What Does Your Church Hold Dear?

In a recent debate, Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke was asked about whether churches, colleges, and religious institutions should lose their tax-exempt status for opposing same-sex marriage. The following is his answer.

 “Yes,” O’Rourke said to applause. “There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us. So as president, we’re going to make that a priority and we’re going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans.” (here)

This is what awaits us in the near future as Bible-believing Christians. While President Trump has sought to champion religious liberty, he is a flawed champion. O’Rourke or someone like him WILL eventually be President. Unless we see a spiritual awakening in this country, there is great trouble ahead for the corporate institutions of conservative evangelical Christianity. Our buildings, financial resources, institutions of higher learning, and religious organizations hang in the balance. We have a responsibility to be ready.

This is not about hate.

We need to be on record about this. This is not about hate or denying others’ human rights. We believe that all people should be treated with kindness and respect. We also believe that God created marriage and it is His choice to define it, not ours. We believe all people are sinners—ourselves included–and have the opportunity to be recipients of God’s love and grace. That grace can only come through obedience to the gospel. Telling a sinner he is not a sinner is not loving, it is lying. It is loving to tell him how he can find forgiveness in Christ.

We are not without blame in this though. We do need to learn how to lovingly share the gospel with all people including those in the LGTBQ community. Presently, we do not do it very well. They are also souls for whom Christ died and to whom the gospel is extended in love.

Politics matter.

Conservative Christians cannot see politics as their spiritual answer, but they cannot ignore politics either. One of our political parties has openly declared war on biblical Christianity. The vote is a matter of Christian stewardship. This is not just about the abortion debate but also about issues of religious liberty. Previous generations of Americans have fought and died so that we might have the freedom to worship God according to our consciences. We dishonor them if we do not now stand up to preserve those freedoms for the generations that will follow us.

Pleasing God is more important than possessions or prosperity.

For some Christian institutions, when the day comes, the trinkets of buildings and bank accounts will be more precious than the smile of the Savior. True followers of Christ must be willing to give up all to follow him. He was despised and rejected. He, who knew no sin, was called illegitimate and a blasphemer. For the faithful, surrender to our Lord is more important than survival. If we are unwilling to lose our precious institutions (or properties) in order to be faithful to our Lord, then we are unworthy to have them at all.

It is time to rethink our strategy.

While we work to maintain our freedoms, we must also have a plan should we lose them. The power of the Holy Spirit, the truth of God’s word, and the obedience of God’s people is a powerful mix. For many years (maybe even centuries) we have done the work of the Great Commission in an asset-heavy way. That is not how first-century believers did it. William Carey’s account of the missionary effectiveness of the first generation of believers is amazing. [i]  The New Testament Church under the leadership of the Apostles spread the gospel as far north as modern Russia and Great Britain, as far south as Ethiopia, west to the coast of the Iberian Peninsula, and east to India and Ceylon. That first generation did it without buildings, bank accounts, vehicles, computers, internet, busses, pews, pipe organs, pianos, or many of the other conveniences we now think essential for ministry.

They did not build edifices, they built congregations. What good is an edifice without a healthy congregation to occupy it? We cannot be more focused on dollars and institutions than souls. Instead, we must be focused upon the Great Commission itself. We must now conceive of what a New Testament Church will look like without buildings or material possessions. Where will it meet? How will it function? How will its leadership be organized? We must rethink the entire process of discipleship and Christian Education without Christian Schools or colleges. Instead of treating the coming changes like a defeat, we must look at it as an opportunity to assess what is really important and to put the bulk of our energy and resources into what really matters.

The Great Commission is still our mission.

James Tillotson recently preached for our missions conference here. This particular statement has had great impact on me.

“Churches, for the most part, are not winning people to Christ AND IT DOES NOT SEEM TO BOTHER THEM.”

How can we say we are committed to the Great Commission and to world-wide missions and not be DOING it? Why would we expect God to bless us with buildings and finances when we are not truly using them to accomplish their only purpose? Would any of you give additional resources to an employee that is not making good use of the resources he already has?

American Conservative Evangelical Christians–yes, even Bible-believing Baptists–need a wake-up call. None of this is happening without God allowing it. Maybe this is God getting our attention. Maybe they mean it for evil, but God means it for good.

Maybe we NEED a reset.

[i] If you have not read William Carey’s,  “An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens” you really should.  Aside from the Bible, it is the seminal document of the modern missionary movement and he details the activities of the first-century missionaries.