A pastor’s dream

As a pastor, I’ve been dreaming a bit lately – not about new programs, ministries, or committees (especially not about new committees).

Here’s the dream: that my church would become the kind of congregation that lives facing the world in such a way that we would be baptizing three brand new adult followers of Jesus every month.

On one level that almost sounds too simple. On another level, the changes we’d have to make to pursue that vision would be substantial.

Looking ahead
Each morning when I get up to take out our dog, Cu, I’m pretty certain he only has one thing on his mind (such as it is).

Cu is a creature of instinct. He whimpers and moans a bit as I struggle to get my sweatpants on, not because he’s already thinking about everything he has to do today and he’s chomping at the bit, as it were, to get at it.

He just needs to go.

Then he needs to come in, sniff around the house, and gather up some of his toys until my English muffin is ready. Then he needs to join me for a little muffin and jam before we head upstairs for prayer time. Which he sleeps through, because he’s tired and, no, he’s not preparing for the rest of the day.

“Thus says the Lord:  ‘For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.”
Amos 1:13

Long-time abortion provider, Kermit Gosnell, has now been sentenced to life imprisonment on multiple counts of first degree murder and a string of lesser charges.

The verdict was issued on 15 May after it emerged that his Philadelphia based “Woman’s Medical Society” snipped the spinal cords of hundreds of babies born alive. Eight former workers at the clinic have also been charged, and four have pleaded guilty to murder. The Grand Jury recommended that Gosnell himself be charged on 310 accounts.

This is Part 3 of a three-part series on how Christians can work for lasting change in our culture and society.

Simple obedience

On one occasion, as Desmond Tutu was being released from police custody during the apartheid regime in South Africa, he was asked by a reporter, “How long do you intend to go on defying the South African government?” Tutu’s reply was very instructive: “We are not defying anyone. We are simply trying to obey God!”

Commenting on that moment, Christopher Bryan says, “Those were the words of a prophet in the biblical tradition. He by no means denied or defied the South African government; yet such a church as he led, by the mere fact of its being and its constant witness, constituted a challenge to that government to do its job and in the end was instrumental  in bringing about one of the most remarkable (largely nonviolent) revolutions of the modern era.” [i]

This is Part 2 of a three-part series on how Christians can work for lasting change in our culture and society.

Their only option

Over a number of years, I have spent quite a bit of time in Turkey coming alongside the Turkish church. Quite frankly, our Turkish brothers and sisters are a tiny, despised, suspect minority (not even one tenth of one percent of the population). They could never dream of political action as a way of advancing a Christian vision of life.

This is Part 1 of a three-part series on how Christians can work for lasting change in our culture and society.

Silent?

I love mail…I love email. Well, most days.

Today is one of those “exception to the rule” days.

There it was – an email from a member, forwarding the musings of some blogger on his soapbox, pontificating about a hot button social issue. Today isn’t the first time, of course. I’ve come to expect that from time to time I’ll get the forwarded ruminations of some denizen of the Internet. It’s usually written by someone who doesn’t pastor any church telling folks how churches ought to be pastored in this or that moment of national/social/political crisis when local church pastors are apparently asleep at the switch.