heart isn’t warmed when the kids
lovingly share toys, treats, and the favored spot on the couch with each other? It’s wonderful; even if
we only see it a little more regularly than we see Haley’s Comet.
More often than not, parents are in the business of trying to compel their children to share what they have with those around them. Frustrated moms and dads, not wanting to confiscate goods and force the distribution of wealth, are often reduced to shaming their kids, appealing to their sense of pride, threatening future deprivation, using tortured philosophical ramblings, and even resorting to bribery. It’s pathetic. We do all these things because we know that the instant we actually command half the Kit-Kat be given to the baby brother, that no one will be blessed. Instead of producing charity and gratitude in hearts and minds, the owner will resent the beneficiary, the beneficiary will feel entitled, and the parental government will become resigned to having to just seize all house assets.

Sharing is just as important an exercise for adults as it is for children. God, our heavenly Father, wants all his children to freely and happily give of their resources to others in need. Now, the world has made of money a false god and there’s no better testimony to this fiduciary faith than the hushed reverence we observe whenever we enter the hallowed halls of our local bank. Have you ever noticed how quiet America gets upon entering the town temple? But, no one can serve both God and mammon and so we give rebelliously and in trust of God. Every Sunday in our worship service we keep a time to worship through the collection of an offering to God. Ushers pass the plates and wallets and purses are opened as people make contributions to the church treasury. Are these offerings cheerful gifts, commanded tithes, institutional shakedowns, payments for services rendered, or something else all together? Most Christians are taught that God’s desire for His people is that they give a tenth of all their revenue back to Him in the form of a tithe. Is this a biblical command, a biblical recommendation, or even biblical at all? The Gospel Coalition recently published a point-counterpoint piece on this topic in the form of two brief essays on the question. Both authors make the case that giving is a necessary and important part of life for every believer, but they see the idea of a biblically mandated tithe very differently. You’ll find a link to these two articles below. Please read them and come prepared to talk about the very important question of the Christian and his or her responsibility to give. Should be both fun and freeing! We meet upstairs in the Family Life Center at 8:30 Sunday morning. Coffee and a baked good will greet you at the door!

Click here to read “7 Reasons Christians Are Not Required to Tithe”

Click here to read “The Bible Commands Christians to Tithe”

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Miracle Drug- Our Sunday Roundtable- Session 2, Week 7

Timothy Leary’s famous encouragement to America in the sixties was to turn on, tune in, and drop out.
What he wanted to do was change the world by altering the individual’s perception of it; not by actually
transforming reality. To do this, he didn’t praise the power of positive thinking, he didn’t advocate the
gated, cloistered life, nor did he push Zenlike fantasies. He encouraged recreational drug use. Reality,
Leary argued, is what we perceive and perception can be altered. He envisioned a good government
lovingly lacing the town water with the perfect narcotic concoction that would pacify the animal instinct,
ennoble the angelic in us, and unleash the creative. Rose colored glasses creating a rosy world.

Leary’s vision eventually proved a nightmare and Haight-Ashbury was more hell than heaven. But the
idea that the mental machinery can be worked on chemically and that immaterial man can be mastered
by the material has not died but only grown in favor. The approach the ancients took in treating the ills
of the world holistically by addressing the needs of body and soul together has largely been dismissed in
the Scientific Age. The integration of psychology and theology is understood to be a simple
impossibility. Twenty-first century Christians often grapple with the question of taking prescription
medicine prescribed by their psychiatrist. Are these drugs taken in lieu of a miracle or is the drug itself
miraculous? Do drugs effect a change in me and reverse the effects of the curse or are they a
capitulation in the war for personal sanctification. Or is the answer somewhere in between? This is a
very important, personal, and possibly sensitive issue for most of us, but one we really need to be
talking about. Please take a few minutes to read the link to the article by Jeremy Pierre and think
through some of the insights he offers on this question and come prepared to discuss it on Sunday
morning. We’ll be meeting upstairs in the Family Life Center at 8:30 am. Hot coffee and a fresh baked
goodie will be there to warm you up. See you Sunday!

Click here to read this week’s article

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When War Takes its Turn- Our Sunday Roundtable- Session 2, Week 6

The sad and sometimes grim realities of life lived amongst the rubble of a ruined paradise are not lost on the Christian. Faith in Christ doesn’t mean an escape from clogged toilets and flat tires; from flu bugs, computer viruses, potholes, pickpockets, and lightning strikes. It’s a mud pit of a world we’ve made and nobody’s keeping entirely clean. But there’s a big difference between getting a pebble in your shoe and getting an officer’s handcuffs on your wrists. Sometimes we’re the nail and sometimes we’re the hammer; sometimes bad things happen to us and sometimes we do bad things. Some things are merely our problem and some things are also our fault.

So, is war in the world something that every Christian must deal with in season, just as he would deal with winter’s blizzards and autumn’s leaves? Or is war something that Christians must steadfastly oppose and withdraw from regardless of circumstance, like he must steer clear of organized crime, internet smut, and street drugs? It’s an important question, because every Christian is a citizen of some country and every country has allies and enemies. Every country faces the near constant prospect of war and funds a defense for itself. What should the American Christian’s stance be toward the defense of the homeland and the declaration of war? Are we doves or hawks, angels or knights, conscience or encouragement? Saint Augustine, one of the most influential of the early Church fathers, developed a theory of “just war” complete with criteria for action and inaction. The tenets of this theory have stood the test of time and are still in use today as leaders wrestle with the decision to take the sword from its sheath. As the sound of sabers rattling is heard across our land today with the recent escalation of tensions in the Middle East, I thought it would be a good idea to have us all read Augustine’s old theory and throw it in the middle of the room for discussion on Sunday morning. Follow the link to read a brief but comprehensive introduction to the theory published by the Catholic League. Please consider joining us for coffee, a baked treat, and a hearty discussion of an age-old question at 8:30am upstairs in the Family Life Center. I’m looking forward to it!

Click here to read this week’s article

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Christianity Tomorrow- Our Sunday Roundtable- Session 2, Week 5

The United States has been out partying at the bar for a long time now and is really in no shape to be driving. While the U.S. can no longer be considered a Christian nation; it remains a land blessed with an awful lot of Christians and it’s the American church’s responsibility to grab the keys now and again and be the designated driver.
Having had eyes opened, ears unstopped, and minds made new, believers are full of invaluable wisdom and keen insight. A church that is silent in affairs of State, quiet in all political consideration, mum on matters of business and finance, and ciphers on the college green and at town hall; is a church that wishes to unnecessarily impoverish itself and its fellow countrymen. A nation’s believers, more than any other sector, is best positioned to ensure the peace, prosperity, and vitality of a country. Of course, many of the contributions to the national conversation springing from a biblical worldview and perspective will not be met with cheers and salutes but with boos and nasty dismissals. That’s okay– we expect to get some guff from our inebriated neighbor when we question the wisdom of his worldly ways. What’s more; we don’t live for the approval and esteem of those we share the stage with but with the Lord, our life’s sole audience.

The U.S. House of Representatives has just recently impeached President Trump and, before handing over the articles of impeachment to the Senate for a trial, is looking to gain support for the measure from across the fruited plain. Impeachment, we’re told, is a political process and exercise. In which case, the real jurors are you and me. Congress is loathe to overturn the people’s decision without the hearty assent of the people. So, what do you think? What do we think? What should the Church have to say? We shouldn’t be silent. Mark Galli, the outgoing editor of the top evangelical periodical, Christianity Today, caused quite a stir when he published an editorial with the imprimatur of the magazine, calling for the Senate to convict the President and remove him from office. Before long, the evangelical world formed ranks and volleys of cannon fire have been crisscrossing the twittersphere ever since. Where should we file in or should we make every effort to sit this one out? It’s a good topic for conversation! Please follow the link to read Galli’s editorial and consider joining us this Sunday morning (January 5th) at 8:30am upstairs in the Family Life Center for a roundtable discussion on Christianity Today’s call for the President’s impeachment. Should be a stimulating and eye-opening exercise. Hot coffee and a fresh-baked treat will greet you at the door!

Click here to read the editorial

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