By Mike Evans, Pastor Elwood Baptist Church, Forest Hill
BOSSIER CITY – Across our Convention there are spiritual warning signs found in less giving by some, fewer baptisms by many and a very real feel some churches are dying.
And this should be concerning to every Louisiana Baptist.
I firmly believe in the Cooperative Program and find it astounding so many independent and autonomous SBC/LBC congregations can come together to do so many vitally important things to fulfill our Lord’s Great Commission while others do not find it imperative.
Perhaps some of us have forgotten the CP is truly a bona fide miracle. It could be we have also forgotten or de-emphasized some of the things we used to do when the Cooperative Program first began almost a century ago.
Today, we have Christian media and more technology to use than we can keep up with.
So what is different today and what is lacking?
For one thing, I don’t see the tears that used to be a part of most every service in our churches only a few decades ago. People used to plead for the Lord to not only save their families from their enemies but also hell.
Could it be the prosperity we now enjoy has made us spend more time feathering our nest, as if we will live on this earth forever, that we have tacitly subscribed to the sentiments of Joel Osteen as evidenced in his book about “Living Your Best Life Now”?
Could it be we think very little about saving folks from hell because it is seldom mentioned or preached since it makes people feel uncomfortable? I know this life is but a vapor and realize the Bible tells us, “our citizenship is in Heaven.”
Proverbs tells us plainly, “open rebuke is better than secret love.” Many on our church rolls must therefore be in the secret service of Christ.
We as Baptists have excelled at preaching grace and there is no other word for grace but amazing. We get that, don’t we?
But I can remember a time when grace was made so much more amazing by holiness being preached and taught and modeled in the pulpit and in the church and in the way Christians lived. We have become so casual and cavalier not only in the way we dress for worship but I fear attitude has translated into a casual view and worship of a Holy God.
Have we become so afraid of being called a holy and peculiar people? How can a lost and dying world see Christ in us if we look just like the world?
In World War II General George S. Patton took command in North Africa of troops who were thoroughly demoralized from successive losses to the Nazis.
They had become sloppy and afraid. He ordered a multitude of changes and instituted a dress code that required his soldiers to all wear ties, even in the field and in the heat of battle. He correctly reasoned that without a code of discipline, the army would not follow his orders.
Would it be so easy to return to the successes of the past by just instituting a dress code which required ties by all.
As a former public school teacher I can assure you if there is no discipline, there will be no learning taking place. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.
Patton said, “to lead soldiers into war without discipline, would be murder.”
We are instructed in the Great Commission to make disciples. How can we make true disciples without discipline? To not preach the whole counsel of God, and grace without holiness, is a sin and “sin when it is finished, brings about death.”
We know the Word tells us as teachers we will be held to a stricter judgment. I have so much to answer for as it is, I do not want ‘failure to preach the truth’ to be added, do you? Nor do I want blood on my hands.
C.S. Lewis once wrote, “God whispers to us in our prosperity but He shouts to us in our pain!”
When things are going well the prosperity sermons are intoxicating. But when the inevitable storms of life blow in, there is the certain and tremendous fall and crash from a house or faith built upon sand and not on the solid rock of His word.
To accelerate while going in the wrong direction is crazy. We must go back and remember again what we used to know and to practice.
Paul told us that all scripture is not only fit for doctrine but for reproof and correction. How can correction be taught if sin, hell and holiness are left out?
He also said it is required of a steward to be found faithful.
‘The Pledge’ to support the Cooperative Program is a wonderful affirmation but we should also pledge ourselves and our preaching to the complete word of God. And, we must be accountable and be held accountable.
We must also be ready to provide restoration for those who fail and fall in ministry as admonished by the Apostle Paul to do so.
Those, who have fallen, should find the church to be a sanctuary and a hospital of first resort. I believe those having been restored would be of tremendous value to His kingdom and they should never be thrown on the garbage heap as second class Christians by a church that teaches redemption is not only possible, but desired.
There once was a renowned psychologist named Dr. Karl Menninger who wrote a book titled, “What Ever Happened To Sin?”
Shakespeare once said, “by any other name a rose would smell as sweet.”
We can call sin a mistake or an accident. But to a righteous God, it still smells to high heaven and it smells of death. Our Lord does not forgive excuses but He graciously forgives sin.
Isn’t it about time we admit we have erred and return to His whole counsel?
The declines we now see are only symptoms and I believe if only a remnant of dedicated believers would pray, we would be heard by a Holy God and we could have confidence He would not only hear our plea, but would bless the efforts of a people who are not perfect, but sincerely want to be.
Whoever we are when we are alone is who we really are. Those who walk with Him know He is watching … and not from a distance. “When Christ who is our life appears, we shall be like Him.”
This should be more than enough for you and me.
