The Tension

As I was doing a bit of reading in the area of Pastoral Ministry, I ran across these four qualifications for the modern pastor that I thought were refreshing.

Qualifications for the Pastorate

• A good education
• A good work record
• A good credit score
• A good attitude

When it comes to reasons why teenagers leave the church after high school, fingers can be pointed in every direction. I had a teacher in school one time say “If you are pointing your finger at somebody, there’s three fingers pointing back at you!” When fingers get pointed at us, we turn to our favorite weapon of all time – The Excuse.

Here’s what I think about one of the popular excuses that many people give, not just teenagers. The “Church is Full of Hypocrites” excuse. How many times have you said or heard it said, “I don’t go to church because of the hypocrites?”

We hear it all the time. When we talk to people about religious things, particularly church attendance, these words seem to fall out of peoples’ mouths like drool from a fat kid in a candy shop. It’s possibly peoples’ number one excuse for not going to church. But is that a valid excuse for leaving the church?

Here’s a few reasons why “I Don’t Go to Church Because of The Hypocrites” is a lame excuse that stinks.

1. People who use that excuse are hypocrites. Example: I heard a guy say “I saw So and So in the bar Saturday and then he is at church Sunday morning! What a Hypocrite!” Well… if that’s your argument, then what were YOU doing at the bar Saturday night and then coming into church on Sunday morning? You are a hypocrite yourself according to that logic! (Disclaimer: Going to a bar is not sinning. This is just an example of something I’ve heard before. Might write about it later) Pretty much any other example you come up with will end with the same kind of backfire. Truth of the matter is, we are all hypocrites in some form or fashion. Dr. D. James Kennedy responded to the objection of “the church is full of hypocrites” by replying, “Well, there’s always room for one more.” The church is a place for us, with all of our filth and hypocrisy, to come, hear the Word of God, and meet Jesus. Jesus came to save sinners! Even hypocrites like us.

2. Some of us hypocritically go to church expecting something that we are not giving in return. We expect kindness, acceptance, and grace but show none. While it is basically understood that Jesus taught mercy, love, joy, holiness, and other things that are expected of his followers, let’s be honest, those things aren’t necessarily always shown by his followers because we are sinners. So what is our excuse? What we need to realize is that only Jesus was perfect, and his followers are human just like us. We need to realize that church folks are sinners in need of Jesus just like me and you. Once we get that, we gotta own up to the fact that we are not giving these church people a chance!

3. People normally accompany this excuse with the infamous “church people are judgmental” excuse, which makes that person a judgmental person themselves because they judged for themselves what church people are like. Don’t say “I’m just sayin” to justify yourself. I’m just sayin…

Romans 2:1-5 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man–you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself–that you will escape the judgment of God? Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

4. When “church people are hypocrites” is your excuse, you clearly have no understanding of what Christians believe. We do not claim to be perfect. If we claimed to be perfect, then turned around and did the things we do, you could label us hypocrites, and that’d be an accurate assessment. But we claim to be sinners. We know we’re messed up. We know we have sinned against God. Because of our sin against God, there is eternal punishment. BUT God out of His love and mercy, sent His Son Jesus Christ to take that punishment on our behalf. God poured out His wrath on Jesus Christ at the cross, in our place, for our sin. Because of Jesus Christ, the punishment for our sins is taken care of and we are justified and forgiven. When we get together at church, we are getting together to celebrate and worship God for who He is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do and to encourage each other to follow this God that has saved us wherever He leads us!

The excuse that “church people are hypocrites” may be a popular excuse and while it may even be true that some church people are really hypocrites, it’s the leadership of the church’s responsibility to deal with that. God will be the judge of the hypocrite and the leadership. You don’t need to take on that role and bring judgment upon yourself. We gotta learn to give people a break. Maybe these church folks just seem hypocritical because I’M being hypocritical and not giving them a chance. So don’t use such a poor excuse any longer to keep you back from attending a church where you can be taught the Bible, encouraged, and experience joy.

Pastor and Author R.C. Sproul says this and I want to leave you with it:

“It (hypocrisy) is a sin with which Christians must grapple. A high standard of spiritual and righteous behavior has been set for the church. We often are embarrassed by our failures to reach these high goals and are inclined to pretend that we have reached a higher plateau of righteousness than we’ve actually attained. When we do that, we put on the mask of the hypocrite and come under the judgment of God for that particular sin. When we find ourselves enmeshed in this type of pretense, an alarm bell should go off in our brains that we need to rush back to the cross and to Christ and to understand where our true righteousness resides. We have to find in Christ, not a mask that conceals our face, but an entire wardrobe of clothing, which is His righteousness. Indeed, it is only under the guise of the righteousness of Christ, received by faith, that any of us can ever have a hope of standing before a holy God. To wear the garments of Christ in faith is not an act of hypocrisy. It is an act of redemption.”

If you isolate a verse and withdraw it from the surrounding verses, you can twist and manipulate a verse to mean almost anything. It is important to read a verse within the original context that the writer intended for the original reader. A verse can never mean to you what it never meant to the original reader. The application may be different in modern times, but it will not have a “new” theological meaning.

You can avoid much of this confusion by reading the surrounding verses and looking at the verse within the context of the chapter in which it is located, the book, and ultimately within the context of the entire bible. Chapters and verses were not included in the original writings. They were added at a later time in order to navigate through the scriptures much like my address allows you to navigate to my house. With this in mind, we should always remember that the bible was meant to be read in light of the Scriptures as a whole. It is also important to determine what the author was trying to convey to the original readers. Why was this passage written in the first place? Who would have been reading this passage? What was their culture like?

By reading a verse within the larger context of the surrounding passage and ultimately within the context of the entire bible, we will have the greatest opportunity to extract the message that God would have for His followers.

Folks in their 20′s are leaving the churches in droves. Most of the kids in your church’s youth group will most likely stop attending upon graduating high school and attending college. The numbers are not as bad as many have made it seem, but I think we can all agree there is a problem that must be addressed.

My friend, Jared Parker, and myself would like to offer our take on this issue. We’ll be blogging on the reasons we think young people are leaving the church, what we’re doing wrong, and how we can change this trend. We also hope to offer a bit of humor along the way. As members of the 20-something tribe, we hope our thoughts will be relevant and of some help.

There’s been a lot of buzz over the past… umpteen years about how to fix the problem of teenagers leaving the church after high school. There are a lot of books written about it, tons of studies to show that 18-35 year olds don’t attend church, and many many many different theories as to why and solutions for the problem.

Here’s what I think about one of the popular solutions that a few pastors have tried. The “Cool Pastor” approach. The reason young people leave the church is because the generations older than us are putting too much effort into trying to be “relevant” and it weirds us out.

Seriously.

Example: 40 something year old men wearing skinny jeans.

Problem solved. Get the older people to STOP trying to act cool for the younger people! Have the older people act their age and do what God says they are to do (Titus 2). Nobody our age will be coming back next Sunday to listen to a mullet having 47 year old creeper in skinny jeans give us a pep talk about how being a Christian is cool and hip and rad.

We, the 18-35 year olds, want to know if what you have to say holds any value. If I want a pep talk, I will watch Braveheart or Gladiator, not come to church. If you are going to try and convince me that church is cool, you lost that battle as soon as I open my Bible and see that every man that followed Jesus got persecuted and slaughtered. What I want to hear from you is the answer to why these men would follow a guy that claims to be God if the fruit of their efforts is getting their head sawn off?

When older generations put all their efforts into trying to be “relevant” they make themselves look like fools and waste a lot of time and effort. They could be studying their Bibles and investing in younger generations’ hearts with wisdom and experience and laboring in prayer. Instead, what we see is people our parent’s age trying to act like they are our age. We feel sorry for you in a way. Nice try and all buddy, your work and silliness is applauded, but no, not buying what ya selling. How about you set an example for us to follow, show us what a real man looks like, and put on a pair of slacks and a golf shirt like other professionals your age.

It bothers me the way older pastors try so hard to look cool. I seen a guy one time that had on the slacks and the golf shirt while he was preaching… and then… to be relevant… he wore flip flops… like that was going to convince me he was cool. I was like dude, you are 50, you have grey hobbit hair on your fungus infected feet, put them things in some socks, that’s nasty!

Look at the pastors out there that the younger generations are reading and following. John Piper, R.C. Sproul, D.A. Carson, J.I. Packer, John MacArthur, ya know, guys that have initials, or are named John. Plus, there’s all the dead guys we are reading like, John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, A.W. Tozer, C.S. Lewis (more initials and Johns). They are very irrelevant when it comes to having style. They are very relevant though, when it comes to what they have to say. They proclaim Christ!

Younger pastors are pulling off the hip cool theme for a minute, but that’s going to fade away just like every other fad that comes along. But not the Word of God. It’ll last forever. Plus, if their drawing a crowd with their coolness, but sending the crowds away with anything less than the Gospel, they’ll be judged for it and their coolness ain’t going to do squat for them before the throne of God. Preach the Word, young pastors. (There are some young pastors that are doing it, and it doesn’t harm their swag, won’t harm yours either)

If you want to be relevant, give us something that is going to last forever. GIVE US JESUS! GIVE US HIS WORD! Put your efforts into that. Leave the coolness to people like Daniel Beckworth. Stop dressing like your kids. Go shop at Dillards or something. Quit wasting our time with pep talks and your lofty heretical artsy ideas and your bashing of the established institutions. I don’t want to be a part of your cult or join your revolution. Be relevant with the Gospel! It’ll work. Been working for a couple thousand years now.

Rom 5:19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

Because of the death of Jesus, the price that had to be paid for our sin was paid. The wages of sin is death and Jesus died in our place for our sin. On the cross, Jesus absorbed all the wrath of God that was directed toward us because of our sin. He took the condemnation that we deserved. He removed all our guilt. He redeemed us from the curse of the Law. He was the ultimate and final sacrifice the Law demands. He bridged the gap between us and God that our sin had created. He tore down the walls that separated us from coming to God and gave us direct access. The implications of Christ death on the cross go on and on.

Jesus did more than die in our place though. Jesus also lived in our place.

One man, Adam, sinned against God and because of his sin, he passed down a sin nature to all of humanity. Because of Adam’s sin, we have all been born as sinners. We all are born sinners and we all sin. When we believe in the Gospel, God does give us a new heart with new desires to live holy, but what about before, or what about when we fail again? We need more than a sacrifice and forgiveness. The Law must be fulfilled, both in it’s sacrifices and in it’s do’s and dont’s.

When Jesus stepped into human history, born of a virgin conceived by the Holy Spirit, he did not inherit the sin nature of Adam, because Adam was not his father, God is. Jesus was born inclined to live a holy life. He did not know sin. He only knew obedience. Jesus lived a perfect obedient life. He fulfilled all of the Law. Because of Jesus’ obedience, everyone that believes in Jesus, receives his perfect obedient life. And we need that perfect obedient life in order to stand before God. So when God looks at you, He doesn’t just see you as forgiven for all the wrong you have done. He sees you as if you had always done the right thing.

Because Jesus died in our place, when we fall, when we fail, when we sin, we have forgiveness, we are not condemned, God is not going to punish us, and we still have access to God.

Because Jesus lived in our place, when we feel like we have to perform perfectly for God, try hard for God, work to please God, we can remember that Jesus did all that for us. So, we can relax, we don’t have to worry how we are doing, we can be free from that pressure, we can live abundantly and passionately with full assurance that God is pleased with us, that He is for us, and that He is on our side.

Over the past couple months I have been working with juveniles that come from all kinds of different backgrounds, have many different issues, carry all kinds of baggage, and have committed all kinds of crimes. In a brief time, I have learned a few things that I think need to be shared.

1. Everyone has a past and we must be aware that some people’s past is a living nightmare. Most of us see children through the lenses of our own experiences without considering that these children have had extremely difficult, heartbreaking, painful experiences, that are not anything like our own. We either ignore or run away from or blatantly deny that wicked evil people exist and that they do wicked evil things to children. Most of us when we see these children in their circumstances, make assumptions that are incorrect. Because we only think of ourselves, ignore reality, and make false assumptions, we don’t see these children for who they are and make false judgments about them which leads us to treat them in a sinful way. Because of our arrogance, we treat broken children without any compassion, condemn them, abandon them, and leave them to fail.

2. Fathers play the most important role in a child’s life. Children have to have a father or father figure in their life that loves them, cares for them, mentors them, disciplines them and trains them in order for them to become a respectable mature adult. Too many fathers are failing. That is the beginning of the problem but the problem is worsened when not enough men who claim to be Godly men step up to take their place (because of point number 1). We need men of God to “act like men – 1Co 16:13″.

3. Patience, understanding, gentleness, honesty, courage, and compassion are essential when dealing with broken children. Because of the violent, impoverished, hateful, and chaotic atmospheres that these children come from is all they have ever known, they see you as out to get them, hurt them, take advantage of them, and destroy them. They will fight against your love. Refuse to give up on them.

4. The Church must recognize the great need to reach out to broken children and their parents/guardians. We have gotten too comfortable in our pews. We claim to be a light but we are too cowardly to go into the darkness. We must leave our comfort zone and passionately pursue the hearts of the broken that reside in the darkest places of our society. We can no longer turn away and pretend that injustice and evil do not exist. We can no longer play these apathetic games within the security of the walls of our buildings while the world outside is dwelling in terror. Too many families need us to step up and be who God has called us to be.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” – Edmund Burke

In Christ Alone,
Jared Pete Parker

I, like many of you, find myself in situations where I want to be admired, honored, praised, thanked, and so on… Can you remember a time in recently that you’ve put passion and effort in to something just to have it go unnoticed? Or maybe you did something generous for someone and they didn’t thank you. It’s universally true that we hate that. The more I think about this desire to receive these things the more convinced I am that it’s the truth that I want to be worshiped. That I don’t want to be like God; I want to be him. Let me say this as a disclaimer: I reject this desire, I hate this desire, and by God’s grace I am aware of the depravity of this desire. You and I were created as worshipers, plain and simple. That’s our purpose for existing. When I say “worship” don’t think what you do (or do not do) on Sunday morning, what you worship is the thing that gives your life meaning and purpose. It’s should be that which made you, but more often than not it is probably something God made like sex, acceptance, food, significant other, kids, and inevitably self. In short we desire to be the center of the universe.

The twist is that because of the morality that God has created us with, the moral laws of society, and our particular moralistic culture we all judge one another for things like selfishness, arrogance, and pride. This creates a culture where everyone wants to be honored (worshiped) but the quickest way to lose your status is to admit that you desire it. This led to us creating a slew of ways to seek honor in a way that says “I don’t want honor.” These things include singing a praise song at church, giving generously, going in to debt (secretly) to have things that make you more noticed, and gossiping about people that struggle with the same things you do except yours are hidden.

Doesn’t all that sound bleak! A miserable existence of always having to pretend to be something you’re not, and never letting anyone know who you really are and what you truly desire. This is why moralism (placing morals as ultimate) is a disastrous pursuit. You will be seen as a good person, you will do some good things, but you will be doing it to make yourself god of you life that you’ve built. You would never say that, and you may even criticize me for writing this, but if you place all your chips in the moralism basket it’s because you want to be honored not just by men, but by God for the effort you’ve put into building your world. Jesus wants to redeem our city, our state, and our region. The Bible Belt is an inaccurate title for our culture because the Bible teaches that a believer’s life is one that depends on grace, but where I live there is an atmosphere that preaches “we live on making good choices.” The only way to transform the place we live and redeem the tension of wanting to be God but not wanting anyone to know, is Jesus. He has stepped in to our ignorance, deception, and rebellion and said I love them and I will give them grace. Grace to change, rather than rules that are impotent and cannot teach us the truth.