Ladies and gentlemen, I know you all read Dave Miller’s post about heading east. Just a few minutes ago, Dave posted this on Facebook:

Totalled my Durango. Uninjured. Stranded in Hermann, Missouri.

First of all, prayers of thanks that Dave is ok. Then:

Please pray for Dave:

1. He’s in Missouri, which always requires prayer.

2. He’s totaled his vehicle, needs prayer for guidance.

3. He’s not with his grandchildren, which is like depriving him of oxygen and needs prayer for patience.

Thanks for praying for Dave.

Now, back to Bart’s post.

Contra our beloved editor and illustrious 2nd Vice-President of the Southern Convention of Great Commission Baptists, this post will reference Calvinism. Please, feel free to ignore the substance of the post and keep bickering over whether the lost people in your neighborhood are saved by grace because they believed because the Spirit moved when you told them or whether they are saved by grace because the Spirit moved when you told them and they believed. My dog in that fight is this: are you telling them? Because I think we cannot escape that we are commanded to do so.

I am going to tell you a story. It’s a story about grumpy, divisive Calvinists and features a moderate college professor. It happened on a Cooperative Program supported campus in an old-line state that keeps more than 50% of its CP giving in-state. So, everything you’ve ever wanted to flame in Southern Baptist life is right here. Including me.

Back in the heady days of the late 1990s, I was a Biblical Studies major at Ouachita (WASH-it-aw) Baptist University. I was a part-time youth minister, teaching a small youth group that included 2 college-age kids older than I was. I was working for a pastor who had a Th.D. from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, which I would later attend for a time. (Failing to attend also for times and half-a-time resulted in no degree for me.)

One year, I was taking History of Preaching, because it was a class that applied to either major I was interested in: it worked for the Religion Department, it worked in the Speech Department. The speech professor had Divinity degrees from Southwestern and speech degrees from USC. This was the only class he taught that connected with the RELG prefix, as he was perhaps a shade more moderate than the Religion Department was in those days. During that year, I was invited by one of my fellow students to attend a “Founder’s Society” meeting with him. Not knowing anything about what that would mean, I went.  There was a group of about 10 students who met in the library (not in Berry Bible Building–apparently, no official blessing from the Religion Department) and talked theology and history. It was fun. It was more fun when we met in the Student Center: no Cokes in the library, after all.

After a few meetings, it was decided that we would take this TULIP acronym and each week, study a different doctrine. We drew letters, and I got “U.” It was my task in the next couple of weeks to construct a short presentation on how the Bible presented this doctrine.

Except I could not do it.

The Religion Department had beaten into my head, already, a need to see all of Scripture in context with itself. A need to see texts in context, a need to build theology based on the whole character of God as revealed in Scripture rather than working down the proof text crib sheet.

What I found was that God has unconditionally elected the saved to become like Christ. What I found is that the sovereignty of God is weakened by the free agency of man. Rather, a God that remains sovereign and in control even in a universe filled with free agents is that much greater in my conception.

Then, I was derided for my opinion, my apparent low-view of Scripture, and my insult to the power of God. It was enough for me to swear off the Calvinist view for a good many years. (now, to be fair, I’ve met Tom Ascol, and I use his name since he’s the big dog at Founder’s,  and he was nothing like this–I now attribute the behavior of immature college students to a mixture of total depravity and being immature college students.) The speech professor, though, challenged me to see what I could learn from that interaction. I couldn’t bring myself to see it then, but after the sermon I heard last Sunday, I realized what happened.

That fledgling Founder’s Society group spit in my eyes.

And it was a good thing. Why?

Because I was blind. Take a look at John 9, the first part of the story. In John 9:6, Jesus spits on the ground to make mud, then spreads it on the eyes of a man born blind. The man regains his sight–but think about this? How often do we like to have spit put on us? Not very, right? Right.

When my views are mis-characterized or degraded, when I am caricatured, I feel spat upon. I usually respond the same way: I feel hurt and insulted. My typical response is to get even: tell these people to stop spitting on me, stop putting me down.

Yet the truth is this: God can use that spit to help me see better. I learned in my first interactions over theological debate how to better formulate an argument. I learned how to dialogue with those I disagree with.

In short, what was disgusting became something that made me better. Now, having been challenged and sharpened over the years, I see doctrine more clearly, and even see the doctrines of grace more clearly–clearly enough that I’d fail the “Calvinist Screening Test” that some advocate using in the SBC.

But rather that take every shot at Calvinist views as an insult, I take them as more mud to help me see better. Rather than seeing every Calvinist that insists I still don’t fully understand the Gospel because I’m not “all-in” on the Abstract of Principles, it is a challenge to clean more out and see more clearly.

So go ahead, spit in my eyes. If I am blind that may help me see. Even if all I see more clearly is you.

And no, I don’t mean literally. I haven’t been literally spat upon since high school when the jocks used to do that to us nerds walking down the hall.

If you follow the chatter around here, you might have noticed that a few of us were slated to go on a trip to Israel next month. As of now, that trip has shifted from “going in 4 weeks” to “indefinitely postponed.” This post is to do a couple of things.

First, whine about not going. WAH! I wanted to go. Now it won’t happen when I thought it would. I am disappointed and will get over it. Probably when I eat a big bacon cheeseburger when I would have been in Israel, where such dining is just not kosher.

Second, though, and more importantly, I think the situation serves as a decent neutral illustration for what we mean in terms of “assuming the best” of individuals and their statements. We can parse this one and nobody be offended that we are picking on how a Calvinist responded to a Hobbesist or a Garfieldian to an Odian. (Comic strips, people.)

Here is the first item to take apart: the trip is “postponed indefinitely, with hopes to get it together by the end of the year.” How do we take this line? I can take it a couple of ways. First, I could be pessimistic. Perhaps the author is really meaning that the trip is canceled, but wants to use “postponed” to make it sound better. This means he is either nice or nefarious, but either way he’s dishonest. The other option is to accept the line at face value: there are plans to get this back together and go later. The individual handling the trip is either going to be treated like he is covering up or treated like he is honest. Which will I choose?

Because it’s my choice how I respond to him the next time we interact. If I choose to assume the worst, I will greet him with suspicion. I will disdain anything else that proceeds from him, and will likely miss out on good fellowship opportunities. Or, I can assume the best, greet him with trust, and wait for better times.

Which I choose has no effect on the organizer himself: it only impacts my relationship. Which should I do?

On to the next item: the letter detailed specific reasons why the trip is postponed. They are specific, and include a detailing of efforts to navigate the roadblocks to avoid the postponement. But are they true?

After all, the only external link available is buried behind a pay-wall and I am not going to pay to get confirmation. Can I actually trust the individual to tell me the truth?

Perhaps he’s covering up: he found out that we are bloggers and does not want us to go, because he hates bloggers. Maybe it’s an anti-Calvinist move, and he wants to cut the Calvinists out of the trip. It could be pro-Calvinist, and he wants to cut out those of us who are not ardent 5-pointers. Perhaps he’s saving the trip to take with graduates from the right seminary or with the right connections. I could posit possible conspiracy theories all night, and not a one of them could be falsifiable: you would never prove me wrong. Even the denial of the existence of a conspiracy can be taken as the evidence of one.

Or, I can trust that I am being told the truth, that nothing sneaky is happening, and go forward. Like with the response to “postponed,” this will color all of my interactions with the people involved. Are they going without me? Maybe Dave’s disappointment is fake, he’s really going, but they’ve cut me out.

Are they out to get me?

Why?

What benefits are seen by the Kingdom of God, the work of Baptist Christians, or the discipleship of Doug if I spend my time assuming that no one is being honest?

We have a responsibility to the Truth, and we should not ever tolerate liars or those who are intentionally deceptive in Christian leadership roles. That we have done so in the past and sometimes continue to do so deserves its own post, but that is not truly at stake here.

Instead, this is: How do you receive communication from others? Do you assume the worst? Or can you assume the best?

An offer of help? Can it be without strings? Take the offer if you need it, and go forward.

A change of plans? Life happens that way.

We would be well served to stop assuming the worst of those who have never done us harm. Look for the warning signs, true, but a little trust will go a long way to heal the wounds in our churches, our fellowship of Baptists, and the Universal Church as a whole.

How you receive what others say will affect you far longer than what they actually say. Consider it and measure it.

During the Eighteenth Century, in the opening years of the French Revolution, an action was taken that has since faded in history compared to the rest of the chaos that followed after it. Looking to eliminate the abuses in the system of religion at the time, the new governing forces confiscated the lands of the state church of France. Why? To give them to the people and to stop the government-empowerment of a religion that many of the new leaders felt was out-dated, backwards, and destructive for society.

If you do not know how the French Revolution turned out, you might want to take anti-nausea pill and read the whole history. While Les Miserables will focus your heart on the plight of the poor of Paris, take a look at the post-Napoleonic Wars life in Europe and the famine that struck everywhere due to his armies. Louis XVI needed to go, but there was a lot that went on there that should turn even the most anti-royalist’s stomach.

Why bring that up here? Am I about to claim that our President is Louis XVI? No. He’s not. Neither is he Napoleon Bonaparte. He’s the President of the United States, and admittedly I hope someone with different policies replaces him on January 20, 2017 so that he can go write books and deliver lectures and tell us how much better we would be if we still listened to him.

Instead, though, I want to point you to a few things that I think are informative for us, in general, as church folks in the 21st Century.

1. There is no denying that the American Church has a great deal of material wealth. That only expands the wider you want to define church. Southern Baptists alone own lots of land and take in a great deal of money. Expand church to include anyone that uses the name, and you’ve got a lot more. Shift to “House of Worship” and there is a large amount of wealth that sits around, tax-free in this country.

2. There is also no denying that our national economy is going to require a major adjustment in years to come. We are going to need more income in the Federal Checkbook and less spending. One is easier than the other.

3. The French Revolution, if you take a look back across the centuries, is not the only time that governments in distress have seen religious wealth as a boon for their needs. Look at the Vikings plundering monasteries of England in the seventh through eleventh centuries. There is plenty of evidence that, when in need, governments will find as much as they can, wherever they can. Look even at 2 Kings 18, where Hezekiah takes gold from the Temple of God to pay off the Assyrians.

When you look at these, while it is slightly paranoid to say so, I think we need to expect the following in the coming decades in America:

1. The end of tax-exempt status for most non-profit organizations. Including churches. Why? Because fiscal conservatives will see this as a tax loophole to shut and big government liberals think that anything non-profits do, the government can do better. Plus, it looks like a subsidy of religion anyway. The atheists do not get a tax break, why should the theists? (It goes without saying that the housing allowance is toast. The best hope is a non-retroactive ruling that does not require us to pay back taxes on years prior to the lawsuit’s filing.)

2. That end means a couple of things. First of all, people will no longer get a tax break for donating to churches. That has already been suggested in some tax legislation: no more charitable deductions.

3. That also means this: income to a church would be taxed like income for a business. Property taxed like property for a business. And so on….the business aspect of church life will become, well, business.

Now, what are the implications?

Take a close look at your church budget and ask yourself:

1. How many people give what they give for a tax break? Will they still give if they cannot deduct it? Especially if some non-profits retain a tax-advantaged status? Will they give to “kingdom work” but not to the local church? What financial change will that bring?

2. Consider what will be left after that. How much income will you see? How much will go to the government in business income taxes? I am neither a tax attorney nor do I do taxidermy, but I hear those rates get steep. Figure that your congregation is righteous and you only lose 1o% in giving. Now you pay out what, 30% in income tax? Unless you’re in California, that is. (This does not even consider some of the regulatory issues that we get away with because churches fly low–but how many florescent light bulbs have you just trashed instead of disposing of properly? Those rules apply to all small businesses.)

3. Now, take a gander at your property worth. That nice parsonage you live in (eek!). That lovely facility you own. That giant edifice you are planning on construction with all of its architectural marvels. What is the property tax bill going to run you on that?

Take a look at how much you think is left at this point, and add 50% to it, because you’ve underestimated.

Ask yourself this question: if this happens, can this church keep doing everything that we have been doing? (Or, can this Board/Agency/Entity/Convention/etc…)

If the answer is yes, have a great day. Blessings upon you.

If the answer is no, then you have some choices to make:

1. Find new income. Maybe you have oil under your parking lot. More than just what has leaked out over the years. Which is an environmental hazard your church is now responsible for cleaning.

2. Do less stuff. We’ll come back to this.

3. Refuse to pay the taxes. Let’s hit this one first: Romans 13:7 cuts this one off. You might think it’s a horrible tax burden, but the Romans had this tax structure that involved execution for non-payment in some instances. You can protest through legal means, but in the end, that bill is coming due.

Back to #2: Do less stuff.

This is where most of us are going to be. Here is the question: Which stuff will you drop?

Will you drop your outreach efforts? Maybe stop having Bibles on hand to give out to anyone who does not have one?

Will you drop your training efforts? Maybe no more providing growth training for believers?

Will you buy single editions of digital Lifeway products and make a lot of copies? You know, violate copyright law and steal for the Kingdom?

Will you stop going places to share the Gospel?

Will you meet in the dark? The heat? The cold? Eliminate that expensive screen and sing from reusable, durable hardcover books?

Will you still expect to be a full-time, fully compensated pastor when this hits?

I think if we take a look at the New Testament, we might find that there are many things we have added to have church that, if times truly got tough, we might not need. It is one thing to use those as added tools. Another matter entirely to make our church-life seem dependent on anything that has not been around the life of the church. Surely we are not the first generation that cannot have church if we do not have coffee? If we do not have a building or a projector or a stack of hymnals?

In all seriousness, there are challenging times ahead for the Church in America. The world is soaking the ground around us, and the walls of culture that have long protected us are going to tumble. Are we building in such a way that we can survive that? Or will we be washed away?

While the Pope and Napoleon eventually reached an agreement regarding church lands, the damage was done. The church in France never regained its influence in the culture, and is barely noticeable today. We know of a famous church building in France, but that is almost it. I would suggest it was because the church had so married their cultural influence that they could not survive the divorce that came upon them.

What of the American Church? Where are we?

This past Sunday Night, I preached from Genesis 3:1-7 and addressed the idea of our having an active enemy. (For those of you with insomnia, audio is here.) However, in prepping for that sermon, I happened to read the rest of the chapter. You know, in the interest of context.

Getting to the end of the chapter, something became clearer to me than it has been before. Let me walk you to that point:

Often, especially here on this blog, we lament the current state of affairs. We have fussed and fumed across the miles about:

1. The inability of Southern Baptists to get along with each other. You want to narrow down our comment stream into a short burst? That’s it. We do not get along, and we do not get along about why we do not get along. We argue theology. We argue sports. We argue mixed-martial-arts. (Admittedly, the first time I read that post I misread it as mixed-marital-arts and then just could not take any of it seriously.) And we argue. Who was doing this and why? Why not this, why that, and so on, and so forth.

We argue, and then along comes someone who says “Can we not make this easier?”

2. We have fumed about the state of affairs in this nation. We would all like a welcoming country whereby people may legally come in however they please, buy guns but have no violence, get healthcare that is affordable and effective and accessible but not forced by anyone, pay appropriate but not too high taxes, get a quality education that offends no one and is cheap, vote intelligently but only once per election, and all speak English while retaining their cultural heritage. We want racial harmony without apologies, gender equality without strife and with differing views on certain issues, and religious tolerance without having to allow the other guy to say anything.

And on top of that,”We want this done the easy way!”

3. We have fussed about our churches. We want instant disciples (just add water!) We want automatic long-term marriages. We want perfect kids with their own personalities and no resentments. We want deacons that know how to serve, pastors that know how to serve, and teachers that know how to teach. We want Vacation Bible School to feel like a vacation and mission trips that end with a glorious “Mission Accomplished!” sentiment.

After all,”That should be easy!”

Except expecting easy is the exact opposite of what we find in the Word of God. Take your Bible and look at Genesis 3:17-19. Part of the impact of sin is that life stopped being easy. We live in a cursed land. Things are not so easy as they should be.

Yet we seem to want them that way. We want a Sunday School program that disciples and evangelizes and takes 5 minutes to prepare. We want sermons that flow from our mouths without passing through our hearts.

We want to put up a sign that says “Bible gathering at the coffee shop” and see those who are far from God simply flock in. We want the old ladies to love us and the young men to respect us. We want to tell the kids who shout racial slurs in the middle of our outreach times to hear the Gospel and our love for them and see them change instantly from that.

We want it easy.

Yet whatever else we got from Adam, we definitely received this: the Land of the Curse. The earth beneath our feet is cursed. Not in that funky sci-fi movie manner, but in a very real way. Nothing comes easy that should come easy.

Start with the basics:

1. Food does not come easily from the ground. Believe me. I pastor farmers and many of them will tell you that 30 years of agribusiness and science and GMO and whatever else, and plants do not grow as well as they did 30 years ago. True, some of them will produce better if they grow, but getting them to grow? Harder than ever. That’s in just 30 years.

And then you throw modern economics and modern architecture on top of it, and food is harder to come by. Take the news from Louisiana last week: a grocery store chain was cited by the government for selling milk too cheaply at $2.99 a gallon. That’s right. I remember my parents’ sighs when they had to start paying $1.99 a gallon. Even those of you who do not directly raise a crop put more sweat out for less food than ever before.

Move up from there:

2. Look at human relationships. Adam and Eve get along. There’s nothing to fight over and no hidden motives to seek. Nothing is hidden between them. Now, consider us. Some of you are reading this, looking for the ulterior hook. You either want to agree and help defend or you are in the mood to pounce. It is harder and harder to build those relationships than it ever has been–and social media hurts at least as much as it helps. I’ll be traveling, Lord willing, with a few other SBCVoices people in a month. I am assuming we’ll get along, but we may not. We do not actually know each other. And the problems consist all the way to husband and wife, parents and children. We see the destruction, and it starts in Eden.

Now, take a stretch with me:

3. Gander over at Matthew 13. Jesus speaks of scattering the seed of the word onto the ground of the world. Then He describes the results. Some fell on good ground and grew. Some fell on bad ground and did not grow. Why is there bad ground? Because of the curse.

Guess what? The Cursed Land extends to the spiritual as well. It is harder to see those seeds grow the farther we get from those days. And it is more and more crucial that we try, because the harvest is coming—and that is not good for those who have not spouted.

So, then, what do we do?

We actually solve this in reverse order:

3. We strive to break the ground up and push hard to get more seed out there. We have one advantage over the farmer: we will not run out of seed as long as we draw breath. Spread the Word. Plant Bibles here, there, and everywhere. Get the seed out there. And meanwhile, many of us need to beat our Baptist swords into plowshares and put more effort into breaking up ground and less effort into slashing each other. You get one hardened piece of metal. What are you using it for?

2. As we draw nearer to the Lord Jesus Christ and see His word planted in our hearts, we also see it planted in other hearts. We will find that, because we trust God, we learn to trust each other. Not because we do not fail but because when we do, both the failure and the one who has been failed fall on God for support. As we see the Word grow and bear fruit, we do less to build barriers between us and others, and we interact more freely together.

1. Now, we cannot make the corn grow in a drought just by reading the Word. Yet we can see this: the more the Word takes root in our hearts, the more we put our effort into plowing the ground instead of fighting, the better we are able to connect with our fellow Believers and the rest of humanity. And as that Word grows, we find our priorities coming more in line with God’s priorities and our work changes. Our spending changes. Our efforts change. And perhaps, though milk is still too high (honestly, are the cows getting paid more? I bet they get the same weight in food they have for years!) the workload eases. Because we have community to share the strain. Because we have more concern that our neighbors eat than that we have 200 channels to choose from.

Where does it start? When we stop fighting about trifles and start plowing the ground, making the opportunity for the seed to grow in our hearts and in the hearts of others.

That will not be easy. What do we expect? We live in the land of the curse. Nothing is easy but going with the curse.

And that cannot be our choice.

Well, it’s late Fall here on the Grand Prairie. The rice, corn, and soybeans are cut, the combines are clean, and the ducks are coming in. And, of course it’s deer season, so it’s time for another deer hunting story. (Last year’s is here.)

Once again, our story opens on the edge of a field. It was corn this year, with rice just to the east, soybeans a little north, and a thin spread of woods to the south. The sun is setting gently, and my cellphone is on “vibrate” with an alarm set for 5:26pm. Why that time? Because the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission prefers that one not hunt deer at night, night being “30 minutes after sunset.” They said sunset that day was4:56pm, so I had my alarm set–when it starts shaking, DON’T SHOOT!!

I’m sitting in my little ground blind, a six-foot high box sitting by the old railroad tracks, watching the sunset and out come a few little scrawny deer. Now, I am into my second year of filling the freezer at gunpoint, and I know a deer that’s worth the effort from ones that are not. These? You could have tripled their antler spread and I still wouldn’t have shot them. I am looking for meat, not trophy bucks. Out from behind them, though, comes a nice, fat deer. He’s on the hefty side and, on top of that, he’s standing broadside about 75 yards away.

Ahem, those of you who love forest animals, look away.

He quickly stopped standing, but as he went down, I noticed movement out of my left eye. On the east side of the deer stand, about 125 yards out, was another nice, fat deer. One without the sense to run away when another deer hits the ground after a loud “BOOM!” Rifle comes in from the south-side shooting port, goes out the east-side shooting port, bolt cycled, new round ready, and “BOOM!”

The second deer runs off. Now, I had lined up the same shot on the second deer as on the first: just behind the front shoulder, right into the kill area. My first thought? I looked back at the first deer: I half expected him to be laughing at me, having faked me out that I missed both shots.

Instead, though, he was down. We found the second deer about a half-mile away in the run-off stream for a reservoir. As we prepared the meat, I put the rib portions of the two deer right on top of each other. Guess what? The entry wounds lined up. The exit wounds lined up. I had made as close to the same shot on two different live targets I think any normal person could make. (Please note: Airborne Rangers and Navy SEALS are not defined as normal. Nor are any Marines.)

One shot had the intended effect: a nice game animal within easy carry distance of the truck. The second shot partially had the intended effect: the deer did die. She did get back to the truck and into the freezer. It just took a lot more work, even having been hit the exact same spot.

Now, where is this going? (Some of you say “Nowhere is this going!)

Just a story to make this point for us all:

Sometimes, you can do the exact same thing and get different results.

The house on that side of the church? Knock on the door, get it slammed in your face. The other side? Find a family in need of everything. Share what you can, starting with the Gospel, and see the amazing things that happen as lives are transformed. Same effort. Different results.

The church grouch on the piano side? Pray with her in the hospital one day, and watch her become the lighthouse of prayer and foundation of support in controversy for all your days of ministry. The organ side? He will come around after another four issues and three contentious deacon’s meetings. Same effort. Different results.

One church chooses to send money to a shared account for missions with tens of thousands of other churches, and then never thinks of spreading the Gospel again. After all, they wrote the check. Another church uses the same pre-printed envelopes and sends the same check and then keeps the idea of being on a goal to spread the Gospel alive in their minds. They pray, they go, they learn, and the church is transformed from social event to actual church.

The examples could go on: we can all find those times where, almost astoundingly, the same efforts produced different results. Failure follows success and success follows failure, even without major shifts in methods at times.

What do we do?

1. Re-evaluate your efforts and make sure you are doing it right: Are you aiming properly, using the proper ammunition, is your scope zeroed right? Are you proclaiming the Gospel clearly and trying to get past the cultural barriers around you?

2. Follow your shot: check for the evidence of effect. Perhaps there is one drop of blood showing that you made contact with the target. Maybe that one person cooled, just one degree—so seize the baby step and watch for further signs.

3. Have a secondary plan: carry a flashlight and a handgun. Not because hunting with a pistol is fun, but because bobcats come out at night, and you’re following the trail of their possible lunch. There may be a need to trade out programs or structures to accomplish the goal–swap Sunday School for a home group. Trade an NASB for a KJV in certain settings (both directions!)

4. Don’t miss the easy target: shoot the closest deer first. Do not fail to teach the Gospel to people already in the building just to get those not there.

5. Get local help: following a blood trail is hard, but finding your way back alone? With the farmer who owns the land, though, it was easy. Do not fall into the error that the “professional” has all the answers. Some folks in your community have been there long enough to be a lot of help.

Of course, one could instead spend a lot time arguing about the merits of a .308 Winchester over a .270 or if deer are born tasty or become tasty at a certain, undefined point later. We could argue over the merits of professional processing against getting our own hands dirty with the project. But those are other subjects for other days.

Instead, I leave you with this: If you know, based on Scripture, that what you are doing is rightly in line with the will of God, then keep at it. Even though the same efforts bring you different results.

I got up this morning, went to Wal-Mart to buy groceries, came back to the farm to shoot a barrel (it received a fair trial), and then came on into the church office. I picked up my watch off the bookshelf, put it on and went on with my day.

Now, it’s Wednesday, so time matters because of the traditional church schedule. I found myself a little confused though, throughout the day as something was not right with keeping up with what time it was. I would check my phone, see the time, think accordingly, and go on. Later, I would look at my watch, be puzzled, and then go forward because of what time I thought it was.

About five minutes ago I figured out the source of my confusion. My watch? I have not worn it in a couple of weeks. So it was still on Daylight Saving Time. Cell phone? It updates automatically, so it’s been right all along. All day, I have been trying to structure my day and my work around the time, being on time, and getting stuff done on time.

I just did not really know what time it was. (Cue this)

Having cleared that up, I find myself regretful of wasting a day confused between two guides for my day. Between, really, two masters of my schedule. One right. The other one? Perfectly accurate to its own standard. It was just the wrong standard.

Now, I’m sure some of you are already in a couple of places: 1. Politics: it’s time to stop living an hour off-sync with reality for Christian folks and figure out how to win; 2. Church: Quit living an hour behind the people around us.

So, you can go ahead and chase those rabbits. There’s plenty of fodder there.

If you’re still with me, hit Luke 16:13.

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon (or money). Luke 16:13

We typically see this as a verse commanding us to avoid the obviously evil. One cannot serve God and “ill-gotten” wealth. God and the Yankees (just the team, not the people group indigenous to the areas north of the Blessed lands of the Ark-La-Tex). God and self-serving power. God and lusts. God and racism.

You get the point.

But we need to dig a little harder. Oftentimes, I think we see this verse as a simplistic reinforcement of our own ease in life. We are ready to see it in light of what we are unlikely to actually face. For example, when we discuss Scripture as a family and my children, when reading the Old Testament, say things like “I need to not kill people to take their vineyard.” (After reading Ahab/Naboth.) We then ask them to dig a little harder, as that’s an unlikely application.

So for many of us: while I may have to deal with certain temptations, it remains unlikely that I will try to serve God and my millions of dollars. Or that I will be tempted to serve God and power, striving to rule the world. The list goes on. We preach against sins that are never tempting.

Yet coming back to the watch, I think our bigger problems are not that we are faced with the temptation of living to serve the wrong master as if our watches were set 12 hours off–or even on the wrong calendar day. Our bigger temptations are to serve the other master that’s a mere hour off. The ones that seem almost right but are just a tad bit wrong.

Truly, most of us will not try to rule the world. But we will try, out of the goodness of our hearts, to rule a corner more than we should: skip this committee, just listen to the pastor. Forget that democratic ideal, just listen to the local pastor’s group. Sure, it’s a financial shortcut, but the money will be well-used. After all, skipping that one credit card payment to give to Lottie Moon is choosing better, right? Can’t serve both God and Capital One, can we? Never mind the broken commitment inherent in willfully skipping a debt payment…

Closer in, we also must be careful about serving other ideals that are a mere hour off from the best. The sustaining and expansion of the Southern Baptist Convention as opposed to the work of the Kingdom of God–or even the growth of Almyra First Baptist instead of the making of disciples in Almyra, Arkansas. We must find the true time, and get back on it.

Our days and efforts will be more in concert when we do this. Our lives will find a better role when we get back on the right time.

Where do we find it?

When we get our personal timepieces in unison with each other and in unison with the ultimate standard. I realized the time was wrong when my watch, my phone, and the sun were out of sync. One of these is objective (or at least unchanging!) while the other two can be corrected.

Many of us have let one or two of our clocks slip. We see denominational issue or national issues or economic issues or even issues in other churches that we want to fix. Yet much of the time our effort into those keeps us from what God has for us to do right where we are. The command to make disciples supersedes the desire to fix what’s broken in the church down the street–even knowing that it’s broken!

The command to make disciples supersedes the desire to fix a broken government (I don’t care who you were for–if you think DC works, or has worked for the past decade, I think you’re wrong). The command to show the fruit of the Spirit, to love God more than anything else–all exceed the desire to see the Southern Baptist Convention be right all the time.

Our days remain confused because we look at the right time some of the time, but then get distracted looking at the wrong time.

Get your timepieces straight. Then we can move forward and demonstrate what it is to live the Kingdom of God in a world without hope.

The election is here. Unless, of course, Dave doesn’t post this for a couple of weeks. After trying to sort through all the nonsensical political rants this year trying to claim spiritual superiority for a specific candidate or view:

JESUS IS NOT…

Supportive of forced redistribution of wealth. Have you seen the picture of Jesus at the feeding of the 5000 being used as support for a welfare state? The caption goes something about how Jesus never said “Don’t feed them, that will create a culture of dependency.” Right. He did not.

Neither, though, did He send the Apostles into the crowd to force people to hand over their lunches. In fact, the same Jesus that fed the 5,000 also commanded that “If a man will not work, neither let him eat.” Remember that part? 2 Thessalonians 3?

JESUS IS NOT…

Supportive of selfish capitalist expansion. Remember that whole parable about the rich man who built bigger barns because his ROI was kicking? What was the response?

Something on the order of “You fool!” wasn’t it? Yet what the man had was good business sense, was it not? Consider what he could have done with the added wealth: job creation for barn builders; passed wealth on to the next generation. Jesus called him a fool.

JESUS IS NOT…

A warlord who picked fights. Take a look at all the opportunities in the New Testament where physical force would have been helpful. There’s the time the people of Nazareth plan to stone Jesus. There’s the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. There are all the times when Peter or Paul are arrested, when the church is persecuted. Goodness, there’s the whole situation of the rioting in Rome that we think was among the Jews and Christians over Christ, rioting that was threat enough that the Jews were expelled from Rome by Claudius.

There were opportunities to turn Christianity into a movement that would overthrow the Empire–that is part of the context of Romans 13. It’s not merely about chariot speed limits on the Appian Way, but about not wasting lives trying to take out bad Caesars. (That’s what I see. You may, like most people, disagree.)

Yet Jesus met these issues peacefully. His followers met them peacefully. One of the sayings of Jesus, lost or otherwise, is not that “Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘nice doggy’ while reaching for a rock.” Jesus is not quick to violence.

JESUS IS NOT…

Some wimpy pushover who always took a beating. Then there is the counterpoint: did Jesus always just let people push Him around? No. Neither did He expect this of His followers. Or have you never noticed Luke 22:36 where Jesus tells His disciples to sell their coats to buy swords? Jesus told His followers to take a little chill if they needed to, so that they could be armed. Go look it up. I’ll wait.

Then there is the sheer reality that He cleared the Temple and did not do so with a court order or polite words. Read the arrest account in John, whereat His words the posse falls to the ground. Jesus disarms the opponent of the church by blinding him–both Elymas and Saul. The sea rages at the command of God to prove a point to a few Romans about this Paul fellow. Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead for dishonesty.

Need we go on? None of this considers the Old Testament, where God also worked violently at times. You cannot pigeon-hole Jesus into the pacifist box. He doesn’t fit.

JESUS IS NOT…

In favor of higher taxes…or lower taxes. Check out both the “Render unto Caesar” part and the whole “Pay taxes? I have fish that pay taxes for me” situation. (Matthew 17:24-27) Again, the dichotomy is of our making, not of reality or proper understanding of Jesus. Consider the taxation systems of His day compared to ours, and you realize something: the economic base is so radically different that they are not comparable. So you cannot say if Jesus would have been in favor of a graduated income tax or not. Or if He would have preferred a consumption tax, national sales tax or carbon credits.

JESUS IS NOT…

A fan of strip-mining, nuclear waste, recycling, or environmentalism. First of all, the long-term plan for the planet is to be cleansed by fire (2 Peter 3,) so it’s hard to argue that eternity hinges on saving the porpoises. However, what is the most important task we want to leave our offspring? Is it survival? Or should we leave them with the freedom of time, effort, and life to put their all into reaching their generations for Christ?

Think about it: part of the “fullness of time” that Jesus came into involved a world that included a stability of food, government, and economy that allowed people the time to focus on matters of faith. There were not food riots in Ephesus–there were idol riots. Why would we consider leaving the next generation with a mess to deal with that will divide their energies from witnessing to the truth?

Simultaneously, only one species on this planet are those that needed redemption from their own sins: humanity. Only one species is how Immanuel actually happened: humanity. Any effort to exalt the slugs, snails, and porcupines even to the level of importance as humanity puts a diversion of what truly matters.

JESUS IS…

More than the Perfect Candidate: after all, He already holds the Kingdom, and it is His until death. Which is a good place for it, considering that He lives and never dies.

More than the Ideal Leader: certainly He is worth following, but not merely for where He is going. He is worth following because all other roads lead to death. He is worth following for the work He will have us do along the way!

More than the Great Debater: I, for one, would not even think I could win an argument with Him. But it is not just about winning. He is about the Truth. And He is the Truth–and all compassion, rolled together.

Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, is not another contender pouring out promises that are dubious and quoting statistics that are shaded and spun. He is rather the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

However you have voted, will vote, or are voting, ask yourself this:

Does my vote serve my King? Regardless of the outcome, will I willingly serve the King?

At various times, when they are not busy pushing one side of a political agenda or another, one of our local TV stations will feature a segment on the news about “Does It Work?” They’ll pick an item that is currently popular (read that as “Being featured in infomercials on the competing network”) or being talked about on social media and buy one. Then they’ll try it out, on camera, and tell you if it works or not. This is not quite the same as the “Will it Blend?” guy, though he’s more fun.

For us as Southern Baptists, we are going through a portion of our “Does it work?” cycle. Most local Baptist associations have had their annual meetings, and we are headed into state convention annual meetings. Our idea in all of these meetings is that we will gather and together strive to discern God’s will for each of these independent groups of Baptist works.

The theory, which I know most of you are aware of, is this: local churches elect, appoint, or allow individuals to attend these meetings on behalf of the church. These people are vested with authority to vote and are called “messengers” from the churches. In principle, a messenger is entrusted with voting how they feel led by the Spirit and guided by the Word of God at the meeting rather than being told how to vote by their local church. In practice, that is usually the case, unless you’re a staff minister and the pastor wants you to vote his way on everything. Then, you have to use your pregnant wife as an excuse to be late so you can sit on the other side of the convention center…that’s another story for another day.

Which brings us back to this question about our method: Does it work?

Although the real question is this one: Do we think that it works?

It is fascinating to see how quickly we will take up the critiques of what another group has voted, without dissension, to do. Especially when none of the issues are plainly Biblical but are instead about the application of Biblical principle: Scripture does not exalt ministry to widows over ministry to orphans, nor do we see a clear mandate that requires the CP method over individual support of missionaries. We make those choices based on our understanding of wisdom and Scripture.

If we truly believe that the manner in which we do business works, then we have to accept that even if the business conducted is not to our liking. Otherwise, it is just lip-service. If you think the North Carolina Baptists can make a good decision but do not think Oklahoma Baptists can, then your actions show you think the process is faulty. After all, if all those Baptists in one place cannot make a God-honoring decision, then they should not be together, should they?

Which leaves us with a dilemma: if we do not think our process works, what do we do about it? If you think that it’s being subverted, what are you going to do with that?

Perhaps, though, we should reconsider our view of each other and our view of how this works. Keep in mind that we organized our process based on our principles. Those principles were these:

1. The priesthood of the believer. We seem to misplace this one, but one hallmark of Baptist belief is that we believe every believer in Christ has the Holy Spirit, should have and know the Word, and is therefore capable of knowing God’s will regarding a decision. That is why we have business meetings, have annual meetings, and so forth: someone may be more studied about an issue, but no one is more “anointed” than another on it.

2. The sinful nature of every human. We need to remember this one: any person, at any time, may be acting selfishly based on their sinful nature rather than being guided by the Word and led by the Spirit. As such, we do not let one person get into and keep control. We cannot guarantee that important decisions made in isolation will not slide the wrong way, even with godly leadership. So, we insulate the process by requiring agreement of a multitude on critical issues. (Note: critical. Honestly, if your maintenance people cannot choose the best bid within the budget without a floor vote, you’ve got issues. But the budget? That needs the floor vote.)

3. The autonomous responsibility of Christian groups. Arkansas Baptists will answer to the Lord God for what they do. Since we will answer for those decisions and Florida Baptists will not, then Arkansas Baptists need to make those decisions. That includes allowing each group the freedom to do dumb things–which is more common than it used to be. At least according to blogs, that is.

The end-result of these principles?

The process above was the best solution we have come to as Baptists.

Does it work? Honestly, not always–crowds can be swung to make strange decisions. We mixed a really good associational decision with a questionable amendment this year. Now we have to live with it and then re-address the issue next year. Other decisions raise questions and criticism, and rightfully so–but then there are ways to address that criticism and to try and fix the issue. Ultimately, you have to decide if you’re going to live with it or move on, though. I didn’t care for the GCR decision, for example, but I am still a Southern Baptist. I’ll live with it–voice my frustration and move on.

This is the system we have. If there is a better one, please suggest it and see if we can move to one that is infallible. Yet I wonder if some of our decline as a whole is this: many of us do not really think it works anymore. We go through the motions but our actions show something very clearly: those of us involved in it think it doesn’t work. And people see that. People in our churches, people looking at our churches. They see the hypocrisy, that we say one thing but really believe another.

We do far more damage to ourselves than any culture-shifts or paradigm movements or time changes ever have. It is time we find a way to have this conversation and answer: Does it work?

If it does, then let us get back to work and quit running down each other.

And if it does not work, then we need to find something that does instead of holding on out of habit.

The Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Board of Trustees meets Monday, October 15. From all of the information available ahead of time, they will be discussing electing Jason Allen as President of the Seminary. We have been discussing his election potential around SBC blogs since his name came to light as the candidate from their search committee. (Or was that a team? I can never keep up.)

Admittedly, I’m writing this before the meeting and so have no idea how it will actually turn out. I would say that the smart money is on the Trustees voting to proceed with Dr. Allen in the position. He is academically qualified enough for the job and none of them will want to be on the immediate new search committee if he is rejected, given the environment that has grown up around the current situation.

The question, then, is how are you going to respond?

First of all, it may be a normal response to look at this and think there is more going on here than just a straightforward election. In my crazier thoughts, I might be inclined to think his nomination was discussed in the Secret Commission Resurgence Task Force Meetings. However, even if everyone is plotting against you, paranoia is not a useful stand alone emotion. You have to take an action.

Now, ideally I’d like to see the process of electingany entity president in the SBC be more open. There should be announcement to the Trustees of the entity first, before it goes to the press. Then, there should be an open time of 3-6 months for the trustees to pray and do their own research on the candidate. This would include the opportunity for all of us to contact an appropriate trustee (did you know that, often, your state has a specific trustee or two? If not, then someone on the search committee should take your contact) and ask them to ask questions. They should then, in a coordinated fashion, get those questions which are appropriate to the candidate.

At the next trustee meeting, or a called one if the scheduling warrants it, the trustees should then finalize their decision after re-examining their research and the candidate’s answers to any new questions. Yes, it’s slower and more cumbersome. When our human judgment is as good as Jesus’ judgment, we should move to spending one night in fasting in prayer and then picking disciples. Until then, it’s either cast lots (Acts 1) or be not over hasty.

The above is my “ideal process” for this work. It’s not going to happen this time. It’s probably not going to happen next time. Instead, we have the process that we have built as Southern Baptists, and so let’s realize we’re going to see the results of that.

The real question at hand for most of us is this: How will we respond? How will we lead our churches to respond?

I see only a few options:

1. If you are against Dr. Allen’s election and he wins, you could stop your church sending any money to Midwestern Seminary. That is certainly a choice you can make. I would raise to you this question, though: looking through the annals of the Conservative Resurgence, I do not see any mass movement of churches to defund any SBC CP entity for being too liberal. I may just not find it, but if you look at the overall pattern, there appear to have been no widespread “cut off” moves over people denying that Scripture was accurate. Is perceived Calvinism so great a threat that it must be fought in a way we did not fight liberalism? Or are you going to take that action and send an apology note to Ralph Elliott?

2. If you are against Dr. Allen’s election and he wins, you could bail on the CP altogether and either remain affiliated with the SBC only through NAMB/IMB or be gone all the way. Again, though, is that really the answer? Is Jason Allen any more of a danger than any other SBTS-connected entity president? Is this really your line in the sand? Stop and think about this for a moment: you are stating that this one person, as President of the smallest seminary of the Big Six Seminary Conference, is going to destroy the ability of the Southern Baptist Convention to raise up the next generation of ministers/missionaries/teachers.

3. If you are for Dr. Allen’s election and the board turns him down, you could throw a hissy fit. You could decide this is evidence of Calvinist witch-hunting (there’s a contradiction, I know Calvinists and I know witches. They don’t mix.) and bemoan that you are unwelcome in the SBC. Except you’re not unwelcome. First of all, if your church welcomes you then you are not unwelcome by Southern Baptists. Second, that vote will be taken in private and it could be that Dr. Allen is rejected because he hates the Chiefs or the Royals (or anything else!). You won’t know. Is it really helpful for the spread of the Gospel to be angry? I doubt that Dr. Mohler will kick him to the curb if the trustees vote him down.

4. If you are for his election and he does not get the job, you could cut your MBTS funding or your CP giving, as above. The same questions apply: is this really worth it?

5. Of course, if you don’t get your way (either way) you could take this as a sign of the continuing collapse of the SBC. What astounds me with that view is this: I can find blogs and pastors that think the SBC is going too: liberal, fundamental, Calvinist, Traditionalist, Anti-Calvinist, Patriarchal, Beth Moore-y, Mohler-y, Patterson-y, and so forth. Both of the wings could likely write their dismayed reactions to the results of this vote without pausing for breath.

Folks, maybe it just is not important enough for that. Are we going to split the SBC over the influence of Dr. R. Albert Mohler when we did not over wandering from Scripture? We, the same people that would tell someone not to abandon a church over one person? (I’ve even told people not to abandon a church because of the pastor, he’ll be gone eventually. And I was.)

Perhaps we should settle on a compromise position: whatever the outcome, let us prayerfully encourage Midwestern Seminary’s faculty, students, and administration to serve the Lord Jesus Christ by serving the Southern Baptist Convention. Let us try to remember that this is what we are about: Christian people, unified by a common mission, standing on the Word of God, sharing a common conviction: that we are to go to all the world, proclaim that Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose again and salvation is available. That we then baptize those who come and teach them how to organize themselves into churches that go forth and do the same thing.

Or we could keep up what we’ve been doing, because it’s far easier to go downhill.