Pastor Search Team, Installment Three: Don't Ask Stupid Questions!

When teaching Evangelism at a Baptist University years ago I would often say this to my students at the beginning of the semester: "Contrary to popular belief, there IS such a thing as a stupid question."

I didn't say that to burst a students' bubble, but to encourage them to ask the right questions.  Regardless of the context, questions that don't reveal needed information are useless!  Unfortunately, lots of useless questions usually get asked during an interview process.  And Pastor search teams made up of volunteers don't have time to waste by asking questions that reveal nothing.

Once you have narrowed your search to a single candidate, you should have a very good profile built of this individual.  Before they sit in front of you, you should already know their education and experience, their criminal and credit history, and the gifts and skills they bring to the table.  Additionally, you should already know--at least to a large degree--their doctrinal commitments, and whether those commitments are compatible with the theological identity of your church.

In short, by the time you get to a face to face interview with a candidate, the only things you don't know can only be revealed in one way:  by asking the right questions.  And the number one way to ask the WRONG questions is to make them hypothetical.

Anyone sitting in front of you with average intelligence can knock a hypothetical question out of the park!  Ask them what they would do in the event of a church conflict, and their answer will make them appear to embody the term "peacemaker."  Ask them what they believe about the balance between ministry and family, and you will get an answer that came directly from the lectures they received in their seminary "Formations" class!  Instead, ask them about the last time they had to deal with conflict at a church, and then ask them to get specific with you about what THEY did.  And don't ask them what they believe about balancing ministry and family.  Ask them what they DO currently to strike that balance.

In other words, don't ask hypothetical questions.  Ask behavioral questions!

Why?  Because the best predictor of what a man will do tomorrow is what he did yesterday!  Generic positional questions about hypothetical situations rarely if ever allow you a genuine, "inside" look into a candidate.  But when you seek to discover past behaviors, you are uncovering things that reveal what a man truly believes, and observing how he is likely to conduct himself as pastor of your church.

And how do you ask such questions?  Are there examples of such questions available?  Absolutely!  Our Association has a guide for conducting a behavioral interview with a prospective pastor in which the questions were designed around the Biblical qualifications for the role in 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, and 1 Peter 5.    For example, Paul tells Timothy that pastors must exhibit self control.  In light of this, you may ask a potential pastor about the last time he had an argument or disagreement with someone, such as a church member, or even the cashier at Wal-Mart.  Get him to describe for you how he approached the situation, what he said, and how he sought to bring reconciliation.  Conversations like this will tell you a lot more than simply asking a man if he is a "peacemaker."

For more information on this approach to interviewing potential pastors, and sample questions, check out our behavioral interview guide here.

Pastor Search Team Installment Two: Use the Process, Not People!

Process is important.  But like the flow chart to the right, sometimes the process is much more simple than we think.

Having a search process to find a pastor is important.  That it is clearly understood is vital.  That it is designed for maximum efficiency is also necessary.  But at the end of the day, a process is like duct tape or WD-40.  Its a tool, and not the end product!

Unfortunately, many teams searching for a pastor become slaves to the process, or make candidates slaves to the process, or both!  In the end, it matters far more than you have God's man being introduced to the congregation than that you have "checked all the boxes."  But if a search team is mastered by the process rather than mastering the process themselves, they may very well check every box on their way to calling the wrong man!

In light of all this, I suggest two guiding principles for search teams in this area:


1. Understand that the purpose of the process is to find a person.  It doesn't matter if you followed the process if the end result isn't the right person.  Therefore, any process should include, on the front end of the search, a profile of the kind of individual you are looking for.  I know of one church that received over 650 resumes at the beginning of their process.  It took months before they were able to crawl out from under all of that information because they had not first developed a clear profile of the kind of man who would be the most suitable candidate.  In most cases, a clearly-defined profile will narrow your search to 10 resumes--or less--by the time of the second "cut."  Bottom line: You may not know WHO God is calling to your church, but you should, before beginning any process, know WHAT KIND of leader God intends to bring to you.

If search teams understand that the process is ultimately about people, they will not be so consumed with the process that they are never allowed to get to know people.


2. Spend the lion's share of attention on the person, not the process.  I've often consulted with churches and recommended that they "fast-track" the parts of the process that lead them to the right people, not so their work will be done sooner, but so they can spend most of their time getting to know a candidate.

In fact, I'd say that for most churches, it is possible to be interviewing  your #1 candidate 90 days from the start of your process!  But once that individual is in front of you, you probably need to slam on the brakes and take at least 120 days to get to know him.  Two benefits arise from this approach.  First, the team gets all the time they need to get deep into the "underwear drawer" of a candidate.  I'll talk about asking hard questions in a later post, but for now I'll say that credit and criminal background checks, while necessary, are hardly sufficient to determine if you have a morally upstanding person in front of you.  Those judgement calls take time, and lots of conversation!

The second benefit of this approach is that candidates who are not being considered are told so much more quickly, and the #1 candidate doesn't feel like he is in a popularity contest, and is thus more free to be open and honest about who he is, and what God has called him to do.  More time is given to prayer and thoughtful discussion, and less to informing candidates and congregants about where you are "in the process."

Too many good search team members get burned out quickly because the entire team becomes enslaved to the process.  Conversely, too many good pastoral candidates have been burned because they also unwittingly became victims of a process.  Use the process to get to the right person.  And then, make sure you get to know that person by asking them the right questions!  We will take up that subject in our next post!

Pastor Search Team Installment One: A Failure to Communicate!

"What we've got here is a failure to communicate!"  So said a young Paul Newman in the 1967 classic movie "Cool Hand Luke."  That statement could easily sum up many of the reasons why Teams assigned by their churches to search for a secure a pastor so often struggle.

We are in a series of posts here that deal with the five primary areas where Pastor Search Teams blow it big time, and talking about how to avoid those common mistakes.  In the introductory post I said that the line between communication and confidentiality is not often well-sensed by search teams, and as a result teams sometimes say things they should keep to themselves, and keep secret things that should be shared.  This happens when the team is communicating with pastoral candidates, as well as when they are communicating with the congregation.

As is the case with any search process, appropriate confidentiality is very important.  At the same time, leaving considered candidates or the congregation totally in the dark is also unacceptable.  Often, in the attempt to keep everyone "in the loop," search teams send out too much information, or worse, information that is conflicting and/or confusing.

Conversely, pastoral candidates that have made it into the "top tier" category can sometimes feel like they are left totally in the dark.  At the same time, search team members struggle to balance the extremes of never communicating with a candidate and getting a candidate's hopes up (or putting them down) unintentionally.  Three basic principles are involved when it comes to striking the right balance in this area:

1. One--and ONLY one person speaks for the entire team.  It doesn't matter if a search team is made up of 3 or 10 people.  They are all different, they all perceive differently, and even if in agreement, they will often communicate differently.  Therefore, a spokesman should be chosen from the first meeting, and that person should be the only person who speaks on behalf of the entire search team.

This is especially important when we are talking about communicating to the entire congregation.  Too often, rumors get started and false information spreads because three different team members communicated four different perspectives to five different people in the church!  The message of the team is much more clear, and much more consistent, when the congregation knows who the spokesperson is for the team, and thus looks to that person to speak for the team.

When I'm consulting with search teams, I often exhort them to "refer, refer, refer."  When someone comes with a question about the search, the default answer of every person on the team should be "talk to our spokesperson.  He/She will best communicate where we are and represent us all.  I can only represent myself."


2. Keep communication open with pastoral candidates.  This principle has two sides to it.  On the one hand, just because someone sends the team a resume doesn't obligate the team to communicate with that person in any way.  However, once the team has initiated communication IN ANY FORM with anyone wanting to be considered, you are obligated to regularly update them on where you are unless and until the point that they are no longer being considered for the role.  I know of too many stories where good men and their wives and families were brought to the church for an interview and made to think that an invitation to preach "in view of a call" was imminent, only to have the search team cut off all communication with them afterwards.

For some of these men, they were kept clueless until they learned through some other channel that someone else had been called as pastor of the church.  In a few instances, they have called my office because a church in my Association did not follow-through, and I had to be the one to tell them "the position has been filled."  This is unprofessional and unChristian behavior!

Once you make contact with a candidate, keep them updated--regularly--on where you are in the process.  When you prayerfully decide that you will no longer pursue someone as pastor, let them know this as clearly and as soon as possible!  If you can't stomach a hard phone call, don't be part of a search team!


3. When it comes to communicating with the church, tell them nothing about candidates, but everything about the process.  On a few occasions, I've seen pastor search teams reverse this order.  The less clear the process, the less patience a congregation will have with the search team, so be clear on this.  Give them a thorough outline of the process, and follow-up with regular updates regarding where you are in that process.  This approach lets the congregation see that progress is being made.

At the same time, there is only one name that should be heard by the congregation throughout the entire process, and that is the name of the man the search team intends to present as the pastor!  Search teams that have loose lips are violating a confidentiality that could cause problems for candidates at their current church.  Even worse, "name-dropping" as a way of determining the congregation's attitude toward a number of candidates isn't a search process.  That's a beauty contest!

So in general, communicate as much as possible about the process you are employing to find a pastor, and as little as possible about the candidates who will be involved in that process.

And speaking of process, too many search teams become slaves to the search, rather than utilizing the search to find God's man.  I will speak about how to avoid this mistake in the next post!

What Pastor Search Teams Should Never Do, but Always Do

The Team chosen by a local church to secure the next Pastor of that church has one of the most crucially important roles that could be given.  Simultaneously, Search Teams are often the least equipped to execute this task.

That's a dangerous combination!

During my eight years working with churches in central Maryland, I've had the opportunity to consult with numerous Search Committees who were seeking a shepherd for their church.  All--and I do mean all--of these people meant well.  But most were ill-prepared to do the job their congregations deserved.   

This is not to say that the people serving on these teams were incompetent, or weren't sincere in their desire to serve.  But most admitted that they had no idea how to effectively fulfill their responsibilities.  Regrettably, most denominational material related to training Search Teams is also woefully inadequate, because to a large extent it doesn't deal with many of the crucial issues that are important for any Search Team to understand when seeking a pastor.  Additionally, I've witnessed quite a few unprofessional and inept approaches to conducting searches at the denominational level as well, so that in some ways, asking for help on this issue from the denomination can sometimes be an exercise in the blind leading the blind!

That said, over the years, I've seen 5 common mistakes that Teams seeking a Pastor usually make.  These are things a Search Team should never do, but almost always do.  I'll list them here, and over the next couple of weeks deal with each one of them in more detail:

1. There is a fine line between communication and confidentiality, and Search Teams cross that line repeatedly.  Most Search Teams understand that confidentiality is important, and they also get that the congregation needs to be kept "in the loop" on the search process.  Unfortunately, clear guidelines are often missing on how to strike this balance, and the result is that many Search Teams say things they shouldn't, and keep to themselves things that need to be said!  We will talk more about how to strike this balance more effectively.

2. They use people with their process rather than using the process to find the right people.  In other words, too many Search Teams become slaves to a process, rather than using that process as the tool.   The process becomes the end rather than the means, and this causes too many Team members to burn out, and too many good candidates to get burned!  We will talk about how to master the search process, rather than be mastered by it.

3. They ask hypothetical questions when they interview.  Any idiot with the IQ of an eggplant can answer a hypothetical question in a way that makes you think he is an expert on every subject!  On this issue, many Search Team "handbooks" are no help either, as many of them are filled with questions that are philosophical and hypothetical, but never allow the Team to see for themselves what kind of man they have sitting in front of them.  We will talk about how to ask the right kinds of questions, and how to translate a candidates' answers into an accurate picture of reality.

4. They assume the important stuff, and as a result, fail to ask the hard questions.  Nearly 40% of pastors have had an extra-marital affair since the beginning of their ministry.  37% regularly struggle with pornography.  More than 50% admitted that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way to make a living (Translation:  They are in it for the money!)  The most important questions are aimed right at issues like these, and they come right from the texts of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.  Unfortunately, many times these questions are never asked because a committee assumes that the title "Reverend" means they have a morally straight guy in front of them.  We will talk about when, and how, to ask the hard questions of a candidate.

5. They don't consider contextual fit, and often hire the "best" candidate instead of the "right" candidate.  The guy with the highest earned degree, the longest run of experience, or the best "track record" in ministry might be the "best" candidate in a stack of resumes, but that doesn't mean he is right for your church.  We will talk about principles for calling the "right" man, not just the "best" man.

More elaboration is coming on each of these in the coming weeks!

Pastors and Porn

I was 12 years old and on a school bus the first time I saw pornography.  It is said that the male brain is wired to take "snapshots" of everything we see that is sexually stimulating, and I can vouch for that stat.  Almost 30 years after the fact, I could tell you in great detail what I saw.

By God's grace, I am not addicted to porn, have been faithful to my wonderful wife, and repented in early adulthood of my sin in this area.  But my experiences with porn as a young man are but one testimony to how powerfully attractive it is.

I'm currently in a sermon series at the church where I'm interim pastor covering the Sermon on the Mount, and this Sunday, we cover the topic of lust and sexual sin.  I'm covering this topic, first of all, because the Bible does.  Every word of Scripture is God-breathed and "profitable," and there are probably no more profitable words in Scripture at this time in our culture than those dealing with lust and sexual sin.  The depth of it in our churches in both overwhelming and unbelievable!  But what may shock most is that this epidemic is also present among pastors!

So I want to take a moment here to plead with my fellow pastors on this subject.  Our people should be able to follow us--to emulate our lifestyle.  Yet for many pastors, the subject of sexuality is off limits in their pulpits because they don't have their own sex lives in order.  Too many times in my years as a denominational servant, I've had to deal with the "after-effects" of a pastor whose secret life was discovered.  Its no fun at all working with a church that has lost all trust in its leadership because of this issue.  And its heartbreaking to see the family of a pastor devastated, and many times broken up,  because of his sin.  But this issue is frighteningly pervasive!

-37% of pastors anonymously interviewed admitted that they constantly and regularly struggle with pornography.

-nearly 40% of pastors anonymously interviewed admitted to having an extramarital affair since the beginning of their ministry.

Satan is wreaking havoc among those who call themselves God's men.  This must stop!  Yes porn is powerful, but Jesus, whom you preach each and every Sunday, is more powerful!  So if you are a pastor who is reading this and struggling with sexual sin, take the steps necessary to crucify that sin.

1. Expose it.  By this I don't necessarily mean to get up in the pulpit this Sunday and admit it to your entire congregation.  As their pastor your role is to look out for their best interests, and such action might prove to be so bold as to shock them in an unhealthy way.  HOWEVER, you need others to overcome this.  James tells us to confess our sins to one another.  This may start with a fellow pastor that you trust.  It might start with your local Associational missionary.  I have resources available to help.

And when you tell them, tell them EVERYTHING, get good counsel from them regarding what you should do next, and FOLLOW THAT COUNSEL.  If we are talking about an internet porn problem, it may be that you simply need to join a support group and get the help necessary to overcome this sin.  If you have committed adultery, you will need to confess such action to those in your church who have authority over you, such as fellow-elders, and submit to their loving discipline.  But those you seek counsel from first can help you discern the best way to do this.

If you don't expose your struggle and/or sin, eventually it will expose you.  You WILL get caught.  Your sin WILL find you out!  Set yourself free from the secrecy and hypocrisy of a double-life, and expose your problem.

2. Crucify it.  Jesus told us in Matthew 5:29-30 to cut off body parts that are offensive to us if necessary in order to avoid sexual sin.  Obviously this is a metaphor (otherwise, all men following this command literally would be blind and crippled!), but the message is clear:  When it comes to dealing with sexual sin, we have to get radical!

This may mean a change in behavior patterns.  it may mean you disconnect the internet for a season.  It most likely means installing tracking software so that at least one other person can see where you are going online.   It might mean you cancel your cable subscription, or even cancel a certain sports magazine subscription that comes with the so-called "fringe benefit" of a swimsuit issue.  You might think that's going overboard, but many over-the-counter magazines sold today--including swimsuit issues of sports magazines--contain the kind of material that would have only been sold behind the counter as porn just a few decades ago.  The intent is to incite lust for the body of one who is not your wife.

Support groups can help you do this as well, and some of those are listed at the bottom of this post.

Whatever you have to do, do it in order to free yourself from this issue!

3. Let your wife help you fight it.  One of the hardest things a man has to do is admit a lust problem to his wife.  You may need wise counsel about how to reveal this struggle to your wife, but you must not keep this from her!  She deserves to know the truth, and she deserves a husband who will fight to keep his marriage promises to her.  Give your wife permission to ask you hard questions about your thoughts, your actions, and your desires.  Give her your password information for all your social media.  Include her as an accountability partner for your tracking software.

Oh, and while breaking free from the porn struggle, use the time you have been spending looking at other women to reconnect to your wife.  It may be blunt but it is true gentlemen:  If you took the time you spent imagining being in the bed of other women, and spent that time instead trying to get into your wife's bed, both you and your wife would live much happier lives!

I've talked with men before who blame their porn problem on the fact that their wife doesn't give them sex.  Gentlemen, you are the head of your home, which means you are responsible for the atmosphere of your home!  If there is a problem in the bedroom, it is most likely related to, and began in, other rooms of the house.  Your job as the head is to discover what those issues are, repent to your wife of any part of it that is your fault, and lead your wife into a relationship of greater intimacy between you both.  Pursue her the way you did before you were married!

Also, re-establish your wife as your standard of beauty.  The Song of Songs is one of the most erotic books ever written, and its in the Bible!  By the end of that book, there is one thing we know, and one thing we don't know.  What we know is that to Solomon, his bride was the most beautiful woman in the world.  What we don't know is what she looked like!  Was she tall or short?  Was she thin or athletic?  We have no idea!  And it doesn't matter!  As a husband, I need to understand the false message porn promotes regarding beauty.  Porn encourages men to crave different kinds of women.  No wife, no matter how beautiful, can compete with that because no wife can be tall and short, blonde and brunette, or white and black at the same time.  So if I have a wife, SHE alone needs to be my standard of beauty, as opposed to some borderline-anorexic supermodel on the cover of a rag at the supermarket.

The New Testament commends frequent sexual activity between spouses as a deterrent to sexual sin.  One of the reasons we see such rampant sin in the church is because, frankly, there isn't nearly enough sex happening in the home.  To be sure, if you are currently struggling with porn or any other sexual sin, your wife probably won't be eager to jump into bed with you, and you will probably need to spend a few weeks or months developing some discipline while you break free from the bondage you are in.  But eventually, once forgiveness has taken place and reconciliation is complete, you will need to focus sexual energies on your own cistern.

Porn is wrecking homes all over our nation.  Christian homes are not exempt, and too many pastors are unable to effectively deal with this problem in their churches because of their own struggles.  Pastor, come clean!  It may cost you.  You may need to take a break from ministry for a while to get straightened out.  But trust me when I say that you MUST deal with this, before it deals with you!

*For internet accountability, check out www.covenanteyes.com

*For online help with a pornography problem, visit www.xxxchurch.com

*For more intensive help with sexual addiction, visit www.faithfulandtrueministries.com

Living in the Future

Imagine a married couple are expecting a child.  Now imagine that during that 9-month period they do absolutely nothing to get ready for that child.  They do nothing to provide a nursery, a bed, or a place to change diapers.  They don't think through how their work schedules are going to change in order to care for this child, or how they will afford childcare outside the home should the wife decide to go back to work.  They don't add the child to their will.  They don't provide life insurance for the child.  Worst of all, they don't secure medical coverage for the child once he or she is born.  Now imagine asking this couple halfway through the pregnancy how they could have possibly been so short-sighted.  And imagine them responding by saying "we are doing just fine right now. We don't have a baby yet, and there is no need to do any of that until we have one."

You have just observed a couple who live consistently in the present, and think nothing of the future.  How many churches do you know like this?

Churches are often accused of "living in the past," but if the truth were told, too many churches are simply "living in the present," and simultaneously wondering why there is no growth, no excitement, and no vision.

Not long ago I was consulting with one of our congregations, and made some recommendations on steps forward they needed to take.  My work with Baptist churches means that I don't have any final authority over the churches I serve, but I also figure they wouldn't be paying me if they didn't want my input from time to time. However, one particularly strong objection to my recommended changes was punctuated by the phrase, "besides, we are doing just fine as we are."

"That may be true," I replied, "but you are not doing just fine as you will be."

A church with 100 active members will always--ALWAYS be at around 100 members unless it begins living in the future, and as such, behaving as if it were at 200 or 300.  But that sort of behavior demands change that can be uncomfortable.

1. Governance.   Smaller churches can have monthly business meetings and discuss everything....and I do mean EVERYTHING.  I once sat through a meeting in which the church body had a 45 minute discussion about how to spend $100.  Unfortunately, they were also very kind and civil to one another while having this conversation, so I couldn't accuse them of being ungodly.  But I did come very close to offering to write a check if they would simply stop talking!

But once a church begins to grow, monthly gatherings where every member of the body has the opportunity to offer input become increasingly impractical.  In Baptist churches, this means that our congregationalism becomes less "democratic" and more representative.  And this may be the hardest thing to change because everyone wants to be heard!  Problem is, once a church gets to the 250 mark, its not possible for everyone to be heard any longer, and if you want to get there, you have to start behaving like you are already there!

2. Staffing.  Conventional wisdom where church staff are concerned is "we will hire them when we can afford them."  To be sure, I have sometimes consulted with churches that are "over-staffed" and did so with the false notion that simply filling a position would somehow create excitement and subsequent growth.  But hiring the right people will create growth.  Generally speaking, you shouldn't wait until you can afford them.  Instead, you should hire who you can't afford to lose, and then watch them earn their keep!

3. Budget.  The ministry budget of a church is the real statement of a church's core values, and without faith-filled and calculated risk playing a role in the budget process, churches will inevitably budget "in the present."  Instead of starting with "what we took in last year," churches should instead start with the financial necessities involved in meeting the needs of its community and the world.  Too many resources that could otherwise be invested in Kingdom advance stay in the hip pockets and purses of God's people simply because we fear dreaming big, and being straight with the church about what it will take financially to live that  dream!  We aren't "all about the money," but we are all about Jesus and His Kingdom, and church members should be challenged to give sacrificially based on a future vision.

Churches that grow and impact their communities and the world are churches that live in the future!

Need Ideas for Celebrating Memorial Day? Here is one great one!

Though instituted primarily as a way of honoring military veterans who lost their lives in battle, Memorial Day is now more quickly associated with a day off from work, barbeque, beer, swimming pool openings, and the beginning of a season in which its appropriate to wear white.  As a result, many Americans will spend this weekend more thankful for an extra day off than they are for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice which allows us to enjoy that day in freedom.

I never served in the U.S. military, but God has allowed me nonetheless to be in close proximity to soldiers.  My first pastorate was a church that sat less than 2 miles from the military entrance to Fort Knox Kentucky.  As such, I often prayed with soldiers before they were deployed, ministered to families left behind, and sadly, preached the funerals of some who never came home.  God has given me a special appreciation for those who put their lives on the line and preserve our freedom.

Sometimes churches have a hard time striking the right balance when questioning how to observe this holiday.  Out of a sincere desire to honor our military, some have gone too far, and in the process gave the appearance that the church bears equal allegiance to two, separate kingdoms.  As a preacher of the Gospel, I've witnessed too many church services during this time of year that could just as easily have been held among any group of pagan patriots at a baseball field.  To be sure, there is a place for that display of patriotism, but that place is not among a gathering of Jesus' people whose primary aim should be the worship of the one true God.

At the same time, the church has a responsibility for showing honor to those to whom it is due.  My calling is to spread the message of Jesus Christ, regardless of what it costs me.  But I'm well aware that in America, it costs me virtually nothing, and this is so primarily because others have died so that I might enjoy such freedom.  This coming Memorial Day Sunday I will proclaim God's Word to God's people, then get in our family's minivan and go to dinner, then go home and enjoy the rest of the day and not worry about being shot at or persecuted in any way--precisely because men and women in uniform have faithfully guarded my freedom to do such for over two centuries now.

So if you are looking for a way to honor our active duty and veteran military, here is one idea I would highly encourage:  Go to a restaurant sometime this weekend and look around for someone in uniform.  Find their waiter or waitress and ask that their bill be brought to you, pay it anonymously, write a brief thank-you note for what they do, and leave.  If they have family with them, pay for their meal as well, and thank the family for the sacrifices they have made at home.  Declaring your appreciation publicly via a colorguard presentation or simply asking veterans to stand in a worship service is fine.  But tangibly expressing your appreciation is in no danger of crossing the line in a worship service meant for Jesus, and will mean much more to those who protect us because, among other things, it actually costs you something to do it!  Its a simple way to show honor and appreciation.  And compared to what these people are giving up to serve you and me, its also a VERY CHEAP way to say "thank you."  It will mean the world to a soldier, airman, sailor, or marine.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying a day off, but this is one day we shouldn't enjoy to the neglect of  those it was intended to honor.  So while you are picking up picnic supplies for yourself, think of a tangible way to bless our military personnel this weekend.  They deserve our thanks.

Manhood and Heroism: Two Causes Worth Fighting For

I don't normally write about or publicly push "causes."  Nor do I usually advertise when my family has made a decision to boycott a company or encourage others to do so.  But an unjust situation involving Safeway  Supermarkets has provoked me to the rare extreme in which I call on my readers to hit this company where it hurts:  in the pocketbook!

What would cause me to go to such an extreme?  A case involving a young Safeway meat-cutter named Ryan Young.  Many weeks ago while working at the meat counter of a California Safeway, Mr. Young witnessed Quyen Van Tran beating his girlfriend, was 5 months pregnant.  Courageously, Mr. Young stepped in between the lady and her assailant, and according to local police, possibly saved the lives of both the young lady and her unborn child.  Douglas Castro, a security guard who was shopping that day and witnessed the altercation, testifies to the following:

Safeway employee Ryan Young intervened when he saw a customer assaulting his pregnant girlfriend.  The incident took place in a Safeway Store located in the city of Del Rey Oaks, California.  Local law enforcement stands behind Mr. Young's actions, but despite this Safeway has suspended Mr. Young without pay.


In response to this nonsensical move by Safeway, Mr. Castro started a petition drive on Mr. Young's behalf demanding that Safeway reinstate him.  You can sign the petition here.

A more comprehensive account of the story can be found at the CBS affiliate here.

Here is the bottom line as far as I'm concerned:  I don't know Mr. Young personally.  I don't know his history with the company.  But I do know that witnesses to the incident and police say that he did the right thing.  A young man saw a woman in danger and put his own self at risk in order to protect her and her unborn child.  In doing so, he did what any real man should be expected to do.  But as "reward" for his intervention, Safeway has suspended him without pay for over a month.  Mr. Young, whose own wife is also pregnant, is now in financial dire straits since they are a "one-income family" and his income has been suspended for over a month.

In a day when our society laments the dearth of genuine manhood, such heroic acts should not only be commended, they should be expected.  Mr. Young was simply doing what anyone who dares call themselves a man should have done.  His actions deserve commendation, a raise, and perhaps even a promotion.  He certainly doesn't deserve the "company policy" nonsense and subsequent financial stress he and his family have experienced during this time in their lives.

There is a Safeway 5 miles from my home in central Maryland that our family often frequents, but no longer. The Raineys will patronize Safeway only when they reinstate this young man, reimburse him the back-pay he is due, and issue a public apology for their idiocy.  Until then, not one penny of our family's budget will go toward supporting a company that discourages men from being men.

I hope you will join me in sending a loud, clear message to Safeway.  And again, you can sign the change.org petition here.

How Global Missions Has Changed Forever

The 21st century is an exciting time to be a missionary, assuming you understand how both the job description and work environment of the task has radically changed!

To be sure, since the Holy Spirit's work began in the book of Acts, the core measurements of missionary work have not changed at all.  When we speak of missions, we are using a term that has a thoroughly Biblical definition.  More specifically, missions activity is any and all activity that results in people hearing and understanding the Gospel and coming to faith in Jesus, leadership being raised up from within that pool of converts, and new churches emerging from the result of the Gospel faithfully engaging culture.  But how this happens in the 21st century is much more multifaceted than it has ever been at any time in the history of Christianity.

A few examples from my own environment illustrate this well.

-As I write these words, we have a team from our Association on the ground in a city of 2.5 million in East Asia, and another team getting ready to fly out this Sunday to take their place.  After nearly 5 years of working in this area of the world, several house churches have been started, and our attention has begun to shift toward another city roughly 100 kilometers south.  Problem is, this is a city that does not welcome those from the west, which means if they are to be reached with the Gospel, we must train those in the north who have come to faith in Jesus to reach them, and pray that God calls some of them to relocate and plant churches. Doing this in the most contextually effective way would be a huge challenge, were it not for several Asian immigrants who worship right here in central Maryland in several of our churches!  Their insight and help will speed this process up in a way that would have been impossible just two decades ago!

-About a year ago, I was contacted by a member of our state House of Delegates who attends one of our churches.  She had just returned from a trip to the middle east with the Governor, who was hoping to establish a trade relationship, and discovered that immigrants from this country with whom our government was working believed themselves hated by evangelical Christians.  I responded to her invitation to a meal with an Imam and the Director of an organization that represents this group of people in Annapolis and Washington.  The result has been an ongoing dialogue with the local Muslim community.  We have been very clear with them about what we believe, and we have also expressed that our greatest desire in this relationship is to see them come to know the Jesus of Scripture.  But we have also committed to a lasting friendship that is not contingent on whether they convert to Christianity.  This fall, I and a half-dozen pastors from our Association will be traveling to this middle-eastern nation at the invitation of our new friends.  Yep, you read that right:  Muslims are hosting a group of Baptist pastors on a trip to the middle-east, and are even  helping with the cost of the trip!

-Several months ago, our office became aware of an orphanage in a former Soviet bloc nation where many Down syndrome children were being criminally malnourished.  We are talking about 14 year old girls who weigh less than my 3-year-old daughter!  Through working a number of different angles, the possibility for being able to help these kids has opened up, and we are preparing to assemble a team of nurses, pediatric specialists, and others from nearby Johns Hopkins, and Washington's Children's National Medical Center.  Our access to this opportunity will come from a hospital in the same city as the orphanage that is run by the Japanese.  Oh, and some from the medical community who have expressed an interest in helping come from the  aforementioned Muslim community, whose home country shares a border and strong diplomatic ties with the Eastern European country where we hope to be working.

-Four months ago through a relationship with the Wesleyan Church, our Association helped launch a Washington D.C. campus for a Burmese seminary headquartered in Syracuse, New York.  Several of our pastors will be serving as volunteer faculty, and though the school is cross-denominational, we will utilize the pool of Baptist church planters who emerge from this school to reach the growing Burmese population around our nation's capital.

-Three years ago, a new church was planted in northeast Baltimore through Acts29 and sponsored by an independent Baptist church.  In that time, some of our own church planters have partnered with this church in many ways, most recently through a conference on urban ministry, and multiethnic dialogue that seeks ways to eliminate the racial tensions that have existed in Baltimore for decades between various ethnic groups.  Three weeks ago, I sat with the lead pastor of this church, who expressed his desire to join our Association, but was skeptical about joining with the larger SBC, primarily because, in his words, "I don't know anyone at that level."  An hour later, and because of our prior relationship, and his relationships with our church planters in the city, I convinced him to make a commitment to get to know them.  As a result, we now have an additional church joining in our denomination's continued global missions efforts.

-A young couple in one of our church plants sensed a call to missions in Europe.  But rather than apply for service through a mission board, the husband decided to get further training in his current field of Information Technology.  IT is in growing demand in Europe, and with this realization, this couple is moving to Europe--not as "missionaries" in the official sense, but so the husband can get a job in his field of expertise, and influence an entire sector of society that is expected to grow exponentially over the coming years.

I could give many more examples, but those I've given above are sufficient evidence for the four primary ways "missions" has forever changed:

1. Networks are the new denominations.  Churches who work together in missions need both a theological core, and a mechanism for doing their work effectively.  For centuries, denominations and denominational structures were how both of these were realized.  That has changed.

This is not to say that there is no longer a place for denominations.  If I believed that, I'd have to find another line of work.  :)  Denominations still hold great value, both as a repository of common theological identity, and as a way for churches to combine their efforts in order to more effectively reach the world.  And while I'm at it, I'll also go ahead and say that the SBC Cooperative Program--where traditional delivery systems are concerned--is still the largest and most effective missions-sending delivery system in the history of Protestant Christianity!

That said, it must also be admitted that where common doctrinal identity and missional cooperation are concerned, denominations are no longer the only game in town!  And in some cases, emerging networks of churches are doing these things better than many declining denominational systems.

The churches in my association are exhibit A of this fact.  20 years ago, all of our churches would have given the sum total of their missions support to the Cooperative Program and Associational Missions.  They would have all done their relief work through the World Hunger Fund of the SBC.  They would have all done their church planting work through the North American Mission Board.  They would have automatically sent anyone in their church who felt called to missions to the International Mission Board.  And, anyone called to preach would have automatically been referred to the closest SBC seminary.  This is no longer the case.  International mission work might just as easily be done through New Tribes Mission.  Relief work might be done through Samaritan's Purse or World Vision.  Churches might be planted using Glocalnet, Acts29, or SEND Network.  And pastors might sometimes be considered more qualified if degreed from Fuller or Trinity.

The emergence of the internet and the subsequent opening of even the most remote areas to the reality of globalization means that local churches are discovering, and leveraging, those network relationships that are most effective at helping them achieve the goals toward which they believe God has called them.  As a result, missions in the future will necessarily involve multiple levels of working together.

2. Relationships are the new currency.  In a former life, when churches sent the lion's share of their missions dollars to a single "clearing house," that collective financial pot was what held most mission endeavors together.  But this approach also created some unintended consequences.  At the Associational level, we gravitated toward an approach whereby we relied on larger churches for the financial support we would give to the smaller ones so that they could "survive."  In many Associational contexts, we weren't doing missions.  We were promoting ecclesiastical socialism!

Another problem that emerged from this approach was the fighting that ensued over how the collective dollars were spent.  If a donor wants to give my Association $20K to support a new church, we can funnel those funds through our administrative machine.  Problem is, once he writes the check, that money automatically becomes the "community property" of almost 60 Baptist churches, all of whom want to draw lines in different places regarding where and how that money can be spent.  Thus, in the new world, we are better off if I can simply broker a solid relationship between donor and church planter, and have the money sent directly through the field.

Between donations for new churches, handling the logistics of visiting mission teams, and various other kinds of partnerships, I will likely arrange more than $500K in mission efforts that will NEVER pass through my Association's budget!  Most of the benefit to our churches and their mission efforts doesn't come from our office writing a check, but from our staff leveraging relationships.

For this to be judged a "success," the scorecard for missions organizations must change!  Years ago, my role was judged by how big a slice of the "budget pie" went to the direct funding of missions.  Honestly, less than 40% of our "official" budget goes toward these ends.  So if we are judged by the questions of the past, I would have to lay off a highly competent staff member who has helped us broker the relationships I speak of so that the "pie slices" would look better.  But that's not the work of a missionary.  That's the work of an accountant!

Denominations and missions organizations who succeed in the future will have to realize that an open handshake is, in many ways, more valuable than an open checkbook!

3. Societal Domains are the new "Mission Boards."  In the past, anyone and everyone who wanted to be a "missionary" applied for service, and was "sent out" by  a Board who oversaw their work, as well as provided them with the financial support necessary for them to concentrate on the work to which they were called in a full-time way.  There is still a very real need for this way of doing missions.  But as the world has opened up more and more, multiple avenues have emerged through which people can be "sent," and the "sending agency" might not even be Christian!

Just this week I had a conversation with someone in our Association who feels a possible call to missions in a part of the world that is largely untouched by the Gospel.  He has a high level of skill in computer programming that could essentially earn him a living anywhere in the world!   He had looked at a few traditional mission boards, including exploring the website of our denominations IMB, but didn't sense a strong push to go the route of the traditional "missionary."  Instead, he and I spent some time talking about the various parts of this nation that were in dire need of improvement.  For any civilization to survive in the 21st century requires education, government, transportation, health care, agriculture, and economics to work together effectively.  And in the 21st century, every single one of these societal domains requires computer technology to run efficiently!  I told my friend, "Send your resume to [this country] and you can move to the mission field tomorrow if you want!"  In the future, who "receives" you might be more important than who "sends" you!

4. Laity are the new missionaries.  I'll never forget the young lady who came to me after one of my evangelism classes years ago.  I was a professor at a Baptist University, and this particular class was held right after the morning chapel service.  That morning, a spirited message from a local pastor had touched this young woman deeply, and confirmed in her heart a call to international missions.

But her reason for meeting with me betrayed the contextual misunderstanding of missions that surrounded her on this campus.  "Dr. Rainey," she said, "As much as I love working with children, God has called me to missions.  So I need to find out how to switch majors; from elementary education to Theology."  My response shocked her.  "If that is what God is clearly telling you to do, then by all means do it.  But you do know, don't you, that God doesn't just use people with theology degrees.  In many places around the world, a theology degree means they won't even let you in the country!  But do you know how many otherwise 'closed countries' are begging for good teachers?"

That young lady is now doing what she loves--teaching young children--in an environment overseas that she would have never been allowed to engage had she switched majors!  For this to happen, she had to come to the understanding that some of the most effective missionaries aren't trained missiologists!

Likewise, if we are to have any hope of effectively engaging our world going forward, local churches must tap into the skill, talents, and knowledge of those who sit in the seats week after week, and equip those people to engage their spheres of influence--through the profession to which God has called them!

The world has changed tremendously.  The command of Jesus to reach that world has not!  To obey His orders, we must understand both the Gospel AND the world!  And understanding the world means adjusting our missiology so that the Gospel penetrates the multitude of avenues God has opened up for us at this critical juncture in human history!

Watch "The Exchange" live, here at 3 PM EDT

"The Exchange" is a free weekly webshow hosted by Ed Stetzer, and directed toward pastors and church leaders.  It is broadcast live every Tuesday at 2 PM CDT.  Dr. Stetzer is President of Lifeway Research and the author of numerous books relating to church and culture, and in "The Exchange," he interviews other church leaders from around the world.

Click Here to watch "The Exchange" with Ed Stetzer, LIVE at 3 PM EDT

A Word about Youth and Youth Pastors

On average, about once every six weeks a youth pastor comes into my office and threatens to quit his job.  Now, I oversee missions for roughly 60 churches, and very few of these guys actually follow through with their threats, so thankfully most of these meetings end up simply being a "venting session" for a guy who might otherwise try to find his jugular with a fork.

Here's the thing:  Most of the time, it isn't the youth who frustrate him. Its their parents!

The Scriptures from both Old and New Testaments put the responsibility for a child's spiritual development primarily in the hands of his or her parents.  And many parents who take their kids to church demonstrate by their ambivilance that they don't take that calling seriously.  The result is a youth pastor's worst nightmare.

In light of all this, I thought you should know what kind of counsel THIS denominational leader gives to these guys and gals who are too often simply treated like glorified babysitters:

1. I tell them to invest in the minority.  The conversation usually goes like this.  THEM:  "Youth ministry is driving me crazy.  I don't feel like I'm able to get them to grow spiritually at all, and too many times their parents seem to actually be working against me by putting academics or athletics before their teenager's spiritual development."  ME:  "Do you have at least 10% of the total number of that group who are actually growing and want to continue to grow?"  THEM: "Oh yeah, I think I have more than that actually."  ME:"  Well then, spend 10% of your time with the 90% of slackers so that you don't lose your job, but invest 90% of your time in those who are worthy of your investment."

Yep, you just heard me say that I advise youth pastors all the time to essentially dump 90% of their youth group and invest in the 10% who actually care about moving closer to Jesus.  Why would I do that?  For one thing, its what both Jesus and Paul command.  Jesus warns us "Do not give dogs what is sacred, and do not throw your pearls to pigs."  (Matthew 7:6)  Bottom line:  You have a limited amount of time and a limited amount of resources to invest in people, and Jesus is going to hold you responsible for how you steward those investments.  Paul likewise commanded Timothy to "entrust to faithful men, who will be able to pass them on to others."  This doesn't mean that a youth pastor should totally ignore or "write off" teenagers who are unfaithful, or whose commitment to Jesus remains in a constant state of vacillation.  It does mean that the lion's share of investment should be in those who exhibit a genuine desire for growth.  So if you are a parent who uses your church's youth ministry as a "backup plan" when there are no standardize tests to study for or county sports leagues in which to play, don't be offended when the youth leader politely but clearly limits the amount of time and effort he or she puts into your child.

2. I tell them to challenge the parents.  Too many parents want authority without responsibility when it comes to the spiritual development of their kids.  Mom and Dad, when your child sees you skip church at the drop of a hat, rarely open your Bible, and utter prefabricated prayers at the dinner table, you shouldn't expect that they will catch a better spirituality from a youth pastor.

Honestly, I've seen this same ridiculous phenomenon in our public school system.  My kids have some fantastic teachers and counselors who all too often have to deal with parents who put higher expectations on the school system than they do themselves.  Essentially, they bring their child to the school counselor and say "fix her," or "straighten him out."  But when a teacher has had that child for 16 weeks, and you Mom  and Dad have had that same child for 16 years, the blame for their behavior can hardly be laid at the feet of the teacher.  The same is true of youth pastors.  If teenagers don't see a love for Jesus at home, it is highly unlikely they will choose to emulate their youth pastor rather than Mom and Dad.  So when your youth leaders challenge you in your responsibility as a parent, don't retch in offence because you are being "called out."  Instead, you need to repent, and model for your teenager what it means to walk the narrow road.

3. I tell them to focus on faithful families.  Ultimately, it isn't (or shouldn't) be the job of the youth pastor to develop spiritually mature teenagers.  Instead, it is his/her job to better equip moms and dads to deal with their kids during this tumultuous time in his or her development.  Youth Pastors can be great partners with parents in keeping a kid on the straight and narrow.  They can give guidance to parents about this developmental stage of life, and they can also get in a kid's face and defend the authority of Mom and Dad.  But that partnership is a two-way street.

Youth pastors can be a most valuable resource to the church, and to the parents who are part of that church.  Unfortunately, too many of them are overworked, under-appreciated, and frustrated to the point of quitting. In the end, I don't think this is because the church expects too much from youth pastors, but I do believe it is because many churches expect the wrong things.  Parents, know what to rightfully expect from the youth ministry at your church, and know what should be expected of you as well.  One day in the distant future, when you don't seem nearly as stupid as you do now, your teenager will thank you for it!

What Do We Need to Learn from the African Church?

Last night I spent an encouraging hour with a Nigerian Pastor who will be starting a church in our Association this fall to reach immigrants from his home country. To be honest, I've never left a meeting with an African Pastor without being highly encouraged by what God is doing on that continent, and through those from there who now minister on THIS continent!

Alan Hirsch has astutely observed that "the 21st century face of the evangelical church is not the European man, but the African woman." This is a true statement, and there is a reason for that. And my own limited interactions with African Christians to date has convinced me that there are several things we in the west need to learn from our brothers and sisters on that continent. Why is it that the African church leads the 2/3 world in the explosive growth of the church and the expansion of God's Kingdom?

1. Their Commitment to Biblical Authority. Just ask American Episcopalians who have struggled for years between their commitment to their denominational tradition and their conviction that the Scriptures were being violated from Canterbury. It was in that environment that Bible believing Episcopalians received an open invitation from The African Anglican Church to leave their affiliation with the Church of England and join with Anglicans who still hold to Biblical truth.

In the west, much of the church is mired in discussion about everything from just war to sexual ethics. These conversations are necessary, given the environment in which we find ourselves. But even within many evangelical churches, there seems to be an ignorance of the fact that all these issues are ultimately about whether the Scriptures are our final authority in all matters of belief and practice.

Our African brothers and sisters naturally default to this position. As such, I've often found when discussing these issues that their eyes will glaze in disbelief that those who would dare question the right and wrong of such issues could even call themselves Christian. These precious people hold unquestioningly to the Scriptures. They aren't jerks about what they believe, and they don't hate those who disagree. They just sincerely, from the heart, declare the Word of God with authority. The growth we see among African Christians is simply the inevitable result.

2. Their Prayerful Dependence. I find that even the smallest consideration is met with the statement "let me spend a few days talking to the Lord about it, and I'll let you know." These men and women walk with God in a way that embodies 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. Unlike we in the west, with our propensity to "bookend" meetings filled with our own agendas with prayer asking God to bless what WE have decided to do, our African counterparts walk in constant prayerful dependence, seeking above all else to be guided by the Holy Spirit.

3. Their Patience. We in the west almost idolize the fast-growing and the "quick start" church plants that run hundreds in just a couple of years. To be sure, we should thank God when He chooses to work in such ways rather than giving in to the sin of pastoral jealousy. At the same time, the overwhelming majority of pastors who will never be granted that kind of an environment should sit for a while at the feet of the soon-to-be church planter I spoke with last night. Six years ago he immigrated to the United States, confident that God had called him as an evangelist to help reach the United States with the Gospel. In that time he has personally shared the Gospel, and led many to Christ. But only now, six years later, does he sense God bringing all the pieces together in a way that will finally allow him to plant a church. Most American dudes would have long-since given up. The patient perseverance of our African colleagues is a great model we need to emulate.

4. Their Spiritual Awareness. Simply put, Africans believe in spiritual warfare, because most of them have lived it! Western missionaries and church planters too often neglect to sense the spiritual battle that is going on behind the scenes. But those demonic forces are very, very real, and we ignore their presence, power, and hostility toward our ministry at our own peril. Africans don't ignore it. They freely speak of the reality of demon possession, the angelic, and the power of the Gospel through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. When discussing the hardships of ministry, their conversation naturally gravitates toward the ministry of the Holy Spirit to heal sickness, cast out demons, and regenerate hearts toward God and the Gospel. If you want to know why the African church seems to grow with such power, just observe the power source into which they are openly plugged!

Yep, I'm very thankful that God has sent African brothers and sisters here to the states to help us reach this continent afresh for Jesus. Their attention to areas where we have blind spots is proof enough of our need for them, and I look forward to seeing our Association of churches partner with them.

Pastors Who Enable

The role of pastors is clear in Scripture: “Equip the saints for the work of the ministry.” But unfortunately, some pastors confuse equipping for enablement.

Primarily, this is caused by fear on the part of the pastor. Proverbs 29:25 warns us that “the fear of man is a snare." But often, that fear doesn’t look like fear. Sometimes it looks quite courageous. Sometimes it appears as though the pastor is working himself to death in service to the church, when in reality he is doing all the work because he fears a lack of control. Sometimes it appears the Word is proclaimed in an uncompromising way, when in reality the pastor is just throwing red meat to the crowd. What follows are some ways I’ve seen pastors enable dysfunction in their churches.

11Throwing the Crowd Red meat rather than giving the congregation a steady diet of God’s Word. Let’s face it. Most of us who preach know where our “Amen corners” are, and we know what to say to make them noisy. Homeschool Nazis love it when you attack the public school system. Prophecy addicts long for you to spend every Sunday expounding on some cryptic passage from Revelation. Hyper-Calvinists can’t get enough discussion about “historic Baptist thought.” Conversely, those who think Calvinism is the doctrine of antichrist shout loudly in response to a pastor who dismisses the whole discussion with a single, broad-brushed reference to John 3:16.

The issue here is that our people all have their pet subjects, and if we want to stay on their “good side,” all we really need to do is discover what those passions are and focus on them when we are in the pulpit. Problem is, this approach never produces genuine disciples, because when you give inordinate focus to a few subjects, you fail in your duty to teach “the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:27)

Another issue that arises from using the pulpit to simply throw out “red meat” for the crowd is that, strangely enough, you never seem to get around to actually preaching to the people who are in the room. It’s always what’s going on “out there,” or “those people” who are the cause of the problem. In the process, our people are reinforced in their own pride and never move significantly forward in the process of becoming more like Jesus.

To be sure, I’m not suggesting that you should never speak of how your people should educate their children, or how Biblical prophecy should affect our Christian walk. I’m simply suggesting that it takes absolutely no courage to stand in a room full of conservative, heterosexual, “red state” attendees and blame the homosexual community for all that is wrong with our culture. It takes very little temerity to appeal to surface-level exegesis in the attempt to get your people all bent out of shape over those evil Calvinists. And to stand in the pulpit, week after week, and do nothing but condemn the people “out there” is more like Phariseeism, and less like a New Testament pastor who follows Jesus by getting to the heart of the real issues. Judgment, the Apostle Peter says, begins at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17). If you genuinely preach the whole counsel of God, what you feed your people won’t always taste good to them.

2. Hiding from Hard Subjects. If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it 100 times from a pastor. “We don’t address THAT, because THAT would get us off mission.” On the surface, I understand the sentiment. Our preaching and teaching can easily become unbalanced if we focus too much on what we might think are “secondary issues.” Still, too many pastors simply avoid hard subjects altogether. What this teaches our people is that when the pressure is on, its OK to take the easy way out.

But Struggle is part of the Christian experience. When a baby dies, when a spouse is diagnosed with a terminal disease, or when some other unspeakable tragedy occurs, people need to be already armed with a solid understanding of providence and sovereignty. They need to have already wrestled with the tension between divine providence and human freedom in a way that brings them toward greater intimacy with God BEFORE these things happen in their lives. If that means the pastor has to occasionally “go deep” on a subject like providence, so be it! Likewise, when a child struggling with homosexuality “comes out” or a businessman is faced with the choice between keeping his integrity or keeping his job, the truth of God’s Word from the pulpit should be in the minds of all who are involved so that hard issues can be faced in a way that honors Jesus.

Too often, pastors avoid these subjects, or worse, they oversimplify them in a way that ignores the difficulties of applying one’s faith during hard times. Enabling your people in this way is a treasonous act of denying them the tools necessary to think and act for themselves in a way that brings glory to God. Sure, there are more “practical matters” to attend to, and those should be addressed as well. Additionally, every subject that is dealt with by a pastor should be connected to the larger purpose of lifting up Jesus as the center and circumference of Scripture and our faith. But if God’s Word addresses it, then we are bound by our calling to address it as well.

3. Doing the work rather than sharing the work. Maybe its motivated by guilt. Or maybe its motivated by a desire to control every ministry. Whatever the motivation, workaholism on the part of the pastor steals time from his family, and steals opportunities for service from his people. Doing anything (or worse, having your wife do anything) simply because ‘no one else will do it’ enables the church in its current state of laziness and consumer-driven sin. Furthermore, answering every phone call, making every visit and personally responding to every need means you never equip the church to do these things and are personally worn to the point where you eventually do nothing well. The late Adrian Rodgers said it best: “The pastor who is always available is rarely worth anything when he is available.”

4. Making the church about you. This is, by far, the hardest statement in this post, but its true. Pastor, the church is not about you! Its about the body of Christ, and your validity in holding the pastoral office is tied inextricably to how well you serve the people God has put under your charge. When you act, you should do so with their best interests in mind.

In too many evangelical traditions including my own, the “celebrity culture” has produced many men who believe the church is there so that they can advance themselves. Regrettably, I’ve encountered a few pastors who make decisions that affect the entire church based solely on how they will personally be affected. In the worst cases, this behavior manifests itself in a pastor who uses the pulpit to get out all of his pent-up frustrations, which is the pastor-congregation equivalent of spousal abuse. Pastor, you serve the bride of Christ, and one day, you and I will stand in front of Him and answer for how we have treated His wife while she was in our care!

I’m convinced that codependency is a real issue with many pastors and churches. Rather than empower and bless each other, they use each other in a way that spreads dysfunction throughout the body, and destroys any hope of that local church being faithful to her call. When a pastor simply gives the people whatever they want whenever they want in an attempt to keep his job, or be complimented, or to advance himself, such behavior is not service. It is enablement. To be sure, pastors by themselves cannot change this scenario. But men, we can, and we must, resist the temptation to confuse equipping with enablement.

The fear of man is a snare. Resist it, and serve your people well as a result.

Evangelicals and the Gay Marriage Debate

As I write these words, the majority in the Maryland House of Delegates is still celebrating over their recent vote to legitimize marriage between members of the same gender. Predictions are that the Senate also has the votes necessary to send this bill—which effectively legalizes homosexual marriage in my state—to the desk of Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who has said he will sign it into law. By this summer, Maryland will become the 8th state in the Union to legalize marriage between homosexual partners.

At the same time, evangelicals lost this issue a long time ago. In a recent USA Today article, Tom Krattenmaker astutely compares the current situation to the closing moments of a football game when the opposing team is so far out in front that there is no hope of recovery before the final seconds tick off the clock. Though I disagree with Krattenmaker’s proposal for evangelicals to simply “back off,” he is correct about one thing: Even with the Governor’s signature not already affixed to the bill, we have lost this ball game!

So the question going forward is simple: how did we arrive at this place? And is there a way to return our culture to previous thoughts about this issue when the playing field of dialogue is now so uneven? It is admittedly difficult—perhaps even impossible—to adequately respond in a 5-minute sound bite to why you would oppose two people who love each other being granted the same rights, recognition, and tax breaks as any other married couple.

Further complicating matters is the fact that many of us have friends in the homosexual community whom we care about deeply, and on the surface, it just seems heartless to deny them the opportunities available to heterosexual couples. If you are in favor of homosexual marriage and just read that last paragraph, you might think I’m sympathetic to the plight of a persecuted minority in our country. If you are an evangelical who just read it who thinks I’ve lost my mind, and you are wondering how on earth we ever arrived at this place, then you have stumbled onto my point.

What mistakes did we make that have resulted in the current climate?

1. Our Early Treatment of the Homosexual Community. I’m speaking here of two things primarily: mistreatment and stereotyping. Let’s face it. For many decades the sum total of the evangelical church’s response to the homosexual community was “AIDS is God’s judgment on you!” Though we claim our authority is the Bible, we largely ignored what it says about all human beings being created in the image and likeness of God where homosexuals are concerned.

As a result, an evangelical church—the one place where a homosexual struggling with his or her sin should have been welcomed—was the one place they avoided like the plague. We looked the other way when homosexuals were denied housing or employment or worse, when they were beaten and killed. We should have been the first to denounce such horrific acts of violence against any human being created in God’s image. Instead, we were largely silent.

Additionally, we tended to stereotype this part of our population as an aggressive minority intent on subjugating our children to sexual perversion of every sort and kind. To be sure, there is an identifiable group among homosexual ranks that walk around naked at parades, seek to radicalize school curriculum, and give support to organizations like NAMBLA. But this group represents less than 10 percent of the homosexual community.

Another 20% of this population is represented by men and women who are genuinely struggling with their sexual orientation, believe it is sin, and want to find a way out. The majority in the middle are convinced that they are doing nothing wrong, but have no desire to do anything except live their lives and be left alone. Our problem is that we have treated the entire homosexual population as if they all belonged to category number 1.

These two issues illustrate a sub-human treatment of men and women for whom Jesus died. I understand that this sin begins with “suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.” (Romans 1:18), but given the way we have communicated our message, is it any wonder they don’t want to listen to us?

2. Our Own Perversion of Marriage: Homosexuals may very well help our society finish off marriage, but they can’t be held responsible for starting this downward slide. That began decades ago, and continues into the present. Within the evangelical church, divorce rates are actually higher than outside Christendom. In addition, our refusal to practice church discipline and uphold the standards of righteousness expected of any follower of Jesus has resulted in rampant and unrepentant fornication and adultery within our own ranks.

The Bible is clear regarding sexual sin, but our ambivalence within the church toward heterosexual sin betrays the absence of any moral authority to speak to this issue. Until we start treating heterosexual sin in all its forms within the church the same way we view homosexual sin outside the church, we can never presume the moral high ground. Judgment, the Apostle Peter says, begins at the house of God. (1 Peter 4:17)

3. Our Capitulation to the Idea of Marriage as a “Right.” The homosexual community has been largely successful in couching their agenda in the verbiage of “civil rights,” and the current marriage debate is also housed within this concept. If interracial marriage is permitted, for example, then what is wrong with two men or two women being wed to each other? I appreciate the response to this issue that has been made by my African-American brothers in ministry. They have spoken eloquently to the marked difference that should be noted between skin tone and behavior.

At the same time, when discussing marriage, evangelicals have failed to point out that this institution isn’t about “civil rights,” and in fact isn’t about “rights” at all. Yet at some point, we allowed the other side to co-opt the idea that marriage is a right. Rather than speaking to who does and does not have a “right” to marry, evangelicals should point out that in fact, no one has a “right” to marital union--not even a heterosexual couple.

Marriage has historically been viewed as a status of privilege, and this truth is functionally proven by the fact that although a clerk of court may be forced by law to issue a license, no public official—minister, notary public, or judge—is required to perform the ceremony.

A so-called “right to marriage” does not currently exist, even for heterosexual couples, and is not necessary for equality. If evangelicals want to turn opinion on this issue, this point must be made clear.

4. We allowed “tolerance” to be confused with “affirmation.” Tolerance, simply defined, is the power that keeps adherents to various points of view from killing each other. It is rooted in the idea that all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God, and describes the endorsement of the ideal of treating each other with dignity and respect, regardless of our differences with each other.

But toleration is not the same as affirmation. It is one thing, for example, for our society to “tolerate” an alcoholic by not killing him, getting him treatment when he seeks it, and in general treating him like a human being. But if we were to suddenly hold him up as an example of something healthy in our society, such action would not represent “tolerance.” but “affirmation.”

I’ve been pleased to see legislative and judicial moves away from punitive results for homosexual behavior. Aside from the fact that I think our government has better things to do with its time than lock up consenting adults, the sodomy laws in our country set up a defacto hierarchy of sin whereby heterosexual misconduct was winked at while homosexual sin was viewed as worthy of attention by our penal code.

Similarly, sexual behavior should, generally speaking, not be an employment issue. Ministerial employment notwithstanding, a homosexual should not be released from his or her employment for their sexual behavior any more than an adulterous husband should be fired for his last out-of-town tryst. Such a posture truly treats all sin equally and does not single out any particular group to be stigmatized. I’m thankful for evangelicals like Rick Warren, who have spoken to this issue with passion not only in our own country, but in other places like Uganda.

But a license to marry is not an extension of “tolerance.” It is instead the granting of societal affirmation. Our culture has historically affirmed marriage between a man and woman because of the inherent benefits this institution provides our society. The economic stability, emotional support, vehicle of sexual expression and ideal environment for childrearing that this institution has observably produced in our culture has resulted in our nation granting it a status of privilege. When a marriage license is issued, our society is in effect saying “we affirm this union because of the betterment of our society that we know will result.”

So when the homosexual community asks for the “right” to marry, they are asking for much more than tolerance. They are asking for the societal endorsement of their lifestyle. Regardless of whether you believe homosexual behavior to be a sin, the simple fact is that homosexual marriage is without a strong historical precedent and thus, its institutionalization by our government represents a radical approach to social engineering, the results of which will not be tangibly known or experienced for many decades. The “five-minute sound-bite” approach to this issue may make it seem as though the evangelical church is backed into a philosophical corner, but the truth is that the burden of legitimizing the radical redefinition of marriage to include two men or two women rests on those who would like to see homosexual marriage codified into our system of law. Tolerance is one thing. What the homosexual community is asking for is a quite different matter.

Evangelical Christians once spoke to the issue of homosexuality in a world that shared our opinion of the issue. Recent developments have proven that this world is now gone. The question now is how Christians can speak the truth in love in this new environemt. Admittedly, we did not use our cultural influence well when we had it, and our understanding of how to interact with the homosexual community has thankfully evolved. Our understanding of homosexual behavior as sinful must not change, but the way we communicate this truth and encourage dialogue must simultaneously demonstrate a clear compassion, and if neccesary, the willingness to be persecuted ourselves for the sake of those we strongly believe need the Gospel.

We need clear and compelling arguments combined with genuine love for our homosexual neighbors. Anything less not only substantiates the charge that we are "homophobic," but also demonstrates unfaithfulness to the Gospel we claim to preach.