Tag: church

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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. 

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Why Keep Children in Worship, Introduction

I want to appeal to evangelicals who do not accept the premise that children belong in worship with adults. Now, I grant that I am in the minority position here. The majority of evangelicals may find the idea of children in worship from beginning to end a rather strange concept and so I want to tread cautiously. Some are legitimately intrigued by the idea but find the practicalities of it unsustainable. And, we should also affirm the obvious legitimacy of the need for places where nursing, comforting, disciplining can take place. My appeal is to those intrigued by the concept. To the ideologues who think I am insane, “bless you hearts.”

To elaborate further, over the years I have heard parents offer at least four arguments against keeping children in worship with them on Sunday. First, some will argue, “I can’t keep my children quiet during worship, therefore I don’t see the need to keep them with me.” The argument posits that the demands of disciplining and watching over little ones during the worship service ultimately do not bear any benefits.

Second, some will state, “I am not going to get anything out of the service if I am constantly distracted by them.” This is a variation of the first argument, but it adds that since the sermon is the central element of worship, keeping children in worship takes our attention away from the preached Word.

Third, a few will express a more didactic concern that keeping kids in worship with parents is a waste of time since they will get nothing 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.

Finally, at a more pragmatic level, I am aware of evangelical parents who view Sunday morning as a day to relax from parental duties and catch up with church friends, so putting kids in children’s worship provides the needed rest for weary parents. This is not based on selfishness, but a real need to fellowship with other saints which is a biblical imperative.

I am certain there are additional reasons, but these are a few that I hope to tackle in upcoming posts in the hope of beginning a conversation on why I and so many others have faithfully kept our children in worship Sunday after Sunday until they leave the home.

I don’t want to minimize these general concerns, but I do wish to say that the experience of many of us has been overwhelmingly positive. In my denomination, this premise is accepted universally, but for those outside such traditions, I want to at least make the case that the fruit of seeing our little ones grow up worshiping next to us and singing our songs, and confessing personal and corporate sins have brought a greater value to worship, provided unity in liturgical language, consistency in habits of piety, and abundant joy to family conversations around a meal.

My initial premise is that when conversing with parents that are skeptical about the above proposition, we need an extra dose of grace and we must refuse to treat the process as if it were some “walk in the park “(which incidentally is also quite hard with little kids), but to affirm the inherent difficulties of raising little ones in the nurture and admonition of the Lord in the worship of the Lord.

I also hope to make these short notes accessible so you can pass them to friends as conversation starters, and hopefully conclude with some practical steps for applying these principles peacefully in congregations where this is not practiced.

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The Church and the Culture’s Counterfeits

The Church has never been interested in the romance of modern culture. She stands contra mundum, which means she stands contra counterfeits of the mundum. The non-Christian culture presents many counterfeits to the good, true, and beautiful. As Vern Poythress observes, the Book of Revelation offers several counterfeit ideas:

“We can detect distortions in the function of government (the Beast), economics, pleasure, and sexuality (the Prostitute), education, and media (the False Prophet).”

The modern culture with its zeal for counterfeits is eager to engage the Christian culture and find its least orthodox expression in order to treat it as the golden standard of modernity. Therefore, their religious “stalwarts” are figures like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and whatever Bishop will speak favorably of the Critical Race Treaty, which is a treaty made among conglomerates of leviathans fit for the book of Revelation, but more appropriately centralized in the CNN screen.

The Church cannot take counterfeits however gracious their offers are. She cannot bow down to the golden calves of elitism for a spot at the table. Now, this is nothing new for our blessed history. The Church has always feasted in her own bread and wine and not on borrowed food stamps from D.C. She has always been first and foremost a different city whose faithfulness keeps her away from the Beastly figures of Revelation and closer to the Supreme Figure of Messiah Jesus. She does not live off the crumbs of the Leftist tables and she does not compromise her pulpit for political speeches that “comfort cruel men.”She sings to a different tune, she smells a different incense, and she savors different food. In fact, whenever she is praised by the present culture, she is most likely doing something wrong. She has been bribed by counterfeit gods and she is slowly assuming a posture of compromise. The Church is entirely counter-culture.

This entire affair simply proves that the church “limps into victory” (James B. Jordan). She moves and plods along without the aid or benediction of government agents, and therefore, her bruises are healed by Another, whose healing does not endanger her immune system, but enlivens her to continue her journey towards full renewal.

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Leisure in Worship

Leisure plays an important part in the Christian life. In leisure scholarship, one prevailing definition is that leisure is anything that is not a part of earning a living. So, that leisure becomes enjoyment in the acts of eating out, fellowshipping with friends, and a movie at the theater, etc. Some say that leisure is a form of contemplative time when a person sits and meditates on the blessed realities of life like remembering the goodness of God outside of work. Leisure is an entirely fascinating area of study.

For the Christian, the entire endeavor under the category of leisure or recreation assumes a much more holistic definition. The Apostle Paul says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it to the glory of God.” Paul saw the whole body of human endeavor and said, “Here’s the deal: just do everything out of sheer doxology.” Love, work, work and love, leisure and contemplation, contemplation and leisure, singing and chewing, chewing and singing with your hearts lifted up to the Lord.

As we prepare to worship the Father, Son, and Spirit, we take pleasure in the act of worship for though it takes work to praise Yahweh, it is also an act of sheer pleasure and joy. Worship is the playground of God where servants take up instruments of praise, where children lift up holy hands and the house of God becomes a joyful invitation to the world. Come and play with us! Come and taste and see the goodness of God s we leisure in the presence of angels and archangels. Come, let us worship!

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The Case for Christian Education

One of the more audacious positions of Providence Church (CREC) is that it does not speak adoringly of public education. Our Book of Memorials says the following:

“Government schools tend to be, by decree and design, explicitly godless, and therefore normally should not be considered a legitimate means of inculcating true faith, holy living, and a decidedly Christian worldview in the children of Christian parents. Therefore, we strongly encourage Christian parents to seek alternative ways of educating their children, whether by means of Christian schools or homeschooling. In cases, where Christian education is an impossibility, parents must be active and diligent in overseeing the education of their children.”

In my southern context, most evangelical churches have a host of children populating local public schools. And as I understand it, opposing public schools is not the sort of topic that grants pastors awards in local ceremonies. Now, mind you, we are not speaking here of the responsibility to bear witness by some mature Christian adults who sense a calling to instruct and minister in that environment. Indeed, I know many who do great work in the public corridors. I bless them with every ounce of my being.

What we are arguing against is the intentionality of sending covenant children to learn under almost always ungodly curriculums. The responsibility God places upon parents to provide a Christian education is too abundant (Deut. 6, Eph. 6), which means that indoctrination is a means of grace to our children. We teach in order to inculcate a particular form of training for our local collection of arrows (Ps. 127-128); the kind that pastes on their foreheads all thoughts of Jesus applied to the earthly terrain of Mathematics and Moravian culture. You may say, “But education is neutral; we can just train them when they get home at night.” Well, I applaud your enthusiasm, but there are intellectual corpses all over the Red Sea of those who followed that logic.

Of course, no education is foolproof. Education A does not necessitate Godliness A. But Christian Education A offers a type of godliness in learning, logic, and leisure that benefits the cause of Christendom. Now, I have been advocating for this for over 15 years. Back then, it wasn’t that popular, but in our day, some have come to the obvious conclusion that such opposition to public education is the right one because the Democrats are eager to give transgender students the option of choosing their bathrooms and locker room and are enforcing mask mandates on little children. If this caused you to jump on the Christian education train now, I am grateful. Whether for pragmatic reasons or not, do it. And the hope is that pragmatism becomes dogma. Find your local Christian school or homeschool co-op in your town and go for it with every Herculian strength you have left.

In our congregation, we try to live out these principles by dedicating some money to help parents follow what we believe to be biblical and true about education. So, if parent A says, “Look, you all are speaking from a position of luxury. We can’t afford to put our children in a Christian school or to bring mom back home to homeschool,” we offer some economic encouragement to aid members to make that decision much simpler. But the one thing we wish to also do if you think this is still an impossibility is to help you –assuming you inquire–to look at your financial priorities on the table and analyze whether that iPhone 12 pro-max is really worth more than a semesters’ worth of books, or whether that middle-age crisis vehicle is really as important as a faithful education for your offspring.

Obviously, there are some nuances to this conversation and some exceptions, but the bottom line is that the longer you look at the exceptions and nuances, your answer will always be the same. But if you begin to look at the principle as the thing you pursue doggedly, then suddenly the exceptions and nuances become lesser things than they were just a day or two ago.

And speaking of nuances, if a family desires to keep their kids in the public school system for whatever reason, but still love our body enough to endure my occasional meanderings about the dangers of public schools, they are welcome to join our church as members, so long as they eagerly seek the well-being of the body and are not divisive. In my estimation, what we are after is not adherents of Christian education, but adherents of Christendom who believe Christ died to make us whole as students and servants of the kingdom. We happen to believe that Christian education best serves that purpose.

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What to do if your church is going woky-woke

Here is a principle from Proverbs that I think applies to the brouhahas in modern evangelical churches. Let me first paint the picture.

As it stands, I receive regular e-mails or messages from people wanting to leave their local churches and asking me how to proceed. If you know a bit about the way I dance, you will know that the best advice is the slow one. I have offered some thoughts on how to go about leaving a church in previous posts. But the gist of it is that there are certain steps to take. And for the love of St. Bucer, do not leave like an idiot.

So, it appears several church members are becoming fairly animated in congregational church meetings. The case among high-profile figures is all over the interwebs, so no need to rehash the thing.

I am a Presbyterian, which means I will never have to endure these things. Still, I understand the popularity of these meetings and giving a voice to the people. However, because we live in a live-streaming world, there is a high possibility that we will be exposed to these contentious meetings and we will get a little taste of your mess. Trust me, as a pastor, I don’t want outside people getting a taste of our mess and I surely do not want to see other people’s messes live-streamed on Instagram.

As to the principle, it is from Proverbs 15:

“Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.”

Now, the principle directly applies to sundry matters concerning food and wine and hospitality done the Jesus-way. But it is impossible to avoid this principle in conversation with ecclesiastical disputes. The proverb speaks of finding a better home rooted in love than a contentious home rooted in hatred no matter how good the chicken wing sauce the hosts make (and I love chicken wings).

But the reality is you can’t always have your cake and eat it too. Sometimes, other people get to choose the piece of cake for you and it may not be your favorite, but still, we all have a good time and life is good. Other times, the host puts the cake in your face and you happen to be allergic. That’s when you call it quits! You don’t say, “Well, at least his intentions are good.”

From my observational standpoint, church members have an important choice to make in this process. Some of you are seeing trends in your churches that are no bueno. You are seeing prophetically the CTR and Woke #hashtags in future bulletins. The leadership seems to be going in that direction and the general ethos of the church is also headed in that direction by the choice of speakers, books, and podcasts they advertise. But you are a loyalist. You decide to stay and make a fuss about it. You have talked to the leadership and they have made it clear that their way is the way God is leading them. But you decide that at least there is love there and though the meal of God’s Word is scarce, I can make it through.

Methinks, however, that you have it wrong. It is more likely that the dinner of herbs is leading you to hatred and frustration and cynicism towards your local leaders. And that is no way to be a good parishioner. Just take a look at Hebrews 13:17. If you see where the church is going and you see ideological trouble ahead, and you say to yourself, “Hell hath no fury like my long e-mails to the deacon board,” you are not only experiencing a dinner of herbs, but it comes with a side of hatred.

That’s right! You are hating your church by being the frustrating figure who causes your pastor to subtly take a left when he sees you coming. Don’t be that guy! What you want for yourself–and your family–is to be in a place where the dinner of herbs is just right. And before you think I am advertising for little churches, I ain’t. It can be a local big one. But it can’t be the one you are in.

As you may know by now, I ain’t the Critical Race Theory kind of guy. I find the whole thing a sham of racist proportions. But I also know that your role is not to be the hero when you see the cultural trends of a church being guided by the leadership. Say your peace, and then leave gently and calmly without Facebook living your departure. Don’t sow greater divisions within, because while you think you are an excellent rhetorician, the ones you draw into your posse will likely not be and they will not proceed with the theological care you will, but most likely will sow more seeds of discord among people who may be discontent for other reasons.

Be somewhere where the orthodoxy of herb-dining is present because love comes with it. Make your pastor’s job easy and make him love you when he sees you coming down the hall.

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Husbands and Headship: The Art of Dying

We live in a culture that views headship as abusive. In the Bible, however, headship is central to the stability of the home. Protestant and evangelical men need to see this headship in the context of the great covenant responsibilities that come with that role. The man who views his headship cavalierly views his role in the home with un-biblical eyes.

I have met many men who come to see the need for headship in the home and have made the necessary changes to their husbandry. Some of these men came to these convictions late in life, and therefore, the changes occurred too quickly; especially for their families. They went from rarely reading the Bible themselves to requiring family devotions with a 45-minute sermon. Dad went from barely feeding his family spiritually to stuffing his family. Children grow up dreading the evening “services”, and the wife, on the one hand, gives thanks to God for the change in her husband, while on the other, wondering if God misunderstood her prayers.

God knew all things, of course. The problem is sinners have made an art of over-reacting. Pastors need to watch out for these types and bring their enthusiasm to a proper balance.

But the Church is not suffering because of over-zealous husbands/ fathers; she is suffering for the lack of any zeal in husbands/fathers.

In particular, husbands are called to meet the needs of their wives. He is the provider, sustainer, and the one called by God to make his wife lovely. The wife is lovely when the husband beautifies her. Jesus is the head of the Church and part of his ascension task is to make his bride beautiful (Eph. 5). He comforts her with words of affirmation. He protects her from physical and spiritual abuse. He is her Boaz and David; a redeemer and king. The home serves as the castle. Pastors usually know when he enters a home whether it is being beautified or whether it has lost its beauty. I am not referring to neatness and tidiness; I am referring to the grace of a home. When that pastor leaves, he may have just left a pretty tomb with dead man’s bones. Grace makes a home, and the husband is the grace-giver. How he speaks, how he communicates, how he rebukes, how he seeks forgiveness; all these things demonstrate and encapsulate the type of headship he is embodying.

The husband is a resident theologian. He may not be a vocational theologian, but his actions and speech are the word and deed that his family will hear most often. When the husband lives a life of constant hypocrisy, his lectures will become dull and lose meaning. When his life demonstrates humility and the virtue of repentance, then his lectures, even the boring ones, will sink deeply into the fabric of the home.

The evangelical husband is a lover of truth. Truth keeps him from abusing his headship; truth keeps him from prioritizing his friends over his own family; truth keeps him from isolating himself from the Christian body; truth keeps him from turning headship into abuse. He must be, as Douglas Wilson once observed, “a small pebble that somehow by the grace of God pictures the Rock that is Christ.”[1]

The responsibility of being the head of the home is the responsibility of many, but the practice of some. Headship implies dying for your wife, and many prefer to see their spouse die than themselves. So men, let’s die together for our wives, and let’s show the world that death brings life.

[1] Wilson, Douglas. Reforming Marriage, 39.

 

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Preparing for Sunday: Our Family’s Saturday Autobiography

It’s Saturday! In our household, that means a little more sleep in the morning and perhaps a nap in the afternoon. We treasure those 30 extra minutes. Remember college? In college, time was on our side. Naps were luxuries we took for granted. Now here we are: fifteen years have passed and five children later. Time matters a whole lot! The children are consistent early-risers. They are punctual little creatures. They love time. They love it so much that even without an alarm clock they detect that 6:30 is coming. They are not allowed to leave their rooms until 6:30. I am not fully awake then, but I can hear them coming. Sometimes they come silently. Sometimes they come like hungry warriors. But they come…consistently. My lovely wife makes the first move. She is more courageous than I am that early. She does it without flinching. “What a mom! and where does that magical strength come from?” I think to myself. Breakfast is ready. Children are fed. Sometimes the beach is a fine option. Soccer games. But the last few hours of Saturday are sacred. It’s our preparation for Sunday.

On late Saturday afternoon, we begin our preparation for worship. Sunday mornings with five little ones can be a challenge. We try to go to bed relatively early. We usually make no Saturday evening appointments. Saturday evening is sacred in that we prepare ourselves for the sacred gathering. It is almost a ritual for us. Ironing and showers are constant activities before dinner on Saturday. If we are hosting on Sunday it demands extra effort from our team on Saturday.  Preparation is key and we begin the preparation early so Sunday doesn’t become late.

Sunday arrives. The man of the house is also the pastor of the Church. He begins to prepare himself psychologically for the service. Sermon notes run through his mind; mental editing begins and really never stops until he begins preaching. He begins to hum through the psalms and hymns. Sunday mornings are created equal. It is always hard work but made infinitely easier by Saturday preparation.

When guests are coming over after church, we work even harder Sunday morning. “Is the beer in the fridge for the guests?” “Are the floors clean?” “Are the plates set?” “We need to leave in the next ten minutes!” The excitement builds. We love Church. We prepare for it. But with little children nothing is easy. There are a thousand things that can go wrong, but remember we have begun our preparation on Saturday. Mommy prepares herself. She makes sure that her war tools are ready: Diapers: check. Milk: check. Snacks: check. “I think we are ready!” She has her army under control. “Where are my clerical collars?” I ask. I have so many of them, but they never seem to be in the same place they were seven days ago. It’s naive of me to think they will be. But that is my liturgical pattern every Sunday.

 “A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.” -Tolkien

“Children, what day is today?” “The Lord’s Day!” “What do we do today?” “We worship God and sing His praises.” Yes, we do all these things, but it’s been a long journey until that moment. We died in one hundred different ways during the week, so we can be brought to life on the day of Resurrection. “Live the liturgy,” says the preacher. We are trying. It’s extremely challenging. It’s really very sanctifying. It’s holy work. Yes, it is.

Saturday Preparation

In an age when Sunday worship is treated with profound disrespect and viewed with triviality by the evangelical population, we need a return to its sacredness. I edited a book several years ago that developed this theme.  Yet, a missing part of the puzzle in my estimation is how to prepare for Sunday. I have been asked if there are some practical steps to preparing for Sunday. I offer here few thoughts which are not exhaustive and which can vary dramatically depending on family dynamics but may prove useful to starting this needful conversation in the home.

a) Ironing clothes on Saturday instead of Sunday morning has proved essential to our well-being on Sunday. Though we are not prone to sleeping in on Sunday, we discover that on the rare cases where ironing happens on Sunday morning, it adds almost 30 minutes to iron clothes for seven people.

b) Getting showers for the little ones on Saturday instead of Sunday morning.

c) Going over Bible texts and/or hymns will go a long way in making Sunday more understandable for the little ones. We have noticed that if a song has been practiced during the week, their Sunday participation is much more pleasant.

d) If hosting on Sundays, prepare tables or lay out the essential ingredients for the meal on Saturday. The children can be trained to get their rooms clean and living room area prepared for guests. This will take some practice, but when children participate in the preparation they benefit more from the event.

e) We rarely participate in events on Saturday night. It’s our family commitment to use that evening to calm our hearts and minds for Sunday.

It is my firm conviction that this seriousness in preparation will cause your children to see your commitment to the holiest of all days in the week.

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Children as Distraction

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 do the same.

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.

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).

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