Author: Allan (Page 1 of 454)

Reality Check

Most Christians I know will be voting in this country’s general elections tomorrow. For a variety of reasons and motivations, with a mixture of hopes and concerns, most Christians are heading to the polls. To those who are deciding to vote, I generally say something like this: I believe it’s okay for followers of Jesus to vote; just don’t pretend it’s an act of righteousness.

Here in the United States, where we live, we’ve got, for all practical purposes, two political parties. Generally speaking, there are some Kingdom of God values in both party platforms and also things in both party platforms that fall woefully short, if not straight up oppose Christ. I don’t think all Christians who vote against abortion hate immigrants and I don’t believe all Christians who vote for civil rights and refugees want to normalize gay marriage and gender fluidity. It’s complicated. There’s room for a carefully discerning Christian to vote for either party with a clear conscience before God and his Christian brothers and sisters.

But both parties get their way through power and threat, wealth and numbers, insults and lies, division and force. The goals and the methods of both parties are not at all in line with what I call Christian politics.

As Christians, we have our own unique politics. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God. We have a King. His name is Jesus. And he’s not on the ballot tomorrow. The Bible says our King was declared with power when the Holy Spirit raised him from the dead to be the Son of God: Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 1:4)

And he has told us how to live, how to function with others for the greater good, what to prioritize for the sake of society. In other words, politics. What laws are going to govern how we take care of others, how are we going to get along together, how will we help people flourish? That’s politics. And God through Christ has told us what it looks like. We follow very clear and very specific politics. The Ruler of God’s Kingdom has shown us how to change the world, how to make things right, how to fix things for all people.

It looks like Jesus on the cross. It’s sacrifice. Suffering. Forgiveness. Love. Mercy. Grace. Compassion. Empathy. Serving others. Unconditional love, for all. The crucified and risen Jesus is our King. These are our Kingdom of God politics. And you can’t find them in the politics of the world’s kingdoms.

I don’t see one good party and one bad party in the United States. I don’t believe it’s one righteous platform and one evil platform. It seems to me it is one broken, fallen, sinful, political system of a temporary and fading worldly kingdom that’s opposed to the politics of the Kingdom of God.

As Brian Zahnd pointed out in his recent voter’s guide, “The bottom line for political parties is power and the bottom line for Christians is love; therein lies the rub.”

The U.S. political system has very little to do with how God is saving the world. The fate of the Kingdom of God is not hanging in the balance tomorrow. It’s much more important that your soul be filled with love than for your party to win the election. We all need these reminders. It’s okay to vote, but voting is not how we witness to the Way of Jesus.

Hunter S. Thompson is given credit for saying, “There’s a terrible danger in voting for the lesser of two evils because the parties can set it up that way.” The current circumstances make it difficult to argue against his point.

More to my point, the great preacher Charles Spurgeon said, “Of two evils, choose neither. Christians must turn from the endless cycle of voting for the lesser of two evils and expecting an unrighteous act to produce a righteous result. Choosing the lesser of two evils is still evil, and never should we do evil that good may come.”

Each of us has to make our own decisions about what we’re going to do tomorrow–whether or not to vote; if we do vote, for which candidate to cast a ballot; and to what extent we place our hopes and dreams in this country’s politics and candidates. The guiding principle for Christians is that we know our God is chasing different goals and using different methods than those represented on the ballots. The way of our God is always different from the way of the world.

It’s not a cynical position like that of 20th century activist Emma Goldman, who said, “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” It’s more about a proper perspective when weighing just how much, if any, of himself or herself a Christian wants to pour into the process. Pay attention to how much energy and emotion you’re putting into this thing. Be aware of how the ups and downs of this week, and maybe the rest of this month, impact your behaviors. Keep your allegiances in the proper order.

C.S. Lewis once observed, “He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation or a party or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God himself.”

Peace,

Allan

Can I Get an “Oh, Yeah?”

Jeff Walling preached for us at GCR on Sunday. Yes, that Jeff Walling. He was in town to speak at Midland Christian’s chapel and First Priority, and it was a huge blessing to have him complete the hat trick by bringing our sermon on Sunday. Of course, he was wonderful. He connected well with everybody in the room. He made us laugh, he made us think, and he gave us easy ways to remember the lesson. He was exactly as you would expect Jeff Walling to be. Simply wonderful.

Carrie-Anne, Whitney, and I went to lunch at a favorite restaurant after church. We talked together about football, about our plans for the week, and other mundane things. Then, out of nowhere, Whitney made an out-of-the-blue observation:

“Seems like Jeff Walling knows how to get people to say ‘Oh, yeah.'”

“Yes, he does. That’s right.”

“Maybe you should try that, dad. It doesn’t seem like people want to say ‘Amen,’ but they like saying ‘Oh, yeah.'”

“No, that’s not true. People say ‘Amen’ when I ask for it.”

“I don’t know, dad. Seems like they’d rather say ‘Oh, yeah.'”

“Eat your food, Whit.”

Peace,
Allan

GCR on the Road

We’re still in the middle of transition at GCR Church, still shifting our vision and practices toward doing more incarnational, relational ministry here in the city of Midland. And what we’re doing with our annual Harvest Party / Trunk or Treat is an important expression of that vision. This past Sunday, for the second year in a row, we took our annual Harvest Party / Trunk or Treat on the road to Family Promise, one of our local missions partners. Family Promise helps people and families who are experiencing homelessness in Midland by providing housing, counseling, training, equipping, and several other kinds of resources and assistance. We give them money every year and we serve dinner there once per quarter. But our vision is to get more of our GCR folks into relational situations with Family Promise that will help the people who need help and, at the same time, be a transformative agent for us.

Over the decades, GCR had become a well-oiled, efficient candy-distribution machine. We were really good at spending 20 seconds with 1,500 people who come through the long lines in our church parking lot. But what if we spend two hours with about 40 people? What if, instead of inviting people to come to our place, we go to their place? What if we share dinner and play games and engage in conversation and make connections? What if we all sing Happy Birthday to Max on his 13th birthday and share cake with his family? What if we hold babies and wipe up spills and make hot dogs and pray for people at our tables? By name. What might our God do with that?

The response from our church family and from Family Promise has been tremendously encouraging.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m telling you, our people are the best. They always go over the top. Without being asked, they go above and beyond with their costumes, with their themes, with their creativity in turning a car trunk or a pickup bed into an experience. They go beyond expectations with their hospitality and joy, generosity and thoughtfulness and fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a huge difference between passing out candy to a thousand kids and families in a long line and never seeing them again and sitting down with a family of four for hot dogs and chips and a Coke. There’s much more time, it’s much more relaxed. Efficiency is not the goal, it’s about relationship. It’s talking about the kids’ costumes and comparing candy buckets, learning names and making connections, talking about the weather and the terrible twos and our grandmas and favorite music and acknowledging together how God has been at work in our lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carrie-Anne and I spent most of our time with Ashley and her three young kids. They came to Midland from Utah back in August. Ashley still can’t believe it’s sunny and 88-degrees here in late October. And she can’t believe how the Lord is blessing her through Family Promise and GCR. She’s overwhelmed by the love and support. She’s thrilled that she actually knows people’s names and that they know hers. Her kids are a hoot: Allie is not afraid to talk, Mijo (we never got his real name) is a mischievous mess, and little Annie is absolutely adorable. And she knows it. Might be a bit of a problem later on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems obvious to me that this is the Jesus way. Going outside the camp, outside the city gates, to spend personal time with the marginalized, the vulnerable, and the hurting. Going to where the people are to meet them in their place and on their terms. Healing, encouraging, laughing, bringing people together. Sharing a meal. Yes, eating and drinking together with thanksgiving to God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love this GCR Church and what our God is doing in us and through us. I thank the Lord for the ways we are embracing the more difficult work of incarnational, relational ministry right here in the city where God put us. What a divine privilege to walk where Jesus walks, in his name and in his manner. And to do it together.

Peace,

Allan

 

Brian Zahnd’s Voter’s Guide

One of our shepherds here at GCR, Brandon Brunson, posted this “Christian Voter’s Guide” yesterday written by Brian Zahnd. Carrie-Anne showed it to me. It does such a good job of concisely and precisely reminding us of our primary commitments and allegiances during an election season. Seems good to me to post it here, as well. Not all of us are on Facebook.

The Christian Voter’s Guide
by Brian Zahnd

1. The political process, while necessary, has little to do with how God is saving the world.

2. The fate of the Kingdom of God does not depend upon political contests.

3. Don’t be naive, political parties are more interested in Christian votes than they are in Christian values.

4. The bottom line for political parties is power. The bottom line for a Christian is love. Therein lies the rub.

5. While in pursuit of the Ring of Power, you are not permitted to abandon the Sermon on the Mount.

6. If your political passion makes it hard for you to love your neighbor as yourself, you need to turn it down a notch.

7. Your task is to bring the salt of Christian civility to an ugly and acrimonious political process.

8. To dismember the Body of Christ over politics is a grievous sin.

9. Exercise your liberty to vote your conscience and conviction, while accepting that other Christians will do the same and vote differently than you.

10. It’s more important that your soul be filled with love than it is for your political team to win the game.

Peace,
Allan

Your Choice 2024

“If you always vote for the lesser of two evils, you will always have evil and you will always have less.” ~ Ralph Nader

There are some very famous preachers and authors out there who are telling Christians it is our obligation and responsibility as disciples of Christ to cast a vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. I know this because several of my Christian brothers and sisters are forwarding to me the sermons they’re listening to and the books they’re reading. Related to this is the prevalent idea that if you don’t vote, you are doing nothing. If you don’t vote, you are siding with evil. If you don’t vote, it’s a give up, and you’re just letting evil win.

As with the previous post, I would like to respectfully disagree and humbly offer a more imaginative Gospel vision.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve watched Josh Howerton preach from his Lakepointe pulpit in Dallas that Christians who decide not to vote are “abdicating their responsibility given by God” and are in “rebellion against God.” Howerton goes so far as to claim that voting for a third party candidate or casting a write-in ballot is also an act of rebellion against our Lord. He says voting is a “spiritual responsibility” about 15 minutes after he claims “selection is not sacrament,” in other words, you can’t decide to not vote for religious reasons because voting is not religious. He separates the secular from the sacred, the holy from the profane, even as he says a Christian decision to abstain from voting is wrong. It’s a little confusing.

Howerton’s cohort in Virginia, Gary Hamrick, preaches from the parable of the talents in Luke 12 that “voting is a Christian duty.” In some sloppy exegesis from 2 Corinthians 5 and Matthew 5, he asserts that God has “charged us to be his ambassadors in this world, to represent him” by voting. Voting, according to Hamrick, is how Christians are to be “salt and light.” Voting is a “God-given job” for disciples of Jesus. “What can we do to advance the Kingdom of God for the glory of God and stem evil?” Hamrick asks. “Vote!” He asserts that “Christians voting can change America.”

Just as troubling is the sentiment that deciding not to vote because of religious reasons equates to “doing nothing.” Eric Metaxas, a best-selling author and champion of this view, claims in interviews and speeches and in his book “Letter to the American Church,” that refusing to vote is “not getting involved.” He says the Church is “supposed to speak against evil, to speak truth, to resist evil when it rises up,” and I agree. He says “If enough churches and pastors don’t stand, evil will have its way with our nation,” and I agree. But he equates speaking and standing and resisting with voting and being heavily invested in the political system and parties of the United States.

I believe we have swallowed a lie that voting is the only way to effect change in our communities. Despite the living proof all around us that voting really changes nothing at all, many of us talk and act like if you don’t vote, you’re not being a good Christian because you’re not getting involved, you’re not being active in fixing the things that are broken. That is simply not true.

I’ve always believed that if unlimited abortion were legal and available everywhere, if you could get an abortion at a 7-11, if there were no restrictions on abortions or abortion clinics, they’d all be out of business and shut down if the Church would only do what it’s called to do. To love. To come alongside. To provide community and support, to mentor and equip. To foster and adopt. Those who run crisis pregnancy centers will tell you most pregnant teens don’t want to get abortions, but they don’t feel like they have any other option. They don’t feel any support or assistance. They feel alone. They feel no hope.

Voting does not solve the abortion problem; it has made it worse.

I believe it’s okay for a Christian to vote; if done carefully and with the right perspective, it’s almost always a good thing. But I’d rather have one Christian out there reading to little kids at Emerson Elementary during a lunch break or mentoring the teenaged mothers at Young Lives or delivering food boxes with Mission Agape than ten Christians putting political signs in their front yards and punching ballots on election day. I know lots of Christians are doing both of these things, voting and getting involved in serving their local communities with the love and peace of Jesus. But some followers of Jesus object to voting because it violates their Christian ethics. Instead of supporting one of two evils, some Christians choose to not participate. And I think it’s more than okay for that Christian to make a real difference in the lives of people and in his or her neighborhood or city by, instead of voting, sacrificing and serving broken people in the name and manner of Jesus. It’s to be commended.

To act like voting is the only way or the best way to change hearts or a nation is to ignore the Bible and the actions of Christ. Our Lord Jesus, the incarnate Word and will of God, shows us that the way to change the world, the way to save the world from evil, is to love and forgive, heal and feed, reconcile and give, to lay down our rights and give up our position and status. To say voting is the only way is to ignore our own Church of Christ fathers like David Lipscomb who saw citizenship in the Kingdom of God and allegiance to Christ as King as incompatible with participating in national elections (Psalm 146:3). It’s to downplay or even disregard the ways and means God through Jesus gave us to bring abundant life to to our communities. It’s to believe the only way to save the world is to use the world’s preferred methods. To say all Christians must vote is to have a severely limited view of what God does in and through the love and service and relational ministry of his chosen people. As baptized disciples, our options are never limited to choices offered by the world.

A Christian brother told me yesterday that we have to choose, even when both candidates are less than ideal, because God is a God who chooses. (I’ll write later about the damaging lie we’ve swallowed regarding binary choices.) I never got clear on what he meant by that: God chooses, which means we must also choose. But I am very clear on the kinds of people and things our God chooses.

When it comes to the oppressor versus the oppressed, our God always chooses the oppressed. Our God always chooses the slave over the master. He sides with the powerless over the powerful. Our God stands with the marginalized over the insiders. He doesn’t pick the first born, he picks the eighth and ninth born. He chooses the weak over the strong, he chooses the small over the large, he chooses the vulnerable over the secure.

If you are a Christian, you are not compelled to vote in a national election. You are not somehow called by God to participate in the politics of a broken, fallen, sinful, fading, worldly kingdom. You are compelled by the love of Christ to sacrifice and suffer with the world and for the world, to love and forgive, to be a continuous source of hope and peace. Voting is your choice. If you do vote, it’s okay; just don’t pretend like it’s an act of righteousness. And I would suggest you consider God’s choices as you make your own.

Peace,

Allan

Character Matters

“Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” ~Psalm 115:8

One of the more disturbing things among the dozens of disheartening developments around the uncritical embrace of Donald Trump by Christians in America is that preachers are telling their congregations that character does not matter. I am not kidding. Ordained proclaimers of the Gospel are preaching in their pulpits that, when selecting leaders of your nation, character and integrity really shouldn’t play a role.

And we wonder why the Church in America is losing its Christian witness.

Several Christians I know and love dearly have sent me some of these sermons as representative of their own thoughts on the state of our culture and the Church’s role in changing it. They do so unapologetically. Sincerely. “Watch this sermon,” they say, “I agree with this 100%.” And the megachurch preacher they send me is telling thousands of Christians on a Sunday morning that character doesn’t matter.

Gary Hamrick, the preacher at Cornerstone Chapel in Virginia, says a Christian’s vote is not a valentine. You’re not saying you love a guy just because you vote for him. You’re not approving of his vibes or his look, the language he uses or the ways he acts. Your vote is purely about policy, not character.

Josh Howerton, the preacher at Lakepointe Church in Dallas, says a Christian should vote policy over personality. To quote him directly, “Stop looking at the person and only look at the policy!”

Both of these preachers, and countless others like them, are moving their congregations away from considering a candidate’s character. They’re telling us that character doesn’t matter.

I’m telling you it does. Character matters. It matters a great deal.

One reason it matters is that Christians who are giddily supporting and defending Donald Trump today were denouncing Bill Clinton thirty years ago for lesser crimes. The American Christians I knew then condemned Clinton’s supporters for prioritizing policy agreement over personal character.

In the middle of the Clinton sex scandal, a group of 74 Christian scholars issued a “Declaration Concerning Religion, Ethics, and the Crisis in the Clinton Presidency.” It stated, in part:

“We are aware that certain moral qualities are central to the survival of our political system, among which are truthfulness, integrity, respect for the law, respect for the dignity of others, adherence to the constitutional process, and a willingness to avoid the abuse of power. We reject the premise that violations of these ethical standards should be excused as long as a leader remains loyal to a particular political agenda and the nation is blessed by a strong economy.”

For as long as the United States has been a nation, its political and religious leaders have demanded that personal character and integrity are critical for those we follow. For as long as God has been talking to his people, from burning bushes and shaking mountains, through the written word and the incarnate Word, he and his people have demanded ethical behavior from its leaders. So, today, when preachers are telling their churches that character doesn’t matter, that we should be placing policy over personal integrity and ethics, it destroys our credibility. It makes us out as hypocrites who really are only interested in political power and control.

Secondly, character matters because a nation becomes like its leaders. A corporation, a church, a civic club, a bowling team–all groups become like their leaders. Russell Moore, in an essay from the March issue of Christianity Today ironically entitled, “Why Character Doesn’t Matter Anymore,” argues that what is normalized in a culture becomes an expected part of that culture:

“Defending a president using his power to have sex with his intern by saying, ‘Everybody lies about sex’ isn’t just a political argument; it changes the way people think about what, in the fullness of time, they should expect for themselves. Louisianans defending their support for a Nazi propagandist and former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan because he’s allegedly “pro-life” is not a “lesser of two evils” political transaction. The words pro-life Nazi–like the words pro-life sexual abuser–change the meaning of pro-life in the minds of an entire generation.

No matter what short-term policy outcomes you then “win,” you’ve ended up with a situation in which some people believe authoritarianism and sexual assault can be offset by the right “policy platform,” while others believe that opposing abuse of power or sexual anarchy must necessitate being opposed to “pro-life.” Either way you look at that, you lose.”

What happens to policy in a post-character culture is important. What happens to your country is even more important. But what is it doing to us Christians when we say character doesn’t matter? That’s the third thing I want to mention here, that character matters because of the way it forms us individually. You don’t think it impacts you and your own development, your own Christian transformation, to say that character doesn’t matter? You don’t think it shapes the way you think and speak and act when you continuously convince yourself that what’s inside a person doesn’t matter? The Bible makes it clear that external conduct cannot be separated from internal character. What’s inside a person’s heart always comes out of his mouth. Scripture also tells us immorality, boastfulness, and ruthlessness will lead a person to ruin along with all who “approve of those who practice them.”

If I had told you 30 years ago that in your lifetime a vast majority of American Christians would be prioritizing policy over character in a presidential election and that preachers would be preaching that character doesn’t matter when choosing a U.S. president, you would have gasped and asked what in the world has gone so wrong that followers of Jesus would believe and behave in such awful ways. That’s a very good question. You might ask what happened to our culture. What happened with the world? What happened to our young people? The question I can’t shake, or answer, is what in the wide wide world of sports has happened to the Church?

Lots and lots of preachers and Christians are saying today that character doesn’t matter. I’m telling you it does. Because if character doesn’t matter, nothing does.

Peace,

Allan

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