Leaning Forward

So, what's the big deal---

A chill settled over the room Sunday morning when I mentioned the Twilight trilogy in my morning message. The popularity of the books and movies have made them modern day cult classics among teenage audiences. Scientists, both in the physical and social sciences, have debated the questionable darker elements of the Twilight stories. While not supporting the same sales volume as similar genres like the Harry Potter material, the Twilight series has impacted the youth culture with a unique set of characters, language, and ideals.

My mention of the Twilight series was essentially a glancing blow, a small, dark-side influence that young people are inheriting from their adult role models who also have gone Twilight gaga. Yes, I read the first book and viewed the first movie. No, they were not blood dripping vampire flics about stakes in the heart or silver bullets. Yes, they did raise some important moral and ethical questions, and no, they were not sexual fests either. They were rather dark, essentially love stories, and they didn't major on gore and horror flic sensationalism. Harriet and I both found the first installment to be tantalizing, a little titillating, very suggestive, and bordering on occult. The good vibes and wholesome people in the story line and among the characters gave it some credibility, for sure. But, kids, its about vampires. OK, maybe nice vampires. OK, maybe vampires in love. But, there's an animal quality to it too. It's Bram Stoker with a heart, Bela Lugosi with a cool hair cut. I mean, fangs. And, the genre continues to fuel a dark movement that is alienating many of our young ones from real life. The True Blood entry on HBO is more blatantly evil with typical blood lust and killing. But, they're all vampire fiction. That's it.

OK, pastor play fair. So, if you'd like a relatively fair review of the Twilight stuff, go here. It's the Christianity Today comment on the Twilight series. They've done a good job, have covered the basics of the plot, character development, and whether the books and movies are offensive or not. You may agree, you may not. Still, it's a pretty good review and should give you some heads up about how to approach this topic.

Harriet and I love to read. All through our child-rearing years we encouraged our children to read as well, not limiting their choice of material to just Christian themes, and certainly advising them to tackle the classics. So, we've read Dracula, Frankenstein, The Hounds of the Baskervilles, most of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries (with his drug addiction), and a wide variety of great literature from every period and just about every genre. We tried to teach Liz and Brian the difference between fiction, fantasy, and reality, and always warned them about being swayed to the lifestyles being pushed in their reading. Elizabeth's all time favorites were the Anne of Green Gables series, and we thought she was going to turn into Anne. But, I wouldn't have worried about her imitating Anne like I would have minded her becoming like one of the Twilight characters. Maybe it's just me, but there seems to be a difference.

Yes, young people pass through phases, and this generation of them is no exception. Social scientists and psychologists have debated the influence of this darker tone of literature and film because it seems to reinforce the hopelessness that many younger people experience today. The value of human life is one of the questionable dilemmas for many people today, especially the younger demographics. A rash of teen suicides and death pacts in this dark arena support parental concern. Television, movies, books, and magazines with a dark-side message just encourage this direction.

So, let's encourage and teach our young people to be responsible in the stewardship of life. We don't have to mimic the things we read or catch on the tube or see in a movie. And, that lesson begins at home, and especially in the lives of parents who model the right things.

So, what's the big deal with Twilight, and things like it? They just amplify a message that runs contrary to the hope and peace and joy of the life Christ promises. So, prohibit them for reading the books or watching the movies or programs? Not necessarily. Know your children. Monitor where they are in life. Teach them that this stuff is fiction. And, don't let them try to live it out.

That's the big deal.

The dirty "d" word @ church

It's the dirty "d" word of contemporary church life. Yes, believe it or not, it is discipline. This is surprising because discipline is central to all we know about Biblical faith. In fact, if you examine the assignment Jesus entrusted to the church, it involves discipline. Our work, in short, is to "...make disciples of all nations." Ever notice how similar the word "disciple" is to the word "discipline"? I mean, a disciple is a person who learns the "disciplines" of a mentor or leader of master. They are very close.

The final movement of Jude's epistle involves discipline at several levels: self-discipline, the discipline exercised to false teachers, and the discipline that restores doubters and people led astray by unGodly teaching. Of course, it is not talked about in the pop culture church theses days. It smacks of Pharisee-ism, legalism, and other negative fundamentals of faith. Yet, not only is personal and church discipline Biblical, it is part and parcel of protestant tradition. But, it doesn't resonate with the anything-goes mentality of the contemporary church. This is a serious departure from what wee know as traditional faith.

So, today, in our next to last message from the Epistle of Jude, we'll talk about discipline. My prayer is for a receptivity to God's Word and the restoring elements that Biblical love and mercy exert on our personal faith.

Really, it's not a dirty "d" word at all! Really, discipline is a holy "r" word. Pay attention to discover what Jude offered in his hard-hitting letter.

Nuke 'em

Opposition often triggers a defense mechanism in the control panel of most humans. This is especially true when we sense extreme danger, even from things that should introduce peace and forbearance into our relationships. You know, like our faith. So, the history of religion and faith is an epoch of crusades, inquisitions, fiery ingots, the guillotine, and today, militant terrorism. Discovering perilous doctrine and beliefs within even the sanctified walls of the church makes us want to defend what is so important to us. "Nuke 'em" my be our first thought.  Expose them, crush them, eliminate them. Nothing would be too severe.That is, till we factor in the teaching of Scripture. Then again, why would we want to do that?

Jude finished his small letter with words most of us would like to ignore. They weren't emotional appeals to ignite pity or sorrow for people who were dividing the church with their deceptive instruction. Jude didn't advise play soft-ball with the Godless, Christ denying libertines who divided the church. No! He drove them to Biblical spiritual principles to tap the inner virtue that should define them in all things and at all times. The words were surprising. Love. Mercy. Prayer. Not to mention fear.

In fact, these are the spiritual disciplines that Jude expected the believers to demonstrate toward (1) the teachers who had perverted the faith once and for all entrusted to the saints, and (2) the people who had fallen for their doctrinal trickery.

Our weekend theme will speak to this surprising twist. Hang out with us in our seventhday worship this afternoon @ 5:30 p.m., tomorrow @ 8:30 a.m. for ou Classic service, or at 11:00 for contemporary praise. No, Jude doesn't recommend that we nuke anyone. What he did command is special.

And, more powerful than an atomic device. Can you say "wow"?

When you lose clarity.

Clarity is one of the four grading characteristics used the diamond trade. You know---cut, color, clarity, and carat. Experts look for blemishes, external flaws, and inclusions, internal flaws, when establishing the value of a gem. Most diamonds are flawed to some degree. The value is finally set when all four C's are evaluated by an expert eye, clarity being determined under 10X magnification. If it is not clear, the other C's don't matter.

This is true of mission as well. A mission statement can contain all the right words and sentiment, may be bold in it's reach, and shaped to specific organizational needs. Yet, if it is not clear, it will have little impact on the people who are supposed to be energized and passionate about it. 

One of the reasons I favored the report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force is because I think our mission has become muddled and blurred by confusing times. No, our mission shouldn't change, being fixed in the Great Commission by Jesus. Today we are still tasked to "...make disciples of all nations...", regardless of the cultural influences prevalent around us.This is a clear, distinct mission. It is not vague. There are no inclusions, that is, internal imperfections, because it is the assignment of Christ our Lord. If there are blemishes, they are man-made, the bumps and scrapes of transporting this precious jewel 2,000 years. If it is tarnished it is so only because we have allowed layers of human grime to stain its surface and deface its brilliant clarity. 

Clarity of mission is fundamental to all we do! Today we are discovering the wanderlust that attends loss of mission, or at least the fading of mission. As a denomination we have too many facets for clarity. They often distort a clear understanding of what we are about. As a result, when we talk mission we're talking eighty-eleven things, rather then one. Everything, then, is affected---our direction, work force, partnership, giving, and, well, every other aspect that depends on mission. Vision is affected most. If the mission is not clear, you cannot see it with precision.

What outcomes can we expect from the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report, as it cascades into the various levels of our corporate work? While everyone's going negative, talking budget cuts, closing down agencies and institutions, bringing missionaries off the field of service, why don't we start by clarifying our mission? Is that too simple?

It's amazing how the value of a jewel escalates when there is clarity. "Write down the revelation, and make it plain..." (Habakkuk 2:2).

Wrong questions mean wrong answers.

Here's an axiom I remember but cannot attribute. "You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers, and whether a man is wise by his questions." So, I'm not asking you to agree or disagree, just let me build my case about something before you cut me off. You see, I think we spend a lot of time running circles around the wrong questions. This is especially true right now as we thrash through some serious cultural shifts, continuing declines in funding, and identity problems. Usually we're ready with a final answer before we're clarified the right question. Of course, this is a serious miscalculation. And, it may explain why the spiritual landscape is so blurred right.

So, let's take financial realities, for instance. It's no secret that church giving is down nationwide. Many congregations are struggling financially. The trickle-up system of denominational support means that institutions and agencies must absorb reductions too. So, we start asking questions. This is normal and a very good means for solving problems. That is, if we ask the right questions. We usually err her by asking the wrong question: what is wrong with those people? I mean, guilt has always been a major behavior modifier in the faith experience, so let's assume that people and congregations have misguided priorities, are totally self-absorbed, and think their local thing is more important that the greater one.

Now, if church giving declined at our place, I wouldn't ask that question. I would ask our staff:  what is wrong with us, not what is wrong with them?  A few years ago there was another axiom that I cannot attribute but believe to the soles of my feet: money follows mission! Declines indicate a loss of vision and failure to cast a vision. People do what is important to them. Mission must inform. Vision must inspire. Goals and objectives must give traction.

Here's what drives me nuts right now. In our denomination, at just about every level, and in most of our churches, the answer to this financial downturn is to make budget cuts. I'm sorry, I don't think that is the answer. How we adjust really isn't a solution long term. Instead, how we inspire folks to give toward our mission is the question.  Asking our agencies and institutions to slash budgets will help only in the short term. We should re-defining our mission and casting a vision to attain it. 

Excuse me, but I think this is the idea of Scripture. Of a truth, factoring Scripture into our monetary policy and fiscal calculations may just complicate things a little. But, God has blessed us with a plan. His plan thrusts us into dependence on Him in all things, prudence in our entanglements, boldness in our stewardship. I'm trying t figure out when retreat entered our vocabulary.

We have enormous reserves and contingencies. Thankfully we have had wise leadership to prepare us for such a day. Maybe this downturn is the occasion for using some of these surplus funds till we can clarify our mission, and inspire our constituency with Kingdom vision.

But just as you excel in everything---in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us---see that you also excel in this grace of giving. 2 Corinthians 8: 7

Sound like retreat to you?

Bulletin from the Coastal Weather Alliance

The Coastal Weather Alliance has upgraded hurricane John Lewis to Category 3. Live Viper, Doppler Radar, and Storm Tracker 2 locate John Lewis 90 miles northwest of Summerville moving southeast toward the Carolina Low Country at 90 miles per hour. Small craft, wind, rain, and flood advisories have been issued for Berkeley and Charleston Counties. The eye of the storm is expected to make landfall Friday morning.

John Lewis was downgraded to a tropical storm last week when temperatures and barometric pressure slowed rotation and stalled in the midlands of South Carolina. In the milder climate and slower rotation the eye of the storm re-organized, gained strength, and began slow movement toward the Carolina coast. The Weather Alliance expects John Lewis to be upgraded to Category 4 or Category 5 status by landfall Friday.

Residents in the projected storm track should prepare for rapid circular motion, dust storms, severe disruption of traffic, power surges, and interruption of normal communication lines. Emergency evacuation routes will be monitored by the state patrol and emergency services personnel.

All kidding aside, Mimi and Ganga are looking forward to a weekend with our active, energetic grandson John Lewis Carpenter. Last week he was sidelined by a virus that prevented our planned weekend. So, Friday I'll go to Columbia to transport him to North Charleston for a great weekend. On the agenda??? Well, lunch and parade at The Citadel Friday afternoon, Veggie Tales at LifeWay Christian Bookstore Saturday morning, seventhday worship Saturday afternoon, The Citadel vs. Presbyterian Saturday night, and then Sunday School at Ganga's church Sunday. What a weekend!

Of course, we may need to declare a disaster area by Sunday afternoon. Or, it could be down-graded by then too. In any event, Harriet and I are planning to ride it out. And, what a ride!

Constantly fresh

OK, when God knit me in my mother's womb he gave me thirty two, that would be 32, sweet teeth. This is a problem now, as my teeth get longer, because I am a Type II diabetic. Some inner malfunction has lowered my production of insulin and so I take three pills everyday to deal with blood sugar.

Page two. Harriet and I love gummi bears. They are a favorite snack, but only when we can find them sugar-free. And, another thing, while I'm on the gummi bear thing, we like them fresh. I mean, they're chewy already. When they get stale they're like gnawing on a tire. So, we buy gummis packaged in small quantities so they are always fresh. When we open a little packet we eat the whole thing. Good stuff!

Most good food isn't best stale. In fact, I would add that most things are better fresh. There's a crisp, vibrant snap to fresh things, whether you're talking gummi bears, soda crackers, string beans, or popcorn. Or faith. Stale aged stuff isn't very good, except for maybe cheese or wine, and I don't know much about wine, being a Baptist minister and all. So, I'm predisposed toward freshness and new.

Faith is constantly new. Yes, there are foundations and landmarks, history is real, legacy issues and tradition are part and parcel of the practice of faith, and other ancient realities that give us solid footing. But, Isaiah was God's mouthpiece when he said, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" (Isaiah 43:18-19). There's a fresh, new thing God does in my life every single day. It gives me a new set of spiritual eyes to that I can see life through a lens of faith. It is the constant attitude adjustment He provides to let me encounter life with a new perspective. 

Jesus talked about new things too. He warned against trying to contain the new thing of the spirit in worn and outdated wine skins. We can argue what this means till the gummis get hard. But, to me it is the reminder that his Gospel is fresh and new all the time, and we must remain fresh and new to be fit vessels for it. And, by "we", I mean the church. And, yes, I mean the denomination too.

It's weird to connect gummi bears with my vote in favor of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report. But, that's part of the deal for me. Everything can become old-hat and worn and outmoded unless freshened occasionally. That's what happened to the Southern Baptist Convention lately. The world is on high-speed internet and we're still Bill Slowsky trying to keep up with dial-up. This fast world has out-paced us and we can't catch up. So, we must pause and take a look at how we pursue our mission, how we are organized. We're stale. 

Staleness triggers a gag reflex. Even Jesus said, "...because you are lukewarm---neither hot nor cold---I am about to spit you out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:15). OK, lukewarm and stale may not be the same thing. But, they are close in concept, meaning some state in between, neither nor.

So, give me fresh. Chips, Gummis. Church.

Faith. Jesus said, "I am making everything new" (Revelation 21:5). Now that's what I'm talking about.

Yes, but not sure what it looks like---

A vast majority of us raised our ballots. We approved the report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force and launched a new chapter in Southern Baptist life. I held up my ballot too. I mean, high. I voted for the GCR Task Force report even though I'm not sure what a resurgence looks like. Most of us don't know what the final outcome will be. Still, the sea of yellow ballots is ample enough evidence that the way we've been pursuing our mission needs adjustments. These many votes just verify that we're ready to take this task force thing to the next level, whatever it looks like.

Call me naive, but I really haven't sensed an agenda as the GCRTF accomplished its assignment! No, I don't travel in lofty circles and don't know most of the task force members on more than an acquaintance level. Still, reading their periodic updates and being around Dr. Danny Akin as a trustee of SEBTS a few times, my radar hasn't detected anything clandestine or an effort to hi-jack the Cooperative Program by any of the agencies or institutions. Most of the voters at the Orlando meeting are likely in the same category as me, just interested Southern Baptists concerned with declining numbers, an exodus of  younger leaders, and some financial implications affecting our mission force. 

So, we voted yes, even though we don't know what it looks like! There's still a lot of prayer, deliberation, discussion, and planning to come before the CGR is real and as preliminaries to filtering GCR concepts into our local state conventions, associations, and churches. There's been a lot of rumor-mongering, loose talk, and murmuring about de-funding agencies and institutions, reallocating CP contributions, designations, and other grape-vine buzz about what the final tote board will resemble. Yet, it's all conjecture. What we often forget is that there will be a lot of hands and minds in the forward progress of this initiative, plenty of voting to come, and ultimately approval processes in which the main-stream of our churches can participate.

So, here's how I'm praying. I'm asking God for mature, experienced leaders, to guide the next steps. Over the next months and years we'll need wisdom to re-energize our great denomination and reverse the trends that so trouble most of us out there in the trenches. You know, our work is really massive, and consequential. Funding our missionaries, educational institutions, and other fine agencies is a work that continues to be best done through our corporate, cooperative efforts. When we begin to implement the findings of the GCRTF we'll need people who can navigate these complicated currents. So, let's be as prayerful as ever for those who guide our work.

These are really exciting times to serve Christ and his church! Challenges are just another avenue for us to discover the faithfulness of our Father, the efficacy of His Word, and the real meaning of being his church. That is all good.

I'm ready to say "wow"! Again.

Smoke and mirrors, slight of hand

False teaching creeps into belief systems through a back door. When Jude wrote about the Godless men whose teaching had so confused the recipients of his letter, he indicated that hey had "secretly slipped in". Their doctrinal perversions were introduced into the teaching of the church through clandestine means. They were under-cover operatives.

Pause. Sometimes we church people are accused of a conspiracy mind-set that sees the devil under every rock. From the comic "the devil made me do it" to a spiritual dualism that gives the evil one more than his due, sometimes we display some paranoid tendencies that make us forget some of the essentials of our faith. I mean, let''s not forget the total depravity of man and the unbalance of a fallen world. Yet, evil is real, the evil one does come at us in his "schemes", and Scripture equips us for victorious living under such conditions.

Jude's point was more direct. He just wanted church people to know that the erosion of faith is subtle, and attempted in slick, slight-of-hand ways. This is because that which opposes truth cannot stand-up under scrutiny. So, all of the -isms that oppose Christ and his church have to come in under the table, smoke and mirrors, the trickery that disguises untruth or truth. As a result, Jude devoted most of his epistle to describing the values and behavior of the Godless men.

Trouble is, many believers, if not most, aren't familiar enough with the truth to distinguish truth from untruth. The lines between right and wrong, black and white, good and bad, moral and immoral, ethical and unethical, have therefore become blurred. That's why Jude challenged his readers to contend for the faith once for all entrusted to the saints.

Jude taught them how to stand. We'll get to that in the next two weeks. Till then, be alert.

Corporate ADHD!

For me, the events of 9/11 unfolded in real time from the vast entry way of The Gallup Leadership Institute in Lincoln, Nebraska. Their huge, wall-sized television screen captured the horror of the crashes and we all initially wondered what had happened that morning. As reality settled in and the second plane hit the World trade Center, we realized that we had been invaded by terrorists. My first reaction  was to call home and make sure our family was safe. Roger Orman and I were the only clergy present at Gallup that day. But, it seemed that everyone wanted to pray.

In the nine years since, America's weird-o-meter has been activated and thoughts about 9/11 have moved in some odd directions. America haters like Michael Moore and his kook fringe have made us the enemy in all this, manufacturing conspiracy theories to shift the blame onto our government and the evil forces of democracy, capitalism, and the American way. Now, the perpetrators of this lunacy want to build a mosque at ground zero and we're polarized for and against it. I'm against it by the way! Then, Pastor Jones and his cool-ade crew have created a media circus about burning Korans today in protest of Islamic fascism. Thankfully, that has been canceled. Welcome to the US of A, the "land of the free and the home of the brave."

Lost in our rhetoric and political games are the faces, pictured above, of the nearly 3,000 people who died that day. This is typical of the human species, to lose focus about things. Shoot, how many times have you been in a dispute about something and you and your antagonist forget what the fight was about in the first place. So, now we're in our corners about immigration reform, whose building what at ground zero, how far freedom of expression extends, the nature of government, how to interrogate suspected terrorists, treatment of prisoners at detention centers, world opinion, and whether or not Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim or not. Much of it is madness.

And, then there are 2,996 people. You know, real people. They are dead. Most of them were killed in an attack on our nation. We say we're never going to forget. But, we do. We forget by taking our eye off the ball, by being afflicted with corporate ADHD. 

The child asked, "what's 9/11". The parent said, "The day we were attacked. Everything changed that day." "Oh, what changed...?", the child said.

"I forget".