Tag: children

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Two Categories of People to Avoid in Leadership

male employer gesticulating and explaining idea in light office

The more public a work/ministry becomes, the more careful one has to be with two categories of people:

a) Flatterers: I have often differentiated flattery from praise by stating that flattery is consistent and generic, whereas praise is timely and specific. Something similar to what the poet Anne Bradstreet noted when she wrote, “Sweet words are like honey, a little may refresh, but too much gluts the stomach.” Or some variation of the multiplication of words principle (Prov. 10:19). A leader must learn to despise flatterers by dismissing their comments and giving them little attention.

He needs to see that their intentions may not always be to find some favorability with your role, but it is often to gain something from the association. Flatterers rarely serve, but they are generally charismatic. They watch from afar and come close only when suitable and advantageous for them.

b) Anonymous Naysayers: These will pose on social media as genuine interlocutors, but ultimately, they are only here to cause distractions and function as detractors. They will find a hundred reasons to parse a jot or tittle. They will take issue with virtually everything said, hoping you will interact with their words and give them a spotlight. But they are not seeking genuine interaction. They are pursuing a monological moment where they can speak from angst, hoping you will absorb their frustration and react to their grief.

I recommend avoiding these: blocking them quickly and limiting your online interactions only to those with a disposition toward knowledge.

I have several friends in high-profile positions and often pray that God would give them a spirit of courage, which requires avoiding unnecessary entanglements and pursuing steady work ethic.

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Have Babies Because It’s Dangerous

It’s a common observation by younger couples pursuing marriage or recently married. It happens often enough in the evangelical landscape to be addressed broadly. The general thesis is that this is a dangerous era to have children. The world is a crazy place with hipsters, Kamala Harris, and Harry Styles. I get the fear. I get the cultural grossness. I even get the skepticism of young parents. But let me tell you a thing or two.

Nothing is more joyful than populating the earth with children (Gen. 1:26-28). Nothing is more valuable than seeing these little arrows grow up to irritate leftists with their “Bible this” and “Bible that,” with their intrinsic sense of image-bearing dignity and intense distaste for worldliness.

Now, children can bring grief to their father and mother (Prov. 17:25), but when they seek the things of heaven, they make life a living hell to hell-bound elite parliamentarians.

This is not the most dangerous era of history to have children; this is actually the most productive age to have children. Nay, it is the most adventurous and God-honoring stage of history to have children. And to be really consistent, this is the kind of thing I would say if I were alive 100 years from now.

I would tell every newly married couple to plan wisely to have children and have them at a rate where the 1.9-average-a-year-climate-crisis-expert finds you repulsive. Greta Thunberg will probably not have kids because she thinks the world is in a crisis. She and her legacy will pass away like vapor (Eccl. 1:4), but your kids will take it from her and prove that the world’s crisis is only that which is divorced from Messiah Jesus.

This is the best season in history to have children. It is the most prominent with possibilities for the good to flourish. It is the most fruitful to build true worshipers.

Have babies. Sanctify them. And send them out to roar.

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Charge to Athanasius Presbytery

The life of the ministry is a life of theological self-giving. The minister gives away wisdom, learning, and life in everything he does. The very clerical collar he wears is a sign of that sacrificial life.

Paul’s words to Timothy fit this profile:

…give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. 16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

A minister must rightly divide the word of truth. He must be a compelling interpreter, a respecter of the Word’s purity, internal logic, and redemptive flow. This is the standard for ministers as they come to be examined, and it is the expectation of those must give an account to our Great Shepherd.

Among the pastoral candidates who came for ordination in Geneva under the tutelage of the Company of Pastors, the vast majority were properly equipped theologically; they were not ashamed of the Word and their calling. However, some of them lacked theological gravitas prompting pastor Antoine de La Faye to say that a few were not even “qualified to watch goats.” Those were often sent home to study for a season or encouraged to find other professions. It reminds me of the advice my old professor Steve Brown gave to a young man after hearing him preach: “Young man, can you do anything else?” This is far from a harsh assessment; indeed, not many should be teachers.

Calvin viewed ministerial preparation as essential to developing a healthy city; thus, putting into place learning academies and offering opportunities for theological growth became an essential component of the city’s learning revolution. Calvin’s zeal for proper training of pastoral candidates came from what he viewed as a lack of equipped pastors in the day. Further, there were some clear signs that “vagabond ministers” traveling around Europe were causing dissension and assuming leadership positions “without oversight.”

The impetus for pastoral training was an outworking of the general premise Calvin had for regular Christian living. One could say that for Calvin, the process of doing theology was to adore God, and one could only adore God rightly by learning theology.

The training process equipped candidates to endure the lengthy but careful ordination process, which included examining piety and theology. “The Venerable Company” had a disposition towards candidates whose training included the liberal arts, biblical exegesis, theology, and practical experience. The preparatory season occurred in community settings where candidates were encouraged to attend Hebrew and Greek lectures and sharpen their rhetorical and dialectic skills.

Certain days were set aside for pastoral candidates to deliver sermons in the presence of members of the Venerable Company and test their abilities to debate issues confronting the civil and ecclesiastical scene of the day. With the learning process completed, Calvin and Beza, and other members of the Company of Pastors led the ordination process. Biblical knowledge took a central focus in the examining process under the assumption that if a candidate did not know his Bible well, his ministry would not prosper under God’s guidance.

The ordination examination had three sections. First, there was an examination for the candidates, which lasted for about two hours on various theological issues about the biblical text. Second, following the principles laid in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1, the pastoral candidate underwent examination concerning his moral standing in his familial and public life. Finally, there were trial sermons where the candidate provided an astute presentation of a text to reveal his ability to properly divide the word of truth and his skills to handle the text. The process was long and tedious, but Calvin believed that if a new reformation was to inundate the land, ministers should be men of learning committed to the authority of the Bible and pious servants of the great Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

It is our privilege today to continue with the next three candidates for pastoral ministry. The examining committees have affirmed that these men have shown enough knowledge in all these fields to come before the presbytery. And they have assured me that they are equipped to enter into Gospel ministry. We hope that these examinations will serve more as additional confirmation of their call, and we are eager to rejoice that God has called these brothers to share in the life of theological self-giving for the sake of the flock.

Let us pray: O God of eternal praise, you have equipped and called these your servants to the frontlines of Gospel activity in your holy church. Remind them of the gracious call to serve your flock, and give them the wisdom to remember, rejoice, and reflect on your kindness through Jesus Christ, the Great Shepherd, Amen.

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Preparing our Children for the Future

I have been pondering many things said since March of 2020, and I am deeply grateful to be in a community replete with exemplary people–people who fought well against the principalities with dignity and courage. Two years into this war looks a lot better than it did before it started. We won lots of little victories and put some victory flags in strategic places.

A prime example of this is the local classical Christian school where a few of my kids attend. The headmaster who was there in 2020 is a man of integrity. So, it came as no surprise when he–together with the board–decided to go against the tide in our county and refuse to allow any students to wear masks. Of course, they offered alternatives to parents who were not comfortable with such a set-up, but from my recollection, the vast amount of students attended happily without masks. This avoided the potential tension among students and parents, and also, the headmaster asserted that whatever little protection a mask may have provided, it would not be worth the dehumanizing that would occur when the student body spent all their days together with their faces covered. Behold, a prophet!

This entire thing comes to mind as the leftist Face the Nation heard the opination of their chief correspondent, Jan Crawford. She observed that the biggest underreported story of 2021 has been the devastating effects COVID policies have had on children. The video has now gone viral, and for good reason. It received little to no pushback from other leftists. Now, I would love to nuance the conversation further, but her admission is a good starting point. Acknowledging the devastation this has caused on children mentally, physically, communally gets the ball rolling. I am not as hopeful about their solutions, but I will take any rhetorical victory.

I argued in March of 2020 that people would quickly set aside rituals that define them, and they quickly abandoned them at the altar of safety. And if you think the millennial generation was trigger-happy with their emotions, setting themselves up for victimization in every corner, wait until you see this one coming up. They will make wokey college students look like ideological wimps. This new growing group of humans will attack everything and will find ten reasons to end your happiness.

I had a brief exchange with Abby Johnson last night. Abby is a hero in the pro-life movement and she was pondering why people are so quick to accept all the words from Fauci even after supreme blunders one after the other. I remarked to her that every human is created to submit to something/someone. Submitting to the dictates of a man who makes Mitt Romney look consistent requires an enormous amount of faith. Abby agreed with my assessment, but the additional factor I failed to mention is that this corporate submission puts our children at risk in various ways. In other words, those to whom you submit also become masters of your offspring.

And this leads me to my final observation: this is a long-term game.

It’s our children versus theirs. And I mean that in the most adversarial way possible (Gen. 3:15). Our children will be warring against their children 10-20 years down the road. Of course, our weapons are not fleshly, but spiritual, but the spiritual will have a deep effect on the fleshly.

You may have seen the former cheerleader who spat in the face of an 80-year old man in a flight because he was eating without his mask. She berated him, cursed at him, and slapped him. Now, imagine what the child of this woman thinks of reality with a mother like that? Imagine what kind of human grows from that nurturing soul?

Christians are winning, but the kind of Christians who surrender because they don’t want conflict will realize that they have been duped and their children do pick up on these social and theological cues. They will grow into a world that sees everything through the lens of surrender, and their churches will be havens of submissive hearers and doers. They will not create a psalmic culture, but one that capitulates to everything and everyone.

For Christians, we have ourselves our 15-minutes of fame, which if things continue, may become 15 years of fame. We may have a prolonged season of showing off our theological muscles as churches and families. I trust we are fit during this season. We have the opportunity to show forth our God in his strength and build an army of bold and courageous iconoclasts.

Keep up the good fight! We are in it for the long-term! 

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Why should the Lord’s Supper be Joyful?

If you were to ask me what the most common observation people make when they visit Providence Church (CREC) in Pensacola,FL, there would be several candidate observations, but undoubtedly in the top Nobel Prize option would be that our “Lord’s Supper is joyful.” Of course, this is not something we came up with, though I do confess it is uncommon in most traditions.

Most theological eucharistic practices ranging from Roman Catholic to the local megachurch treat the Lord’s Supper through the lens of the death of Jesus. Christ died, therefore, we bow our heads and meditate on his death Whether, through a classic Memorialist view or the Transubstantiation view, there is an element of sadness that pervades these services.

Now, in our congregation, we don’t make the death of Jesus secondary, which is why we confess his death and his atonement for our sins when we confess our sins together at the beginning of the service. If we were to confess our sins again at the Lord’s Supper, it would be a kind of insult to Jesus. After all, he has forgiven us already. The Lord’s Supper should not be treated as a recapitulation of our sins, but a pointer beyond our sins to the blessings of Christ’s resurrection. In other words, the Lord’s Supper is bread and cup of blessing (I Cor. 11:24), not of sorrow. It is a full blessing; a total blessing; an exuberant blessing. We partake in it, precisely because Christ is no longer dead, but risen from the dead and vindicated.

The Supper embraces the joy of the disciples who ate with Jesus after the resurrection (Jn. 21). It’s loud, talkative, and festive. It’s a moment of glory for people who are rooted in the Word of God and who allow the Word to bear fruit in us. Behold, the fruit of the vine is here (Jn. 15), offered at this table, Jesus himself. We are fruitful ones eating of the great fruitful Christ, who became the first fruits of all those who trust in him (I Cor. 15). We eat and drink together not as those who weep, but as those who are blessed by the fruitful Word. Rejoice, pass the peace, and trust in the vindicated Word made flesh.

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“Once more, the joyful character of the eucharistic gathering must be stressed. The medieval emphasis on the cross, while not a wrong one, is certainly one-sided. The liturgy is, before everything else, the joyous gathering of those who are to meet the risen Lord and to enter with him into the bridal chamber. And it is this joy of expectation and this expectation of joy that is expressed in singing and ritual….in that whole ‘beauty’ of the liturgy which has so often been denounced as unnecessary and even sinful.”~Alexander Schmemann

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Becoming a Radical

An esteemed friend I have loved for many years recently stated that he was radicalized during COVID. His antennas became more attuned to the shenanigans of the state. Similarly, I think it is safe to say I have been radicalized in the academy of no-non-sense against leftist ideology. There were simply too many issues to test our theories. And every time I did the scientific experiment it ended with the same results.

But, of course, I was already a radical by the very nature of my affiliations and theological affinities. But practically, my expectations will be much of the same and more of the same and the same of more when it comes to specific institutions. I have no doubt many of these folks, especially those who cherish the Nicene Creed, are of good nature and take their trash out to the curb on Thursday nights, and I am also sure they have a sweet disposition towards their children, but I will no longer assume as I did once that they want biblical authority to permeate everything.

I believe that places like Christianity Today are not institutions of theological integrity. I firmly believe they wish to lead the Church in a direction that does not lead back to Machen and Van Til and Sproul but to Schleiermacher and mainline-ism.

Mark Galli’s recent statements that CT writers are more interested in the approval of the New York Times and other “respectable” magazines is an indication that the Billy Graham era is over and CT has become just another tool to propagate whatever is most classically unconservative. This has been true for some time, but sometimes institutions make themselves abundantly clear. Suffice to say, CT is headed towards oblivion, and the respect they think they will earn from MSNBC as whistleblowers for true orthodoxy will quickly evaporate.

I am desensitized to these cowardly attempts at respectability. I am no longer shocked or dismayed. I will join critiques of Mark Driscoll on a host of issues, but I will not accept that the best critics of Driscoll are leftist mainline female priests or ambulance chasing feminists or CT’s book awards. What these folks are looking for are examples of abuse anywhere to destroy conservative causes everywhere. While they may have good intentions, their telos is absolutely malicious. They do not lead to a “Jesus-loves-me-this-I-know-for-the-Bible-tells-me-so hermeneutic. Instead, they eagerly embrace critical hermeneutics to matters regarding race like classic liberalism welcomed higher criticism to the issues regarding inerrancy. They are seeking to domesticate Jesus, and in doing so, they domesticate his word.

Jesus has no patience for expertise religiosity and scribal law-making; he eagerly takes them apart for their cunning ways and fashionable statements. Our Lord eagerly overthrows their tradition-painted tables and mocks them in derision. The way to avoid this blabbering of foolishness is to stay close to those who share the sentiments of the healthy iconoclasts like Luther and Machen. Eat together. Laugh together. Eat at the table of our Lord together. Sing Psalms together, and on this latter point, I am not aware of any institution that sings imprecatory psalms that fall for this 1st grade understanding of ethics and politics. If we keep cultivating biblical authority in the little acts, we too will be radicalized towards more biblical fidelity.

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The Case for Children in Worship, Part 6

We love our children! We love being with them when they wake up and we love their snuggles at night before bed. There are so many magical moments of parenting. But let the parent who speaks always smilingly of parenting throw the first stone! Don’t tell me you don’t long for that bedtime with fierce determination; don’t tell me you don’t long for some precious time with your spouse!? Don’t tell me you don’t long for conversations with big people for a change?

We shouldn’t feel guilty about this…no, not once. We pour our hearts into our little ones, but if sleep cycles didn’t exist, none of us would be a parent for longer than a week. In much of our conversation about parenting, we tend to fall into pious overload mode and treat parenting as if it were so easy that anyone could do it well with a little prep time and a few tips from our favorite parenting guru. But anyone putting on their reality glasses understands that parenting is much more complicated and that we need additional times when life isn’t a liturgy of diapers and breaking up squabbles and cleaning mushed green beans from the floor.

I have thus far encouraged parents to keep their squiggly bundle of energy with them during the entire service. Aren’t I asking for a little too much? Shouldn’t I be content with simply allowing parents to enjoy a precious 75-90 minutes of pure and uninterrupted bliss of worship without keeping them on their feet…again on the Lord’s Day?

I promise I am not a tyrant; I am a benevolent pastor who sees your woes because I am fairly self-aware of the work I do as a father and the double/triple work my wife does when I leave those doors to the office in the morning and the remarkable job a single mom does who doesn’t have that additional voice to harmonize her strategies.

So, the final argument essentially ponders why a parent would have to sacrifice fellowship time catching up with good friends for an additional hour of navigating the wants of tiny people who incidentally want a lot. The answer is that we need to view our worship service as fellowship with the Triune God who invites our little children to come unto Him. Ultimately, that is worship.

There are plenty of opportunities for more substantial fellowship that will require some sacrifice. Perhaps dad stays home a night or two while mom spends some time with friends and vice-versa. We should allow Sundays to function as a day where we fellowship in a unique way (in the context of worship), but build the rationale for fellowship in a more intimate way outside the Sunday environment.

As a pastor, I usually have 20-25 different conversations before and after worship, but most of them involve catching up, and if there is a need for something more intimate, a parishioner and I will come to an agreement about what day to meet and discuss certain matters. Similarly, Sunday should function not as a time to have real conversations that must exclude children, but it should be used as an opportunity to make plans to meet in a more favorable environment.

Again, children shouldn’t be a hindrance to such fellowship. Certain phases of life mean that our conversations take place in a particular way. I often say that parents fellowship on the basis of fragmented sentences. We have this unique opportunity to begin conversations and then continue them 10 minutes later after dealing with whatever “emergency” our children may have.

In sum, I firmly believe that none of these reasons should distract us from healthy community life, and in fact, children provide an abundance of opportunities for beautiful learning and growing together in grace in the context of worship and fellowship.

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The Case for Children in Worship, Part 5

What I have discovered as a father of five children under the age of 13 is that children have an enormous capacity for repetition. My little 4-year old would have us read him the same book seventy times seven. Chesterton opined about this when he wrote that “Children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead.” I have nearly died many times, and my sweet wife is on her third resurrection.

Children like to do things again which means that for churches to invest in them, a congregational liturgy needs to keep in mind the repetitive nature of the faith. Israel’s history teaches us that repetitive faith is passed down to our children and our children’s children (Deut. 6).

Our children are not in need of novelty; they are not in need of more entertainment, they are in need of a substantive faith that pushes them further in their stories. It is okay for a 2-year-old to be singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” because God is holy and that child needs to sing truth even if he does not grasp the majestic purity of God’s wonder and grace. But again, do any of us truly grasp it?

When I hear a little one singing along to “Holy, Holy, Holy,” I am experiencing as a pastor and the same for parishioners, something sublime. Out of the mouth of babes and infants (Psalm 8:2), that child is declaring the deep praises of God. Why should he only need to express minimal truths outside the assembly and why should the assembly of grown-ups have that luxury alone? What makes the older disciples any more capable of expressing praises to God than the little ones? After all, Jesus rebuked his own disciples for operating on that basis (Mat. 18-19).

The third argument often used against the keeping of children in worship is that we need a more specific didactic focus for our children. In essence, keeping kids in worship with parents is a waste of time since they will get nothing or little out of it. “They are, after all, children, and lack the capacity to grasp the language of a worship service.” Therefore, there is a need for a more child-appropriate classroom setting. This is likely the more common argument and one based on concern for the learning process of children.

I will stress once again what has been stated before. The worship service is not a classroom; it is an experience in God’s story that runs through the Gospel narrative. Any worship service that reserves the Gospel story only for the sermon is missing the opportunity to accentuate God’s proclamation throughout. This leads to another common problem: we have often made the worship service into a competition in note-taking. However important the task of taking notes may be (and it can be helpful, especially for older kids), we need to be cautious not to equate taking notes or listening to a sermon as the worship service itself. I am all in favor of Christian education classes before or after worship where more in-depth training can take place, but here we are talking about the mandated act of worship which is not an act of mind only, but soul and body.

If worship becomes a classroom, it’s no wonder that we have allergic reactions to the idea that children should sit with us from beginning to end. The little children I know quickly embrace the repetitive nature of the Gloria Patri or the Doxology or the Sanctus or the Three-Fold Amen or throw in another aspect of church rhythms. They don’t complain, but they will often say, “Do it again!”

It is true that the difficulties increase if you are part of a congregation where the structure of worship changes from week to week, but it can be done because in every service there are repetitive elements, and those can be stressed and memorized easily.

The concern for instruction at the level of little children is only a concern if one views worship as secondary to the shaping of our children’s minds. But God has said again and again that worship is formational and there is no greater formative time in the life of a human than when he is small. We want our habits formed by rituals/habits no matter how complex initially, and the worship service provides not just ordinary rituals/habits, but holy formative acts that change and mold us into better humanity in Jesus Christ and our children should partake of this joy with us.

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On the Blessings of Children and Parenting in the Pew

The Bible and Children

I wanted to continue this series by offering a quick footnote to a biblical rationale for the importance of children in worship. It doesn’t seem necessary, since their cuteness speaks for itself, but it seems that establishing this foundation will set the stage for more difficult conversations later.

The Bible speaks of children over 1,100 times and in most cases as something to be desired (Ps. 128), other times in the context of sadness for not being able to bear (Gen.11:30), and other times as promises (Gen. 17), and then in the New Testament as those who are objects of wrath from tyrants (Mat. 2:13) and then later as recipients of Jesus’ love (Mat. 19). Sometimes they are a reason for grief (Gen. 4), but in most cases, they are signs of blessings (Ps. 102:28).

When I was a pastoral intern, I remember someone approaching me after a service and confessing that she simply couldn’t tolerate little children in worship because of their noises. “They were a distraction,” she said angrily. I often think this is the way many evangelicals view children: as distractions. They are distractions at home, so we find ways to entertain them rather than engage them. They are a distraction at church, so we find ways to keep them busy outside the gathered assembly. As we will note, there are other concerns in mind, but the evangelical church has unwittingly affirmed the premise that children are a distraction and something needs to be done about it during the worship service.

In the Gospels, the disciples rebuked our Lord because they believed that the children were a distraction to Jesus’ “real” ministry (Mat. 19:13). But Jesus rebuked the disciples and said his ministry is to draw little children to him and to build a kingdom through the faith of those little disciples.

The Fruitfulness of Parenting

Being a parent is one of the hardest tasks ever given to men. It is also one of the areas where the Spirit speaks most decisively in giving detailed instruction (Deut. 6). Idealistic parents quickly fall into reality that first week when they take their new-born home. I remember that scene when I pulled up the van, and my wife was carefully wheeled to the van where I picked up my little girl, and meticulously plugged her into the baby car seat. I never drove so slow and so tense in my life. I literally had this thought as I drove off: “I have a human being in the car that is fully dependent on me. I don’t know if I am ready!” But that child was entrusted to these parents, and since that is the case, we now have a distinct duty to train her in the education of God (Eph. 6:4).

Like anything we are called to steward and love, it will demand our soul. Children are a blessing from the Lord, which means that we need to view them as such. They are not vipers in diapers (to quote a famous author), they are worshipers in diapers, then they are worshipers who can potty on their own, sit on their own, sing on their own, raise their hands on their own, eat on their own, confess on their own, and then one day, produce a new cycle of worshipers in diapers.

When we send our children to another gathering away from Jesus’ central gathering in worship, we are creating a separate class within Jesus’ earthly kingdom. Even though our intentions may be pure, we may be thinking as the disciples did and thereby missing the opportunity for Jesus to place his hands upon them and bless them with His love (Mat. 19:15).

The journey is not meant to be easy, but like any faith-journey, it will be rewarding. I propose that keeping children in the worship service from beginning to the benediction is the most biblically satisfying and fruitful task you can embrace as a parent on the Lord’s Day.

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Church Vaccine Mandates

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Last Monday, I had talked about the expansive demand among churches to require vaccine proof before parishioners walk into their building to worship. Some inquired if this even existed. No one inquires now. I argued that these pastors need to be defrocked and that there was a legitimate rationale to leave these churches in good standing. I and many other pastors would demand a letter of transfer and take you in as a refugee.

I am certain that a majority of us would never have fathomed at the beginning of this brouhaha that there would be church officers demanding proof of a vaccine at the entrance door before worship. The reality is creeping in like a leviathan. Its movements are heavy and felt everywhere. It is not a 1/1 correspondence, but you can easily see that the majority of these same congregations produce woke waters among them and show incredible fondness for leftist politics/causes. The rule of thumb is, “If Al Sharpton likes it, then run for the hills.” If that seems a little too far off of an example, try this one: “If Russell Moore speaks positively of it on Morning Joe, go the other direction.” Again, the numbers are not exact, but it is significant to make a pattern and from that pattern, you can draw ducks, and if it quacks like a duck, it’s a leftist leaning church.

Now, if these conclusions seem too absurd to you, then you and I are drinking very different whiskey or sweet tea. There is a high likelihood that you are perceiving these movements as absolutely neutral and that such decisions have no impact on theological discourse. Well, I have been alive long enough to know that when Herodias puts on a party, she’s got some nefarious intent in mind.

I am old enough to remember when REVOICE was only an attempt at celibate Christianity, but now it’s become the lingua franca among too many once faithful churches. Who knew that to be gay and Christian could be uttered in the same sentence in the local Presbyterian church?

There is a 100% chance that these same churches, once bastions of Reformed orthodoxy, are also the ones compelling people to show them the proof before you come in to sit in those pews. I am not a gambling man, but that has never prevented me from putting some money on a monopoly game. These are the same churches advocating for racial reconciliation on the basis of the “Woke Church” textbook during Sunday School. They are the same guys endorsing White Fragility events.

And now you may wonder: will restaurants and rotary clubs do the same? You betcha and they already are. As churches go, so go Walmarts. They will do it with utter ease, and many will gladly go along with it. In case you are wondering, “What would I do in such situations?” Thanks for asking. Well, whether vaccinated or not, I would stay away from any restaurant or church that requires vaccination proof. They will not get a cent of my devotion or dinero. It’s a principle. I am not boycotting, for boycotting would mean I don’t like the moral direction of an institution, but what I am saying is that I don’t like an institution requiring me to put something inside my body unless it is the food they offer. Here, ethics has become existential and applicable. Boycotting is too nice to describe what I am proposing.

What is my best-case scenario from this turmoil?

That institutions will grasp ever more significantly that an inch thou givest a mile they takest.

That institutions will be re-invigorated to think more carefully about governmental overreach.

That new institutions will be formed from this and that they will have the backbone layered with courage.

That institutions will know henceforth that little acts based on compassion do not produce truthful institutions, but perhaps undiscerning bodies.

In some ways, we live in a day where there is competition among platforms of good works. Everyone states that what they are doing stems from a heart of goodness towards their neighbor. But the end result has been catastrophic. Not all good works are made equal; some are made out of naivete. That nice guy you let into your house to rest his body from a long journey took all your belongings during the night. But you could have seen it if you had just asked him a few questions the night before, but you preferred to love thy neighbor like a cheesy Hallmark card.