Monday Morning Music Ministry

12-2-24

Once upon a time – no, actually, much more than once; and at many, many times in humankind’s history – preachers were attacked, discomfited, persecuted, arrested, imprisoned, and sometimes put to death for what they preached.

Sometimes it was a different theology, too often the sharing of new Biblical interpretations; encouraging people to read Scripture for themselves. Or – believe it not – to believe that they might pray directly to God, without churches and councils and rules and intermediaries. De-frock them! Stone them! Kill them!

Ideas can be dangerous. And vested religious interests, as in Jesus’s time; or “establishment” denominations in ours, certainly can feel threatened.

Through the centuries there have been many martyrs who were tortured and sometimes put to death for things they believed in, for what they preached.

Today, preachers ought to be arrested for things they don’t preach.

Oh, religious people still give sermons. Churches still are open, and many have full schedules of activities. But pastors and councils and committees involved themselves in different matters on which the Body of Christ used to focus.

• There are church groups for men and women and couples and singles and kids and seniors in churches… but every town and city has civic and public organizations that have social gatherings too. None of those secular clubs reciprocate and share Jesus.
• Churches frequently have men’s breakfasts and pot-luck meals and pie socials and chicken dinners. But why not let the Colonel handle the chicken? Colonel Sanders and Marie Callender and Bob Evans do not reciprocate with Bible studies every week.
• Many churches have excellent appeals and earnest support for overseas missions. I have met many missionaries and volunteers in foreign lands who build schools and hospitals and offer religious instruction to natives: good work. But in many of the churches I speak of, pastors and congregations freeze at the suggestion that people across town need help, too; and that folks in houses across the street from church need to hear the Gospel.

Am I being judgmental? It is frankly my intention. I know we should resist judgmentalism… yet we can be “fruit inspectors”: assessing the evidence of “Fruits of the Spirit” among believers. I have been in churches, and been mightily blessed in churches, where there are cold sermons on Sunday but warm spirituality among congregants in their fellowships.

My blanket statements are blankets, however, that cover a lot. But despite the exceptions, there are disturbing trends in the 21st-century American church.

• A distinguishing characteristic the American church has become a “Welcoming” attitude – that is, practically speaking, and acceptance and no judgment expressed about sinning and sinful lifestyles. In fact, sin and repentance are words scarcely spoken from American pulpits.
• In too many churches, Prosperity is preached as a goal to be desired. Salvation and sanctification are presented almost as by-products of the Prosperity Gospel. What reformers of the past condemned as the “Works Gospel” has been re-labeled “Social Gospel” or aspects of Good Deeds and Charities – “good” in themselves, but with scant or only formal regard for peoples’ souls.
• Liturgy seems to be on the way to extinction; traditional hymns are being abandoned; testimonies of changed lives, and invitations – altar-calls – are increasingly rare. Perhaps you never experienced these expressions, but you would accept that preaching that inspired such devotion have evolved toward the formal and cold… while the transforming nature of Jesus should be hot and exciting.

The American church in the 21^st century is not like the church that was strong and precious in our past. Indeed the Great Revivals, and the strong and influential churches, are what built and sustained this nation. Many believers might not identify with the style or form of worship I have described, and whose passing I lament. But one does not have to be a holy-roller or a jump-the-pew or even a spiritually exuberant type of worshiper to recognize that many of today’s churches are not meeting the needs of contemporary people and their lives.

It is not a coincidence that decline in spirituality, in Christianity, is parallel to the decline in the nation’s health – economy, moral conditions, levels of corruption, crime, addiction, abuse, divorce, illegitimacy. And so forth. Which is the cart and which is the horse? It makes no difference.

What does make a difference is the reality… and the foundational crisis we face. If economics are only statistics, and, say, crime might diminish in a societal pendulum-swing, fine. Maybe so.

But our other problems are deeper, much deeper; and of a spiritual nature.

And a spiritual problem can only be solved with a spiritual response. I pray that your church – even small groups, informal fellowships, whether “Sunday morning experiences” or not – keep the flame of the Gospel burning for you. If not, the kindling is right before you; and you have been entrusted with the Fire of the Holy Ghost.

+ + +

Click: Henry Purcell: Funeral Sentence

3-7-11

The assassination this week of Shahbaz Bhatti, the Minister of Minorities in Pakistan, is a story that garnered some attention in the news, but for the most part was subsumed by other reports on related issues from the Islamic world.

Shahbaz was the only Christian in the national cabinet, a brave advocate of religious freedom before world forums and in his own land. The news that crowded his murder from the headlines included other assassinations; street protests; Christians being arrested; Muslim factional hatred; Christians fleeing their homelands; government crackdowns; Christian churches being invaded; piracy, kidnappings and murder; and Christian martyrdom, from lowly believers and pastors to prominent officials in several countries.

According to the BBC, “Mr Bhatti, 42, a leader of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), had just left his mother’s home in a suburb of the capital when several gunmen surrounded his vehicle and riddled it with bullets, say witnesses.” He routinely had been receiving death threats for urging reform of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. “Pamphlets by al-Qaeda and Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab, a branch of the Taliban in Pakistan’s most populous province, were found at the scene.” Tehrik-i-Taliban told BBC Urdu they carried out the attack.

Four months ago, Shahbaz said in a video, “I want to share that I believe in Jesus Christ who has given His own life for us. I know what is the meaning of [the] cross. And I am following… the cross.” He continued, “I am ready to die for the cross,” speaking these words calmly and with confidence. He knew he was reciting his own epitaph. Shahbaz was not a supernatural prophet – he surely knew the dangers to his life – rather he was a humble servant, an obedient follower.

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will follow me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross (Matthew 16:24).

Shahbaz correctly pinpointed the center of our world’s coming crisis – not economies nor resources nor pollution; not even religion – but the cross of Jesus Christ. And the persecuted church, in so many of the world’s fiery corners, understands this. Despite the horrible treatment of uncountable Christian martyrs, now approaching one a minute, every day, around the world, that persecuted church is being purified, like gold in a fire.

Some Christians in the West concern themselves with the “Prosperity Gospel,” and debate universalist theories that everyone is going to Heaven, “if there is a Heaven.” But Christ-followers and missionaries and martyrs elsewhere in the world work to “know Christ and make Him known.”

The “crown” is the exclusive focus of too many Christians. Christ promised an abundant life, certainly; but He offered, and warned, and promised, the burden (mysteriously, a glorious burden!) of the “cross.” Plausible Christianity is that the Crown awaits us in Heaven; and the Cross is our lot here.

“It is one thing to kneel at the foot of the cross for forgiveness; it is quite another thing to get on that cross to follow Jesus in His death. But it is the only way to live the resurrected life. This is what it means to be His disciple. When we live the crucified life, nothing can truly harm us. You can’t hurt a dead person.” So wrote a friend, singer/songwriter Becky Spencer, this week. “Our churches are filled with bored, dissatisfied Christians. Not because our God isn’t enough, but because most of them have only visited the cross once for salvation. It is meant to be embraced every day.”

I did not know Shahbaz Bhatti. Three of my close friends did, but I cannot say that I would speak his mind here. However, his murder this week has me thinking more than ever about the persecution of Christians, and our proper response as believers ourselves – response not alone to the situation of martyrs, but response to Christ’s commission. And it all has to do with the Cross, the Cross.

Jesus came to save us from our sins, but not necessarily from the effects of our sins; nor the world’s persecution; nor evil, punishment, or sickness; all because there is sin in the world. And as He offers forgiveness from sin, it might be said that He did not come to grab us from hell or push us into Heaven. His ministry was to keep hell out of people, and put Heaven into us, so to speak. We are to do His work while we are here.

Christians often think we have to “close the deal” and assure that people have eternal life. But all we can do is quote the Promise. To presume that we can do any more might be to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, whose work this really is. Believers, by responding to the invitation to believe on Jesus, have a say in that; and God, of course, is the Judge.

So what is left? To servants like Shabaz Bhatti, and to missionaries in heathen areas (including – think about it – you and me, right in our neighborhoods), our work is to do Christ’s work. Here. And now. Working to keep hell out of people and planting a little Heaven – by sharing belief in Jesus Christ who has given His own life for us, as Shahbaz testified; that He is not just one way, but the way to God – this must be our mission. And our privilege. And our Cross.

Jesus frankly said that the world will hate that message. It hated that message when He spoke it, and He was crucified on the cross. It hates that message when we speak it, and the world will likewise and therefore hate us. To take up the Cross and follow Him is not an option. It is as much of being a Christian as confessing Jesus as Savior.

The Book of Revelation tells us that to add or subtract a word from scripture is anathema, yet I would venture to say that in Heaven another verse has been added this week to Hebrews, Chapter 11. That book is “the Hall of Fame of Faith,” listing great heroes and martyrs of the faith – many of whom did not live to see the fruits of their service and sacrifice. “By faith, Shahbaz…”

God bless you, brother. None of your countrymen will come closer to the Truth through the motives of a dozen cowardly murderers. But I pray that millions will see the Truth through your martyrdom, your purity of faith, your service to the cross of Christ. And He will be glorified. Amen.

+

In honor of Shabaz Bhatti and persecuted Christians worldwide:

Click: Anthem of the Persecuted

I want to acknowledge the words and wisdom of three friends who were privileged to know Shahbaz — Hope Flinchbaugh, Marlene Bagnull, and Dan Wooding, for whom this week has been trying; Becky Spencer (“sure you can quote me – the Holy Spirit doesn’t copyright inspiration!”); and insights I gained this week while researching a book, from messages by Lyman Abbott.