In the meantime

The Difference Between Covering and Covering Up

"Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:24-25 (NIV)

If you hang around with church folk very long, you will hear them speak about "covering."  I remember when I first heard this phrase, I assumed they were talking about covering up.  But there is a huge difference between covering and covering up.

There is only one time in the New Testament that the word "cover" is used in that context, and that is in I Peter 4:8 - "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." (NIV).  Sometimes this passage is misinterpreted to mean that our love for each other blots out our sin.  Make no mistake: The only love that can cancel out sin is the love of Jesus manifested in his death on the cross.  What Peter is talking about here is the unconditional love and acceptance that should be present in the Body of Christ creating an environment where we feel safe and secure to confess our sins to one another and repent.

James also painted this picture of how the church ought to function in his epistle: "...confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." (James 5:16, NIV)

Sadly, in most church fellowships that love and acceptance is not present.  This results in an environment where we dare not confess our faults to each other for fear we will become fodder for the gossip mill.  Here's another way to look at it: When we don't have the love covering, we have a cover up.  So we come to the one place on earth where we should be able to be real and we put a mask on and hide what we are feeling, what we are thinking, and what we are struggling with.

There is no doubt in my mind that the epidemic we are currently seeing in moral failures, divorces and scandals among pastors and church leaders has it's roots in the lack of "covering love" present in the church.  In most cases, these Pastors were too proud or too isolated to seek out accountability partners.

For every high profile leader who fails, there are scores of deacons, elders, teachers and others in the church who suffer the same fate out of the spotlight.  This is why the divorce rate is higher in the church than outside the church!  You don't dare come to church and admit you and your spouse are struggling and need prayer, help and support, so you suffer in silence while your marriage and family crumbles around you.

This lack of "covering love" in the church is the spirit of the Pharisees, not that of Jesus!  When Jesus encountered those struggling with sin He responded with compassion and understanding, saying "I don't condemn you." This in spite of the fact that He is the only person who has the right to condemn sinners.  You and I don't have that right.  We are like the Pharisees with rocks in their hands waiting to throw them and the sinful woman; When Jesus reminded them of their own sin, one by one they dropped their stones and walked away, knowing they were every bit as guilty as she.

If your church, Sunday School class, or small group doesn't provide this atmosphere of acceptance, you need to seek out accountability and covering for your life.  Covering up your sin will only result in repeating the same behavior.  So, find a group of people that you can be totally transparent with and hold each other accountable.  I am not exaggerating to say that failure to find accountability in your life can result in at best stagnation and at worst ruin for your spiritual life and your reputation.

Seeking out and taking advantage of an environment where love covers will be one of the hardest, yet most rewarding things you will ever do.  You cannot put a price on a clear conscience, and the knowledge that there are people who know you completely yet love you anyway.  It is in this environment that you can begin to understand the unconditional love that God loves you with.  And you realize that you aren't the "Lone Ranger."  Your brothers and sisters are struggling in the same areas that you are struggling in!

Hanging Out With My Dysfunctional Family

I've been in Indianapolis since this past Sunday night for the Southern Baptist Convention.  It's been a hectic week, so not much time for blogging... just the occasional tweet via Twitter.  I jokingly told some of my friends that I was going to Indy to hang out with some of my nutty relatives in the Family of God.  I was joking.  Really.  Well, for the most part.

Nutty relatives.  As as the saying goes, "Every family has one."  (Note to all my relatives: No this does not apply to you.  No, you are not the "one" I am talking about here.  Do not send me nasty emails!)

The other night on the Daily Show, they showed a video of this woman ranting and raving like a lunatic at the Democratic Rules committee meeting the other week.  The shot came back to host Jon Stewart who had this pained expression on his face and said, "OK, Grandma... see you at Passover... love you."  We all fell on the floor laughing.  That's what I'm talking about... nutty relatives.

You gotta love Baptists.  They get a bad rap for the most part nowadays (much of it deserved, sadly) but they are good people.  They love the Lord, they love people (they really do) and - from the looks of the "messengers" to the 151st Southern Baptist Convention, they love them some food, too.  Not too many folks around here look like they've missed too many meals. Sadly, I include myself in that assessment.  (I fit right in here in more ways than one.)

My colleagues and I all arrived here on Saturday by different flights and in one case by car (and through the flood waters.)  While we were on the way, we were playing - via Blackberry Messenger - a game we called "Spot the Baptists."  I'll bet we were right at least 80% of the time. You can just tell when someone is a Baptist... they look like Baptists.  You couldn't miss them. (Keep in mind, I'm allowed to say this.  I've been a Baptist since I was enrolled in Cradle Roll when I was a month old... If you don't know what "Cradle Roll" is, ask a Baptist.)

Three years ago this week, I left vocational ministry after more than two decades serving Southern Baptist churches.  When people ask me about my denominational affiliation, I jokingly tell them I am a Recovering Southern Baptist. The church we attend is technically a Baptist church, but as is the case with so many outreach oriented churches these days, they do not advertise the fact that they are Baptist.

Here's the thing.  Some of the nicest, kindest, godliest people on the planet are here i Indy this week. I lot of them are dear friends of mine. As I said earlier, they love people. They also hate sin.  Sometimes they get those two things mixed up, or at the very least they come across that way, and so they have a reputation for being mean spirited and even downright hateful. The vast majority of them don't come across that way, and the majority of those who do don't mean to come across that way. Many Baptists know they have an image problem and they want to correct it.  They want their unchurched friends and neighbors to know that they sincerely love them. 

I've enjoyed being with my Baptist brothers and sisters this week. Hanging out with them has reminded me of something this week.  I love them all.  Even the nutty ones.

What Will It Take to Bring Us Together?

This past Saturday morning I was eating breakfast in the lobby of our hotel in Nashville.  I couldn't help but overhear an interesting conversation from a couple seated at the table behind me.  The woman, a nurse, was relating an experience she had on September 11, 2001.  On that terrible day, she found herself with a patient, a doctor and a member of the hospital's custodial staff. They were all in the patient's room, watching the events play out on television.

She observed how the tragedy united that group despite their significant professional and cultural differences.  The doctor, the patient, the custodian and the nurse were suddenly all just Americans.  "The walls came down between us," the woman said to her breakfast companion.

I didn't attempt to join the conversation, but it certainly caused me to think as I headed back to my room how often it takes a shared crisis, problem or challenge to compel us to drop barriers and relate to each other on an equal footing. 

What will it take for the church to have a similar experience?  What could make the significant cultural and non-essential theological walls come down?  The inescapable conclusion is that it would take a 911-type tragedy to unite us.

But it is hard to imagine a tragedy worse than this: Thousands of people within the sphere of influence of our churches and our people die without Christ each and every week, while we are content to do our own thing in our own setting, oblivious to their plight.

It is a spiritual 9-11, and it is for the most part under our radar, while a myriad of issues that are trivial when seen through the eyes of eternity consume our time, energy and resources.

Blest Be The Tie

I have a confession to make: I am a Baptist. 

I've spent most of my life around Baptists. Over the years I've discovered that in Baptist churches there are a lot of things that are common to almost all of them.  Just like you can walk into a McDonald's anywhere in the world and order a Big Mac and know it will taste the same, you can go to most Baptist churches and find a lot of the same things on the "menu," if you catch my drift. Some of these things that are the same are good.  Some of them are not so good.

Almost all Baptist churches have regular "business meetings."  If your church has a congregational form of government, I suspect they have something similar to the church business meeting.  These are regularly scheduled gatherings where the "business of the church" is discussed.  And discussed.  And discussed.  And then that business is voted on, usually in the form of a "motion." Baptist Churches use "Roberts Rules of Order" to guide them in how to conduct these meetings. (As a child I used to wonder who this Roberts guy was and why was he causing so much trouble in my church?)

Going to church business meetings was great entertainment for me when I was a kid.  You got to see adults behaving really, really badly.  Sometimes, if you were really lucky, you'd get to hear them yell at each other.  But most of the time the comments were just condescending or sarcastic and frequently sprinkled with the term "Brother" or "Sister."("Brother Moderator, it is obvious that Brother Smith, the chairman of our Grounds Committee, believes that money grows on trees since he wants to spend $50 of the Lord's money to spray the shrubbery for bugs!")

At the end of the business meeting, no matter how contentious it had been, no matter how close people came to jumping across the pews and strangling their fellow church members, the people would stand up and hold hands across the aisle and sing this little ditty:

Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above

I didn't have a clue in the world what those words meant when I was a little kid. But I did know what a tie was.  It was that awful contraption that you had to wear around your neck only when you went to church.  I would have to stand still long enough for my dad to tie it and when he was done he tightened it up and my face immediately started turning red and then blue from lack of oxygen.  I could certainly relate to "the tie that binds"!

When I was older I came to understand it was a song about how much we love each other, and how the love we have for each other here is a taste of what it's going to be like in heaven.

Say what??  We argue, fuss and fight for an hour or more and then declare that's what heaven is going to be like?  If that's true, I think I'll pass! (Thankfully it is not true - I rest in the assurance there will be no business meetings in heaven.)

But you know, now after many years of seeing the best and worst of people at church, I've sort of mellowed in my view of business meetings and the people who go to them.

Church business meetings are kind of like life.  We're not perfect, we sometimes say things we shouldn't, and sometimes we make complete idiots out of ourselves.  But through it all somehow God still loves us.  And through it all, we really do love each other.  You see, I've come to realize the singing of that song wasn't about how things were, it was a statement of how in our heart of hearts we really wanted them to be.  And how - praise the Lord - it will be in heaven.

So church - and I mean ALL of the church, not just the Baptists - let's stand up, hold hands across the aisle, and sing together:

"Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love..."

Friends in Both Places

The story is told that at a social gathering author Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) walked up on a lively conversation about heaven and hell.  When the participants asked Clemens to weigh in on the matter, the quick-witted writer said he would rather not comment because he had friends in both places.

Jimmy Carter sings with Gov. Sonny Pardue and William Shaw at the New Baptist Covenant meeting

That anecdote summed up how I felt about weighing in on the meeting this past week dubbed the "New Baptist Covenant." I have friends in both camps, both conservative and moderate Baptists.  Many Southern Baptists dismissed the gathering outright, pointing to both the high-profile participants (Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Al Gore) and the timing (the same week as Super Tuesday) as evidence it was nothing more than a partisan political event.

Another reason for my reticence is that saying anything positive about moderate Baptists can get you in as much trouble with some conservative Baptists as Barack Obama got in with the Democrats for saying something vaguely positive about Ronald Reagan.

I am a theological conservative, but I have a passionate desire to see evangelicals end the rancor, bickering and fighting that has seriously damaged our credibility with the people we desire to reach with the Gospel. I earnestly long to see the Body of Christ united, but I am also deeply concerned when Baptists publicly deny that salvation is found in Christ alone and deny that John 14:6 means what it says ("I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father but through me.")

A little background for those who were unaware - former President Jimmy Carter and Mercer University President Bill Underwood planned and organized a gathering of Baptists, admittedly mostly high profile, theologically moderate Democrats, seeking to counteract the negative image that most people have of Baptists.  Southern Baptists were invited to participate.  Carter personally reached out to many SBC leaders, some of whom are friends of mine, inviting them to attend.  Of those, some politely declined the invitation after praying about it, but wished them well in their efforts.  Some, like SBC President Frank Page initially had unkind things to say about the event, but softened their rhetoric after receiving personal assurances from Carter that his motives were not political.

Others chose to stay away and criticize the event - some in a decidedly sarcastic and mean-spirited way - via the media.  In essence, those folks chose to make political hay with their constituency by accusing Carter and his friends of making political hay with their constituency.  Funny how being "political," like gossiping, is always someone else does.

Last year, SBC President Frank Page reacted to the planned meeting by saying he would not take part in a "smokescreen left wing liberal agenda."  In recent weeks, Page stated Carter had "expressed his deep desire that this meeting be nonpolitical and Christ-honoring." He added, "I always affirm bodies of believers who gather for that reason. My promise of prayer support continues to be that this meeting will exalt the name of Christ, will point human beings toward the need for a personal relationship with Christ who alone can bring salvation."

By contrast, Dr. Richard Land, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission sarcastically called the meeting "The Democratic Party at Prayer." In January of last year, Land was quoted in the Washington Post as saying, "I'm not going to question their motives," and then proceeded to do exactly that for the last 12 months.  He implied those who didn't see the event as blatantly political in its timing (the week of Super Tuesday) and choice of speakers (mostly Democrats) were ignorant, naive, or both.  "Anyone who thinks all of that amounts to coincidence, I've got beachfront property in Arizona I'd like for you to look at," said Land.  (Actually, Dr. Land, the event was timed to coincide with the Atlanta gatherings of two groups of black Baptists who have been estranged from their white Baptist brethren since before the Civil War - NOT Super Tuesday.)

There was one prominent Southern Baptist on the platform - Georgia Governor Sonny Pardue, a member and Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Woodstock and a staunch conservative.  Welcoming the group to Georgia, Pardue proclaimed to the audience his “joy to stand up in front of you as a Baptist.”

As for the meeting itself, it was a mixed bag. Several speakers - mostly in breakout sessions - got about as political and negative as you could get.  But for the most part, the plenary speakers - including Bill Clinton, perhaps the most partisan politician on the planet - sounded a conciliatory tone, calling for moderates and conservatives to work together with kindness, graciousness, respect and love.  Here is a sampling:

Jimmy Carter: "Among the unsaved people on earth, what is the prevailing image of Christians today? It's not the dedicated and inspired work of our missionaries. It's not the great preaching of Billy Graham or others who inspire people. It's the image of divisions among brothers and sisters in Christ as we struggle for authority or argue about the interpretation of individual verses in the Holy Scriptures."

Bill Clinton: "The reason we have to love each other is because we all might be wrong... we did not come here to ratify each other's good deeds. We came here to seek a Covenant of reconciliation... We should not let our response to the people who disagree with us be dictated by what they say about us or even how they treat people that we care for. If there is any chance, any chance, that this Covenant can become an embracing one, that there could once again be a whole community then there has to be the chance of Love, the chance that we might not give up our differences but find that our common humanity matters more."

It remains to be seen what if anything in terms of real change will come out of this meeting, but it is a positive thing that moderate Baptists gathered in Atlanta and spoke words of love, respect and reconciliation toward their brothers and sisters in the SBC.  Hopefully, the SBC response will be gracious like Frank Page's assurance of prayer support, not Richard Land's sarcastic and demeaning zingers.

Duke Divinity School's Curtis Freeman had an interesting take on the future impact of this event: 

“If this meeting is about shaking a fist at evangelicals and the Southern Baptist Convention, it will have a very short shelf life. Then it becomes about anger and pride. It becomes the negative motivation of trying to say what we are not. What I like about this particular meeting is there are positive steps we as Baptists can take together.”

Christ Prays for a Unified Church

Someone shared with me a powerful sermon from Dr. Joel Gregory on unity in the Body of Christ.  The setting is Brookhollow Baptist Church, "The Church Without Walls" in Houston.  The title of the sermon is "Christ Prays for a Unified Church." In the message, Gregory makes some powerful points about the importance of unity in the church. 

First of all, he points out that unity is not a program or an achievement, but it is a gift from God.  Since it is a gift, it can only come from God.  In other words, it's not going to happen if we rely on our good intentions or human wisdom.  Unity can only come from God. That is why Jesus said when we are unified, the world will believe that God sent Him.

We try to make unity happen in our own strength.  We think if we are properly organized we'll be one.  But, Gregory points out, there's a unity to ice cubes in a tray, but they are cold and lifeless.  We think if we can get to the point where we all believe the same way we'll be united, but Dr. Gregory notes that there is agreement in a cemetery with all of the gravestones lined up in a row, but they are all dead.  It's not an achievement, it's a gift.  Biblical unity can only come from God.

Secondly, Dr. Gregory notes that we are told in God's word to shun those who cause divisions among us. (Romans 16:17)  "Isn't it interesting" Gregory says, "that we shun the very people we should not shun and fail to shun the people that we should shun?"  He's right.  We shun people who have experienced a moral failure or who have obvious sin in their lives.  We shun those with whom we've had a past disagreement, sometimes worshiping alongside them for years but holding on to a grudge against them.  Or, as so frequently happens among believers, we shun those with whom we disagree on relatively minor theological points, despite the fact that we agree with them on 95% of our theological convictions. 

We're not supposed to shun those who need Christ, who need repentance, or who need our fellowship and encouragement.  But the Bible does tell us to take note of those who cause divisions among us and avoid them!

Here's another great quote from this sermon: Dr. Gregory talks about how we often fail to lift each other up in the church, but rather we end up running each other down.  "We're not here to see through one another, we're here to see one another through!"

This sermon is well worth listening to.  You can watch it here.

Rev. John Cross, 1925 - 2007

In 1962, 38 year old Rev. John Cross accepted the pastorate of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.  The historic church was at that time a center of activity and organization of the civil rights movement.  It also was a symbol for those who would stop at nothing - including murder - to stop the movement, much the same way the World Trade Center was a symbol of America to Al-Qaeda.

On Sunday morning, September 15, 1963, just a little over a year into Rev. Cross' pastorate, he was at the church helping to prepare for Sunday School and Worship Service.  At 10:22 am, the unthinkable happened. A massive explosion rocked the church building. It was a bomb intended to deliver a message to the church and its pastor. 

Minutes after the bomb blast, John Cross was found frantically digging through the rubble.  "I've got to go in. I have to make sure the children are OK," his daughter Barbara, who was 13 at the time, remembers him saying.

All the children were not OK.  Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair were all dead. Twenty-two others were injured.

The bombing was no isolated incident.  Between 1947 and 1965, there were over fifty racially motivated bombings in the city that was derisively called "Bombingham" across the country. But the blast at Sixteenth Street was different, both in terms of its severity and its cruelty.  Three members of the Ku Klux Klan planted 19 sticks of dynamite in the church's basement.  They timed it to go off when people would be there for Sunday worship. This wasn't a message, it was cold blooded murder.

The fact that the victims of the blast were four little girls who were indisputably innocent shocked the city and the nation.  The Birmingham World published the following commentary three days after the murders:

Lethal dynamite has made Sunday, September 15, 1963, a Day of Sorrow and Shame in Birmingham, Alabama, the world's chief city of unsolved racial bombings.

Four or more who were attending Sunday School at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on the day of Sorrow and Shame were killed. Their bodies were stacked up on top of each other like bales of hay from the crumbling ruins left by the dynamiting. They were girls. They were children. They were members of the Negro group. They were victims of cruel madness, the vile bigotry and the deadly hate of unknown persons.

Is Birmingham a sick city? We cannot answer for sure. There are tensions because there is fear...there is a feeling of diminishing faith in City Hall to measure up to the responsibility of the kind of municipal leadership needed in his City of Sorrow and Shame. The killers of the innocents have challenged the conscience of decent persons everywhere.

Faced with such inhumanity, such evil against the innocent, it would have been so easy to hate.  It would have been so easy to live the rest of your life seeking revenge and retribution. But Rev. John Cross didn't take the easy way out.  The bombing left Cross with a passion for racial reconciliation.  That would be the singular focus of his life and ministry for the next four decades. 

"He realized after the bombing, there was work to be done," Barbara Cross said. "That was his calling."

The four little girls whose lives were senselessly taken from them that September Sunday in 1963 became martyrs for the cause of civil rights.  Largely because of the public shock and horror of their deaths, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.  Rev. Cross presided at the massive funeral of three of the four victims.  Martin Luther King gave the eulogy. Over eight thousand people attended.

Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair gave their lives for justice, freedom and equality. John Cross lived his life for it, tirelessly seeking to bring us all together.

Rev. John Cross passed away last week at 82 after several years of declining health. His funeral will be held today at Greenforest Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia.

He will be remembered at the service today as a towering, historic figure in the struggle for change in this country, a hero who dedicated his life to racial reconciliation and understanding.

As well he should be.

Let This Mind Be in You

One of my favorite passages in the New Testament is found in the second chapter of Paul's letter to the Philippians.

The book of Philippians is special because of who wrote it, who it was written to, why it was written, and where the author was when he wrote it. 

The book was written by Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles who took the gospel to the world.  It was written to the church at Philippi to thank them for a financial gift brought to Paul from the church.  Paul had a very special place in his heart for the Philippian church, and the warm, loving words of the letter reflect this. It was written from a Roman jail cell about ten years after Paul first preached in Philippi.  It was on that visit that Lydia was saved and, after an earthquake freed the prisoners, but none fled, the Philippian jailer and his family came to know Christ.

Now Paul is Nero's prisoner in Rome, confined in a Roman prison under difficult circumstances. Yet this letter brims with joy, assurance and victory.  The second chapter contains what scholars tell us is probably the earliest recorded Christian hymn, and a passionate plea from Paul for us to imitate the loving and humble spirit of our Lord Jesus.

The word that is translated "mind" in the Bible sometimes refers to our thinking process, but most often it refers not to the process but to what we are thinking - to our attitude.  As early as the book of Proverbs, we are told "as a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7). In this passage, Paul says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." (NKJV)  The New International version says it this way: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus."  The attitude of Jesus was that of humility and love.  It was His humility that allowed Him - the sinless Son of God - to take on the role of a servant, and even to die a humiliating death at the hands of men.

We can infer from Paul's letter that the Philippian church was a loving, caring group of believers.  We can also infer from the lack of doctrinal correction in the letter that they had their act together theologically as well.  Yet Paul made it a point to say this to them in his letter:

Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. (NLT)

Verses 5-11 contain the lyrics to that early hymn of the church.  The Message translates the hymn this way:

Though He was God,
He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to
Instead, He gave up his divine privileges
He took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being
When He appeared in human form,
He humbled himself in obedience to God
And died a criminal's death on a cross.

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
And gave him the name above all other names,
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
In heaven and on earth and under the earth,
And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
To the glory of God the Father!

For over two thousand years, the followers of Jesus have sung these words in many different languages and to many different tunes.  Yet the message is the same: Because of His obedience and humility, God has given to Jesus a name that is above every name, and everyone in heaven and on earth will one day bow and acknowledge that He is Lord and Christ.

And in that second chapter of Philippians, Paul tells us that we need to have the same humility, the same love, the same compassion, and the same obedience as Jesus as we relate to each other in the family of God, and as we reach out to the world around us to tell them the good news of the Gospel.  How sad it is to think that for the most part the world views the followers of Jesus today as mean spirited and judgemental!  It's even sadder to realize that all too often that is a reputation that we deserve because we fail to operate in the love and humility of the One that we follow.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus!

Doomed To Repeat It

It is always a tragedy when a church is torn apart by conflict, but the tragedy is compounded when that conflict is splayed all over the news media. It is even more tragic when you realize this scenario plays out the over and over again in church after church after church on a daily basis.

That great philosopher and social commentator Yogi Berra once described a situation by saying, "It's like déjà vu all over again."  That is exactly what went through my mind today when I read several articles about the conflict currently happening at Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville.  As I read I kept thinking, "I know these people.  I've heard this before.  I've lived this before."

Two Rivers is a large church, but it is not a "megachurch" as it was described in news articles.  They average about 1,500 people on a weekend which by modern standards is not all that large.  It is well known because it is where many Southern Baptist leaders and executives worship (Nashville is home to the SBC's Executive Committee, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and Lifeway Christian Resources, the denomination's publishing and distribution arm).  Dr. Jerry Sutton has been the Senior Pastor at Two Rivers for the last 21 years.  In 2006 he ran for SBC president and finished third in a field of three that included himself, Dr. Ronnie Floyd and Dr. Frank Page, who was the surprise winner of the election.

According to the news reports, a group of people in the church are trying to force Dr. Sutton's resignation or termination.  The group seeking to remove the pastor is led by a former church trustee who was recently expelled from the church by an "overwhelming" vote of the congregation.  Despite that action, the group is undeterred and is currently circulating a petition to force a vote to remove Sutton.

Reading the articles - especially those in the secular media - it is hard to discern what the issues are.  If you have ever been a part of a nasty church conflict you know that the issues that are identified publicly as the key issues are rarely, if ever, the real issues.  The real issues are most often power, authority, loss of trust and issues related to change.  The publicly identified issues are most often smokescreens.

The dissident group has a website (which is all the rage now in cases like this) but it crashed earlier this week, a fact which I'm sure is fodder for conspiracy theorists among the group.  The site enumerated the concerns of the group seeking the pastor's removal.  They included "steady decline in membership," "lack of accountability in finances," "poor stewardship of God's people," "authoritarian style church management," "rapid turnover rate of church staff in the past 10 years," "lavish lifestyle and receptions," "questionable allegations," and "serious communication issues."

The Nashville Tennessean reported that the dissident group is "older, long-term members who attend the traditional service."

Two Rivers has recently started a contemporary service which was scheduled to move this coming Sunday from the Chapel to the main worship center. Pastor Sutton was quoted as saying "We know that because of the demographics in the city, we're having to change some of our ministries. And I suspect that some of the change is part of what is driving the conflict, quite honestly. The contemporary service is at the top of the list."

According to an article on Forbes.com, the expelled former trustee said the crux of the problem is that Two Rivers "appears to have been manipulated from a people-led church to a staff-run church."

The funny thing about church messes is that even when you are in the middle of it, it's hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys. Everyone in the conflict thinks they are right.  Everyone in the conflict thinks they are doing God a favor by contending for the faith.  Everyone in the conflict thinks that God is on their side.  And usually, everyone in the conflict is acting in an unbiblical and unchristian manner toward those on the opposite side.

One thing is for sure: The loser in any church conflict - especially when it is allowed to escalate outside the four walls of the church into the news media - is the reputation of the people involved, the reputation of the church in the community, the reputation of the Gospel, and ultimately the reputation of the Lord Jesus.  The world is looking at us to see what Jesus is like and when we act like idiots, the world assumes that Jesus could not possibly be who He claimed to be if His followers are like this.

The statistics are sobering: 75% of congregations say they experience conflict regularly. 40% of pastors report a serious conflict within the church at least monthly. Nearly one-fourth of pastors have been terminated or forced to resign. Nearly two-thirds of forced-out pastors said the church that dumped them had also forced out previous pastors.  41% percent said the church had done so more than twice.  Only 20% of terminated pastors said the real reason for their leaving was made known to the congregation.

It is never a matter of if your church will have serious conflict, it is a question of when.  Bill Hybels says "The popular concept of unity is a fantasyland where disagreements never surface and contrary opinions are never stated with force. We expect disagreement, forceful disagreement. So instead of unity, we use the word community. The mark of community — true biblical unity — is not the absence of conflict. It’s the presence of a reconciling spirit.”

Our job is spread abroad the fame and renown of the Lord's name.  All too often we do just the opposite: we bring shame upon His name.  God sent Nathan the prophet to King David to confront him after his sin with Bathsheba. When David confessed, he was assured that God had forgiven his sin, but told him he would have to bear the consequences of that sin because his public failure had harmed God's reputation.

David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord."  Nathan answered, "The Lord has taken away your sin. You will not die. But what you did caused the Lord's enemies to lose all respect for him.  For this reason the son who was born to you will die."   (2 Sam 12:13-14 NCV) 

To paraphrase Santayana, when we fail to learn from church history, we are doomed to repeat it.  In literally hundreds of churches in every denomination right now we are repeating it.  And as we fail to live out what we claim to believe the world finds itself in agreement with Mahatma Gandhi who said "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

The Best Gift

If you travel in the mountains of North Georgia between Gainesville and Cleveland, you might pass by a church with the unusual name of Dewberry Baptist Church #2.  If you drive on a little while longer, you will come upon another church called Dewberry Baptist Church.  When I first encountered these two churches years ago, I asked a friend of mine who was the unofficial Baptist historian for North Georgia about it.  His face lit up.  "Oh, that's a great story.  That church split over a chicken leg." 

Dewberry Baptist Church # 2

As you can imagine, I was hooked by that intro and had to hear the rest of the story.  It seems that in the mid-1800s a controversy arose among the congregation of Dewberry Baptist Church over predestination (imagine that, Baptists fighting about the sovreignty of God). 

About half of the congregation had strong deterministic feelings and the other half had very strong feelings about human freedom.  At the height of the controversy, the two main proponents of the two points of view were sitting next to each other at a covered dish dinner.  At some point in the meal the non-predestination ringleader turned to the predestination ringleader and said, "You mean to tell me that before the beginning of time it was predetermined that I was to eat this drumstick?" 

"Yes, brother, you were" replied the other.

The non-predestination leader then said, "HA!", threw the chicken leg across the room and walked out.  About half of the church walked out with him.  They started a new church, but did not want to give up the church name to "those people," so they named their new church Dewberry Baptist Church #2.

Today, many years later, the controversy is long forgotten and all that remains is the funky name.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is for us to allow ourselves to get sidetracked by things that aren't even a blip on the radar in the grand scheme of eternal consequences?  We all can tell stories we've either heard or experienced of churches splitting apart over the color of carpet, the chandeliers, the pastor's salary, building programs, the style of music, or non-essential areas of theology.

This is exactly what motivated the Apostle Paul to write one of the most, if not the most beautiful passages in the entire Bible: I Corinthians 13.  We know these four paragraphs of Paul's letter as "the love chapter," but many people don't realize the context in which it is placed.  The gist of I Corinthians 13 is that if we as followers of Jesus Christ do not have love as our overarching goal, aim, creed and passion, then we are worthless to the world and to the Kingdom.

The Corinthian Church had many problems, and one of them was that people were using the gifts of the Spirit, and tongues in particular as some sort of spiritual merit badge.  Those who exercised the gift of tongues felt they were more spiritual than others, which apparently caused other people to seek earnestly after that gift so they, too would be considered spiritual.  In chapter 12, Paul states clearly that God gives a variety of spiritual gifts to people so the church can function well.  Just as the eye can't say to the hand, "I don't need you" we cannot say that one gift is more important, or spiritual than another.

At the end of chapter 12, Paul says, "I will show you a more excellent way."  His next paragraph (what we know as Chapter 13) begins with, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal..."

Here is what Paul is saying to you and me in those four brief paragraphs: All of our efforts to advance the Kingdom or to help others are meaningless unless love rules our lives and our actions. Even if we give up our lives for the sake of the gospel, if love does not rule our lives and our actions that sacrifice is meaningless.

Just think about it.  Imagine what we could accomplish if love was our consuming passion instead of issues, ideas and preferences that are of little or no eternal consequence.  Where would we be if we truly, honestly, deeply loved our brothers and sisters in Christ?  What kind of impact would we have on our world if we loved the lost as much as Jesus does?

Here's where you start:  Desire the best gift.  Let God's love consume you and guide everything you do.  See the world - and the church - through the eyes of Jesus and with the heart of God the Father.  Love as you are loved. 

That is the most excellent way.