Invested Time is not Wasted Time

You should really thank Miss Brinkman, She's spent so much extra time,
It's like she sees the diamond underneath, and she's polishing you till you shine...

-Brad Paisley, in Letter to Me 

Photo: Alexander T. Carroll

Throughout the course of my life, I have been blessed with people who invested extra time and energy into me. From the youth director at my childhood church who actually spent time with me outside of class, to the high school teacher who also invested non-school hours into my personal growth and development. Both of these individuals invested hours and in some cases, days into helping me grow to be the person that I am today. Neither were able to see immediate results in my personal growth and development, but they spent that extra time on me anyway.

As I look at our immediate-results-driven culture, I wonder if we are missing the value of investing time. In politics, few will invest time toward building a long-term trend in their direction. Few show the patience Ronald Reagan showed in his political career. In his Goldwater speech in 1964, Ronald Reagan set forth the principles that would propel him into the White House some 16 years later. Having laid out his thesis for America, Reagan spent the next 16 years working to influence his political party into adopting his ideals, until in 1980, he finally won the party's nomination for President, and then the Presidency itself. 1964 was a bad year for Republicans. They lost the Presidential election, and lost most other races so badly that NBC's "Meet the Press" even wondered if Republicans were becoming extinct. Still, Reagan invested the time to communicate and advance his principles, until he was finally able to successfully influence the entire country.

This year has been a bad year for Christianity in the culture war. American society is rapidly accepting same-sex marriage as normal, is becoming more accepting of abortion, and is making the decision that it does not like Christianity. 2013 will go down in history as Conservative Christianity's 1964. Many of our prominent leaders and voices will fade away, discouraged that the country has rejected their message... our message.

However, our message is still true. Our hearts and arms are still open, and our truth is still reality. As long as God still has us on this Earth, we are still responsible for proclaiming that truth. In the coming months and years, we will still need to proclaim that truth, even though we will see more ferocious opposition. We must become comfortable in speaking our views, which are not going to be popular. We need to learn to take criticism, insults, and even hate. Still, we need to speak. The time is worth the investment.

Why is it important to continue to invest the time in proclaiming the truth, even as society fights against us? Because there are still people to be reached with the Gospel, and people to be reached with God's Word. That brings me to my next point...

Time is well invested in church work. Despite the cultural trends in our society, we still have good, strong churches ministering in their communities, changing lives, and reaching people with the Gospel. Those strong churches did not pop up overnight. Years went into their forming, growth, and influence. Adrian Rogers did not just wake up one morning and pull Bellevue Baptist Church out of his hat. Bellevue had been established, and had been growing and developing years before Rogers became their pastor. When Rogers became the pastor in 1972, Bellevue was already 9,000 members strong. It grew to 29,000, under Rogers' three-decade tenure as their pastor.

Recently, Jonathan Falwell spoke to the First Baptist Church in San Saba, some 45 minutes from where I live. When asked if he would follow in his father's (the late Jerry Falwell's) footsteps as a culture warrior, Falwell said that level of influence is not something that can be inherited. He noted his father's 55-year ministry in the building of his cultural influence. Jerry Falwell had invested time.

Many churches today seek immediate results in a culture that is unwilling to respond to them. If attendance drops, change everything. If this idea doesn't result in a sudden rise in attendance, discard it and try something else. In reality, all churches really need to do is be committed to their mission, and invest time into reaching people with the Gospel. This time is invested not only in personal evangelism, church volunteer work, or visitation ministry. This time is invested in the members of the church forging authentic relationships. Further, the longer a church is active, and the more time a church invests in its mission, the more influence that church will have in its community. Invested time is not wasted time.

This process also applies to missions. The American Baptist Association recently passed a new mission policy that, to my understanding, reduces the association's support to a salaried missionary by 5 percent every year after his 5th year. While the policy is not entirely bad (at some point, the newly planted church should take on responsibility for its own expenses, including pastor's salary), a lot of the debate stems from a frustration that it takes so long for newly planted churches (or missions) to become self-supporting. I understand the frustration. I wish the process moved more quickly as well.

In a true missions setting, where a missionary has moved to a place where he knew no one, and had no connections, and had to start from scratch to evangelize the lost and start a congregation, it takes a significant investment of time (years) for that missionary to build the inroads, and gain the trust and influence it takes to be able to build a solid congregation. This time needs to be invested, and that invested time is not wasted time. While I recognize that the Apostle Paul was able to plant churches in as little as four weeks, it should be noted that Paul was often dealing with Christians who had already been converted and baptized on the day of Pentecost.

Basically, whatever you have been called to do, whether it is preach the Gospel, stand up for what is right in your culture, or volunteer in your local church,  realize that if you are to see any significant progress, you will have to be willing to invest time. Invested time is not wasted time.

God is bigger than our doctrinal divisions...

You can tell what is really important to a person by what they talk about. If a coworker routinely talks about sports, you can pretty well assume that he spends a lot of his time following, or playing sports. If your friend spends a lot of time talking about their kids, then their kids probably occupy a lot of their time, and their mind. We all have that friend who is obsessed with politics.

God has spoken to us through His written word, the Bible. (I use the King James Version.) If you read through the Bible, you will find that the scriptures go into great detail about God's plan with man, His salvation, His selection of Israel as His chosen people, their rejection of Him, the rebellion of God's people, and the destruction that comes with rebelling against God.

You can take all of those subjects, and consolidate them into one central theme... that God loves us, but our sin separated us from Him and doomed us to destruction. Therefore, He gave Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son to die on the cross, taking the punishment for our sin, so we could be reconciled to Him. The scriptures go into great detail, and give many examples of the proper response to that Gospel... which is repenting from Sin and Believing on Christ. That is what God spent most of His time telling us as the Bible was being inspired. If the Gospel is what God talks about the most, wouldn't it follow that it is what is most important to Him?

In my preaching at Grace Pointe Missionary Baptist Church, I tend to preach through books of the Bible. Once, I was confronted by a church member who complained that I was preaching on the Gospel and plan of Salvation too much. I was, in her opinion, failing to "move beyond the milk" of the word and "get into the meat." The truth is, I was preaching through the book of Luke, and the topic Jesus most commonly addressed in that book was repentance and faith. That's what the Lord wanted us to learn from the book of Luke.

Bible doctrines are important. Doctrines such as the security of the believer (once saved, always saved), sanctification (being set apart for the Lord), the nature of the church (local, visible body of believers), communion (restricted to the members of the church), baptism (by immersion as an act of obedience, not a work for salvation) are all important, and separate the true teachers from the false teachers. These are some of the doctrines on which it is appropriate to draw the lines of fellowship.

However, I am noticing that there are some lines in the sand that God did not draw, and some doctrines that many emphasize, that the Bible actually says very little about. For the followers of these doctrines, these doctrines are front and center, and determine whether they will fellowship with other believers. (Since many of these doctrines are foreign to the scriptures, these followers tend to be isolated.)

These doctrines include, but are not limited to, NewLightism (the belief that one does not get the Holy Spirit until one has been baptized and joined a church, a doctrine clearly debunked by example in the book of Acts), doctrines on the Bride of Christ (universal, or limited to the best faithful Christians), the rapture (pre-, mid-, or post-tribulation), and though it may cost me some friends, the doctrines of Grace (more widely known as the doctrine of Calvinism.)

I have spend the past nine years in deep study of the scriptures, and I have strong opinions of the aforementioned doctrines. I recognize that there will be differences. I also recognize that when I get to Heaven, I will find that I was right about some things, and wrong about others.While I understand that two cannot walk together unless they be agreed, I take issue with the fact that so many people take a second, or a third-tier doctrine, and elevate it to the status of Gospel.

The Gospel that Paul first delivered to the churches, the most important doctrine that he preached, is how Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day, according to the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). As I read that passage, and as I see it illustrated, shadowed, typed, and presented throughout the entire Bible, I have come to the conclusion that everything we do and believe should revolve around that Gospel.

If you feel that the Gospel is an elementary, entry-level teaching beyond which the believer must quickly mature, you have a skewed understanding of the Christian faith. The Gospel is the foundation of the Christian faith, upon which all true Bible doctrines are based. The deeper into the scriptures you dig, the more Gospel you find.

We violate the true meaning of the scriptures when we place improper priority on certain doctrines. Further, we do churches a disservice when we try to reconstruct them around our second and third-tier doctrines. Believe it or not, there are actually people who travel the country, visiting churches, with the intent to get them to convert to the NewLight doctrine, or to some sort of bride doctrine, or even the timing of the rapture. Some people even try to plant churches based solely on those doctrines. This is a practice in idolatry.

Our God is big. His love for us is beyond anything we can truly comprehend. His power and authority are without equal, and cannot be successfully challenged. God made the ultimate sacrifice. He gave His only begotten Son as a payment for the sin that separates us from Him, so that we could be with Him in eternity. His power, grace, love, righteousness and holiness are far greater than our understanding, and definitely bigger than our failures. Believe it or not, He is also bigger than this hidden nugget of a doctrine you've found that makes you think you are smarter than the rest of us.

God is bigger than these petty doctrinal differences. Get back to the Bible. Read the word, in context (which means you are staying true to the author's intent), and learn about our great and awesome Lord. You may just be blown away by how awesome God truly is.

False Profits: Tearing Down the Righteous, and Lifting up the Wicked Since 600 BC

The blogosphere (at least in my circle) has slowed down considerably over the past few years, but four or five years ago, several of my fellow preachers, friends and acquaintances routinely took to our blogs to debate theological concepts and worship practices. During this time, the words "seeker friendly" were popularly used, and many criticized traditional churches.

Modern churches and preachers seem to face a new set of challenges... from our culture openly embracing homosexuality, to increasing poverty and drug use, to our culture turning its back on the churches in general.Churches face the challenge of reaching people in this culture, sharing the truth in love, without coming across like the Westboro group.

In facing this challenge, some have chosen to lash out at traditional churches, and to criticize pastors, preachers and teachers who dare to stand on truth, and call sin for what it is... sin. What the "seeker friendly" movement has done for us is that is has basically criminalized speech against sin in our churches. Teach against a sin, and you will be scolded, and admonished to "love the sinner, not the sin." You will also be told that you, too are a sinner, and there is no difference between you and the sinner out there on the street.

I once read the words of one preacher, who claimed to have told his congregation that he'd "rather offend 100 church members than one first-time visitor." That statement has bothered me for years. I understand wanting a visitor to feel welcome, and wanting to gently guide a new believer, or one who is on the verge of making a decision for Christ, to come to a knowledge of the truth, but why the animosity toward existing believers? You know, the people God refers to as "His children," who have received the "Spirit of Adoption whereby they cry 'Abba,' 'Father?'" You know, the people who have tirelessly worked for years to support the Lord's church and its ministries, whose faithful service God has blessed in a way that has resulted in there being a church there for you to teach and preach at in the first place? Why the animosity?

In many of today's churches, people expect their pastors to preach good, encouraging messages. And if he preaches a message against sin (especially if he addresses a specific sin like adultery, fornication, drug abuse, etc), he is criticized and told that we "should love the sinner and not the sin." He is also reminded that "he is a sinner, too," and the only difference between us and them is that we are "sinners under grace." In today's society, people get more offended by a man who goes to the scriptures and says "X is a sin," than they do about the fact that "X" is going on in the first place, or that "X" destroys lives, or that "X" has become a problem in the church. I can think of one church where the pastor had to leave because the congregation made him so uncomfortable because he dared confront adultery going on among its members.

This mentality boils down to the following mission statement: Encourage the Sinners, and remind the Saints of their Place. During my study of the book of Ezekiel (I am currently preparing a sermon series from that book), I found that the same mentality existed in Jerusalem, and all of Judea and Israel before the captivity. Wickedness had permeated throughout all of Judea and Israel, to the point that even the neighboring heathen nations were taken aback. Ezekiel was taken into captivity, where God called him to be a prophet... and Ezekiel's prophecies (words he received from the LORD) called out the sin of Jerusalem, and Judea and Israel in general.

In Ezekiel 13, God turned his ire on to the false prophets that had propagated the sinful activity that led to Jerusalem's downfall. In Ezekiel 13:22, God says, "Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:"

Those false prophets had lied to the people. They blasted the righteous, those who were right with God, and made their hearts sad. They criticized them, and then promised the wicked (those actively engaged in sinful, unGodly conduct) that God would deliver them. They claimed God's authority in saying these things, but God never said them.

As I read those words in my study, I couldn't help but think of all the things I have heard written and said, that were disparaging toward God's people. I couldn't help but think of the preacher who ripped his congregation on facebook because they wouldn't embrace contemporary worship, or the man who would rather run off the faithful so his church can be more appealing to non-church members. It made me think of the man who would tolerate openly sinful behavior from a non-believer, while blasting an older church member "for just not getting it." If the attitude described in Ezekiel 13:22 is prevalent in our churches today, its no wonder why more are closing than opening, and why the percentage of the unchurched continues to grow. God will not bless that environment.

If we condemn and preach against the members of the church, when God has not led us to confront their sin, or when we promise the wicked eternal life when he has not repented and believed, we are lying! And at that point, we have become false prophets.

Brethren, I propose we lay aside the church growth/planting books, and we get back to what made the Christian movement so powerful in the first place. I propose we get back into the Word, the Bible, and learn what God wants, how He sees things, and apply the things we learn to our lives. I propose that, instead of trying to manipulate decisions for Christ based on chords in an invitation song, that we actually go about making disciples, working with people one-on-one, teaching them the truth and exhorting them to turn from sin and trust the Lord... and that involves calling sin, sin.Finally, I propose we get back to what church is all about. It's not about modernizing, crowds, change, or presentation. It's about honoring God, worshiping Him in our gatherings, teaching His Word, and carrying out His mission of making disciples in our communities. Besides, if we can not love our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, with whom we share the common background of the Gospel, how can we claim to love sinners? It's time to turn our hearts back to the Lord.