Arrogance

July 12th, 2011

During my 34 years as a pastor, I have had the privilege of knowing a lot of pastors, including many of the better known and widely recognized names in evangelical circles in America. I feel a kinship with pastors. I believe the role of the pastor is one of the most demanding in the world. A pastor must be a public speaker, a counselor, a leader, a business manager, a fund raiser, a teacher, a friend, etc. I believe in pastors.

Because of the nature of our position as pastors, there is some acclaim extended to the position. Many men are humble servants of God. But I have also seen far too much “arrogance” attached to the role of pastors. We need to be careful not to permit our public position to exalt our own egos. Scripture warns us about this.

In fact, Scripture challenges the pastor to be a humble servant. All Christians are to count others as more important than self — Colossians 3:2-4. The Apostle Paul counted it a privilege to be a “minister” of the Gospel — Ephesians 3:7-9. We need to be careful to follow his example.

There is a fine line there. Surely a man of God must be willing to stand up and boldly proclaim the truth of God’s Word. But we must be careful not to think God is only speaking to us.

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The Altar Call

June 30th, 2011

I read an article recently by an evangelical author who argued that we should not give an altar call or “invitation” for people to respond by coming forward publicly to accept Christ in our church services. In fact, he wrote an article entitled, “10 Reasons Not to Give an Altar Call.” I do not agree with his thesis. Let me explain.

I have no problem with those preachers today who have substituted alternate means to invite people to Christ — rather than the public altar call. I have always felt that it is a major challenge to ask people to step out publicly in front of several hundred strangers and walk to the front of the church to take the hand of another stranger. I am surprised the altar call has been as successful as it has been. I am not opposed to alternate means. Some strong evangelicals claim that the number of conversions in their ministries have increased since they replaced the altar call with alternate means.

But my objection is to the claim that the altar call is not biblical and not rooted in the New Testament. Much of what we do — as Bible believing evangelicals — is not clearly spelled out in the New Testament.  The preachers in the book of Acts did not even have altars — there were no church buildings for a couple of centuries. The oldest known church building was found at Dura Europas on the Euphrates River in the Syrian desert. It dates back to the 3rd century.

The principle of an “altar call” is completely consistent with: a) Moses in Deuteronomy calling upon people to decide this day whom they will serve; b) Elijah on Mount Carmel calling upon people to take a stand for or against God; and, c) Peter in Acts 2 calling people to decide publicly for Christ. How could they take a stand for God without doing it publicly?  Thousands were added to the New Testament church in one day.  How could this be done without being public?

Yes, the altar call was popularized by 19th century Evangelist Charles Finney and has been widely used only in recent centuries. But Finney was trained as a lawyer. He understood the logic of bringing people to a point of decision, and giving them an opportunity to respond — as did Moses, Elijah, and Peter.

I am in favor of doing whatever is consistent with Scripture and is effective. I have no problem with alternatives to the traditional altar call, if they are helpful. But the altar call is certainly consistent with Scripture and it can still be very useful.

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VBS

June 21st, 2011

We are having daily Vacation Bible School this week at Delaney Street Baptist Church. I have made it a practice for years to have an evangelistic message in the first half-hour of each day at VBS. As a rule, the week of VBS we see more people come to Christ than in any other week of the church year. Oftentimes, I preach the evangelistic message myself, although sometimes I assign it to our youth pastor or summer intern.

This week we have had an extraordinary start to VBS. Usually on the 1st day (Monday), we see no more than 2 or 4 kids “come forward” to accept Christ. Monday this week we saw 27 come forward, and on Tuesday another 12. Many of these are visitors. Nevertheless, I was surprised.

As a rule, someone always asks, “Well, how many of them really meant it?” Or, “How many of them knew what they were doing?” We never ask that about adults, but we always ask it about children. I have very little patience with such questions. Only God knows how many truly accepted Christ in their hearts. We present the gospel, do our best to lead children (or adults) to Christ, do our best to follow up on them, and leave the results with God.

If we are not certain each child genuinely accepted Christ, then what are our alternatives? Shall we quit presenting the Gospel? Do we quit evangelizing?  People sometimes live in fear that we will give a child a false assurance of salvation.  I do not worry about that.  Only the Holy Spirit can give assurance of salvation.  If a child makes a false confession of faith, that child will not have assurance of salvation.  The Holy Spirit will speak to that child again in due time.

Do you see my frustration with such questions. If 27 kids come to Christ, I would predict that a certain percentage of them truly understood what commitment they were making — and thus make our evangelistic effort well worthwhile. If only 4 come to Christ, I would predict that a certain percentage truly understood — and again our evangelistic effort is worthwhile.  Should we be more excited over 27 as opposed to 4?  Why not?  So, we simply do our best and rejoice over what God is doing.

Do we believe in childhood conversions to Christ? We should. Surveys show that a vast majority of pastors and missionaries on the field today all accepted Christ as a child. Wasn’t it Jesus Himself who said, “Let the little children come to me.”  I believe in child evangelism.

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Pennies from Heaven

June 1st, 2011

As a pastor, I do not preach on tithing and giving as much as I probably should. My fear is that I will be misunderstood — that visitors and newer Christians will think that I am inordinately focused on money. I don’t want anyone to visit my church and leave saying, “All that preacher talks about is money.”

But the Bible does say a lot about money. Jesus talks about man and his relationship to money more than anyone else does. So, I have just spent two Sundays of focus on what we call “stewardship” — being good stewards of our finances.

God’s Word commands us to tithe (Malachi 3:8), and God promises that if we will tithe, that He will take care of us (Malachi 3:10 and Luke 6:38).

We see this happen continually at our church. God sends in the funds when we need them — be it for the general budget of the church or for a special fund to further the cause of Christ. God is good! Figuratively speaking, He sends us pennies from heaven right on time!

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Memorial Day

May 26th, 2011

Memorial Day is one day of the year when we actually focus on death, as we remember our loved ones who have passed away — particularly those who served our country and died in defense of our country.  Memorial Day should be to each of us a very sacred holiday.

For the believer, the Bible makes it clear that death has lost its sting — I Corinthians 15:54-56.  I explained to my grandsons recently that when a bee stings a person, its stinger is left in the person it stings, and the bee is thereafter harmless.  The Apostle Paul is telling us that in similar fashion, the sting of death, which is sin, was left in the Person of Christ on the Cross of Calvary.  Death, therefore, has no more power.  It is harmless to the Christian.  For the believer, death is simply a passage from here to there!

Jesus Christ has completely defeated death and conquered both death and hell through his resurrection from the grave.  Death is still an enemy to us.  Death interrupts our lives, disrupts our homes and takes loved ones from us.  Death invades our lives and terrorizes us — to some extent.  But for the Christian, it is only a temporary disruption.  We shall all meet again on the other side!

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