The Pastors' Moment // One Pastor's Arrest // Reno's Wrong

The pastor's moment in Covid-19.  Jared Wilson.


A pastor's arrest for holding worship.  Al Mohler's Daily Briefing breaks it down well.


A short letter to R.R. Reno, of First Things:

Dear Editor,

You're wrong in your fundraising letter.

We are not giving way to undue fear or panic if there is a true emergency.

See Al Mohler's Daily Briefing of March 31, today, on the Florida pastor's arrest for a right understanding.

I'm a former subscriber, a pastor, and respect your work generally.

You need to make an exception for a genuine emergency.  God is the only absolute, not our religious liberty or keeping churches open.

I agree the fallout for civic, public life could be bad.  But it's horrendous to say we shouldn't try so hard to save earthly life, assuming that shows a want of priority on eternal things.

Don't Waste This Pandemic // 5 Stages of Grief

John Piper had cancer 15 years ago, and wrote this classic piece: Don't Waste Your Cancer.
It was reprinted in a magazine I just read, and I was blown away by how relevant it is right now.
Just replace "your cancer" with "this pandemic," to learn many important lessons about God's providence in your life.



There are 5 stages of grief psychologists observe we tend to go through when loved ones die or a traumatic tragedy hits us.  The Simpsons gives them to you humorously here in 20 seconds.  They aren't necessarily taught in the Bible, but I think the "book of nature" sees a real truth in us by common grace here.

I think I've observed these stages in our country, responding to the coronavirus.  First we didn't think it was a big deal - just the flu (denial).  Then we focused on blaming China or Trump, depending on your politics (anger).  Then we told ourselves if we just did lockdown for a little while it'd be fine (bargaining).  Now Trump has called for lockdown until April 30, which I think puts most of us on to the 4th stage - depression or fear.  Watch for this in yourself, your family members, and for increased hysterics in media talking heads that we CAN'T SURVIVE THIS FOR THAT LONG!!!  I've already had one conversation this morning with a colleague who registered his deepening concern for his personal finances.

I'm not an expert on these stages, but the point is to know yourself better, so you can better handle your emotions and move more smoothly and quickly to the final stage of acceptance.

Body of Christ in Pandemic // Live Streaming Church Means... What?

South Korean Christians give us some good advice in these pandemic times.


Tim Challies has good words for these live stream church times.

How to live stream church as a family in quarantine

On "attending" a live stream worship service:

(These are tentative thoughts after only a week of doing this, with a bit of feedback.  Please offer corrections or more thoughts.)

1. Are you worshiping or watching?

This live stream format is kind of like listening to a Youtube video.  It really lowers the office of preaching below what it should be.  Each church member and viewer needs to work mentally to remind himself: your pastor has prepared prayerfully to bring you, personally, this word.  You aren't watching/scrolling a Facebook feed (even if you are!).  No, the Word of God is being served to you.  Skipping to other weblinks, talking over the pastor like it's a movie or Tedtalk, tuning in to multiple services at once and flipping back and forth, gives your family a bad example of how seriously we should take Sunday worship.  Stay committed to your local church, or wherever they are sending you for a short-term solution.

2.  Keep a Sunday morning routine

What special routines do you have on Sunday mornings?  Keep them going!  Dress up a little more than usual for your living room.  Do the usual pre-church get-up and meal routine.  If you have a set of things for little ones to do in the pew, get those out on the dinner table for them. (Dinner table might be more conducive to worship than couches in the living room!).

In our service, we kneel, stand, and raise hands at different parts of the worship service.  Continuing to do that keeps us more in the mode of worship than of watching.

3. Live stream offers some advantages to in-person worship.

 

 a. Parents can teach and correct little ones with less disruption.  The few times I got to sit with my family when my kids were little, the times I could whisper to them during the service what was going on, was precious to me.  But you have to keep that to a duller roar in worship.  Live streaming gives a bit more leeway to parent during the "service."

 b. Less focus on appearances.

There is a phenomenon of "putting-on-appearances" to others at church, that is absent when live streaming.  It's that opportunity for social hypocrisy: to appear more pious than you really are in your body language in the pew, your tone of voice when you talk to others, and so on.  NOW, what you really believe about the importance of worship is exposed.  Because your character is who you are when no one is looking.  It's a good time to focus on what really matters in your own soul, and what kind of example you want to be to your own family.

 c. Convenience

There are the obvious logistical challenges to loading everyone up in the car to get to point B by 10 a.m.  It's easier (though still takes some prep, I would argue!) to go to a link and watch.  Several churches are recording videos and posting them, which takes away the time constraint.  I think it's far better to live stream, so there is a sense that our church family is all doing this at the same time.

4. Gathering for worship is still better

These advantages do NOT out-weigh the benefits of in-person worship!  This is only a temporary fix.  Get back to corporate, physical worship as soon as it's reasonable, and the civil authorities allow.  (They may not forbid us from worshiping out of hostility to Christ, but we should follow their guidance when it is medically based and concerns ANY gathering.)

Sound Teaching // Providence in Plague // Hebrew Class

Here are some good talks on Christian theology and the Bible to listen to - learning from home!


John Piper - great short article on the virus and God's providence.  This really is the one important thing to keep in mind through all of this...


New Saint Andrews College put up a live stream of a Hebrew class on Jeremiah 33:14-22
Believe it or not, I watched this whole thing, and brushed up - I forgot how much I forgot, of my Hebrew!


For fun:
"everyone should remember the Gadarene Swine Rule. Just because a group is in formation doesn’t mean they know where they are going."
Douglas Wilson

Daily Videos // A View of the Global Church Last Sunday

I've started a daily, 3-minute video blog at our church Facebook page.
I have a vague hunch that more people are on Facebook, than come to this page!
Check it out here.


Tim Challies has a great post - a collection of pictures of people worshiping in small groups all around the globe.  A great view of the church militant!

Jayber Crow review

I can't figure a way to put a second review into Goodreads, so this is just a stand alone, new review.

I read it back in 2013, first, and now again in March 2020.

I just finished reading this out loud to my wife, over the last several months.  I read the last bit to the whole family.

This book was all the rage a few years ago, and Wendell Berry has something of a cult following, especially in the south, I think.  In a word, his view is agrarian.

I had read Jayber myself maybe 5 years ago, but reading it out loud this time, it really fell flat.  Berry has a very moralistic message.  If you agree with it, you’re a fan; if not, it’s a turn-off.  He’s very ideological, though it’s all couched in a romantically wistful, comic, and personable style. 

Berry absolutely rejects the modernization of our world.  (At times he’ll try to qualify this, but in more sincere moments, his absolutism comes out.)  Nature is his ideal, his paradise.  A geographical place should shape a person, more than the person shapes the place, in his view.  There is something to this, and it raises a real question.  Does the dominion mandate call for us to radically restructure the natural landscape to allow for highways, railways, etc., or is it a call for each individual to till his own soil, under his own vine and fig tree?

Berry’s view calls to mind yard signs I’ve seen, driving through small towns, that scream, “NO to the pipeline,” “NO to the freeway.”

At the end of the book, the main character lies in paradise and awakens with a spiderweb attached to him.  He speaks to it reverently.  His main female interest, meanwhile, lies in a hospital dying, with needles and IV’s attached to her.  He describes it disdainfully.  The contrast is clear.

So my wife and I found ourselves turned off by the overt message.  As moderns living in a modern world, we may find ourselves wishing for a less artificial world, but we don’t realize all that entails. 

I remain unsure which way to go, in his diatribe against debt, and the business model behind it.  Should we use debt to leverage assets otherwise unused?  When is debt misused?  It seems to me there is a tipping point, like when an acceptable interest rate becomes price gouging usury.  If you mortgage the whole family farm, it’s usurious, but a modest use of debt for business enterprise may be advantageous to all.

You may enjoy the fictional biography and comedy.  But think through his earnest message before adopting it, whole hog.

What the Chick-Fil-A fiasco tells us about ourselves

I wrote this a while ago, and it's old news now, but still relevant.


I've only read a few articles on this (links below), so instead of rendering judgment on Chick-fil-A where there is less clarity, I'd rather look at what the evangelical response to it says about us.


1. Culture wars have leaders and followers.
It's a principle of warfare that you take out the leaders, so the rest can't resist as effectively.  When governments persecute the church, they imprison the pastors.  When liberals seek to advance their agenda, they seek to capture the institutions that house and create leaders.  Chick-fil-A was a leader in that it continued to support biblical marriage when fired at for it.


2. We desperately want standard-bearers in the culture war.
Now CFA has stopped their support for biblical norms in one form (no more Salvation Army or FCA charity support), but we don't want to believe it.  We'd rather believe they are misguided or that their actions don't mean what it looks like, than lose a standard-bearer on our side.


3. We don't like criticizing our friends
I don't know the relational chart well, but I'm fairly sure there is a web of relationships between CFA folks and evangelical leadership.  These are not only allies in a culture war, but fellow church members, donors and non-profit beneficiaries, and maybe even relatives.  Many of us have friends who work at CFA, or we'd be happy to have our kids work there.  I think this is part of our hesitancy to come down hard over our disappointment with CFA's move.  Some even protest that we are "shooting our wounded" if we criticize CFA for this.


4. We like criticizing from afar.
Some are quick to judge, not knowing all the dynamics involved.  Where you're standing and who you're with tends to shape your view.  I've noticed a trend that people unfamiliar personally with CFA are quicker to judge them.


5. We are politically polarized, on both sides
It is quite absurd for a city to deny a restaurant a license to open, solely because of statements it has made in the past about the Bible and marriage.  The sexual revolution is extremely intolerant and totalitarian in this regard.  No safe space for the biblical marriage position allowed!  But we are polarized on our side, too.  We make CFA a champion for our side, when they are simply running a good business.  Should we be looking around the commercial landscape, seeking who is on our side?  I'm not sure.  Is Walmart the biblical alternative to Target?  Your local coffee to Starbucks?  Is there always a clear biblical shopping choice?


6.  We are inconsistent and need to think through our judgments better.
It's far easier to get Christians to ally with CFA than it is to get them to oppose Starbucks or Target, but it's the exact same dynamic, only in reverse.  If we want to support a company that speaks and practices biblical norms, why would we support a company that celebrates immorality?

We like to applaud CFA for being closed on Sunday, on the way to going to another restaurant on Sunday!  Why are we commending CFA for doing a biblical thing (giving their employees a sabbath) while we do the opposite (make employees work on the Sabbath)?

Let's be patient with each other as we think these things through, and when we sometimes come to different conclusions.


7. Life isn't always simple
It's hard to tell from a distance if an ally like CFA is being smart, or if they are battle weary from the culture war, or if they are compromising.  Don't believe the illusion we get from Fox and CNN these days that every news item is a simple, "Good guys and bad guys."  "Just tell me who I should be mad at, and I've got the news."  Sheesh.


It seems clear that CFA wants to rebrand itself to deal with opposition to opening stores in newer (more liberal than the South) markets.  Is this compromise, or just smart?  As a business guy, I can appreciate that you don't want an intangible dynamic to hurt sales and curb growth.  I don't think a company led by Christians has a moral obligation to make itself a standard-bearer in the culture war.  It's a little trickier, though, since they have made themselves one in the past, and now want to back away from that.

Many are pointing out that this move won't stop the gay lobby from being mad at and demanding more from CFA.  Probably true.  But their main goal is a corporate one, not of the culture war: to have new cities let them open there, not to satisfy the gay lobby, and for that, it might just work.


Christianity Today, Nov 18

Russell Moore, "Should You Be Angry at Chick-fil-A?"

On Saint Patrick

Yes, it is St. Patrick's day!


Gregg Strawbridge has a great look at St. Patrick's Breastplate, woven with some of his lesser known history.

World's podcast has a good review of I am Patrick, coming to theaters March 17.

Here is a compilation of articles and resources on Patrick

Lutheran Satire is always good for St. Patrick's Day.  A little crude, though, be warned.
 - A Musical retelling of Patrick's life
 - Patrick on the Trinity

Live Streaming Church - If and How

Here's a timely article for churches and church-goers going to live streaming.


Mark Dever argues against live streaming.

An Experiment in Criticism

An Experiment in Criticism by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my second read of this book, though the first was my freshman year in college, so it might as well be my first.

Lewis argues that it’s better to judge a book by its reader, than to judge a reader by his book. The point isn’t to say definitively that a work is “bad literature.” Rather, do we find people reading certain works over and over again? If so, why? Are they just using the book to get certain emotions, or building ego-castles in the air, etc.? Or are they receiving the book, surrendering to the art, the message, suspending disbelief to let the art make its impression on them, before making any judgment? If it’s the latter, and many such readers keep going back to it, you have good literature.

I can’t decide if this book is genius, or if it’s Lewis caving partly to the literary deconstructionism, which was just starting to make waves in his day. It’s one of those books of his, like “The Discarded Image,” or “Pilgrim’s Regress,” that shows Lewis to be way beyond the intellectual caliber of 90% of the population. So I hesitate to render such a judgment.

I do think he is right to say that there is better and worse literature, determined by whether it more or less compellingly moves the reader to receive the work itself, to be moved by its events and message. The Odyssey has you experience Odysseus’ anguish as he returns home, in a way you don’t in a throw-away detective story. Evaluating the truthfulness of the work’s worldview or moral message is a different thing.

But this creates a huge problem, one that Hollywood’s role in our culture wars of the last 50 years exemplifies well. What if a wicked message is portrayed attractively and compellingly? Lewis seems to give little or no thought to that danger. (He died in 1963, right as that became a major problem in Hollywood.) He asserts only that literature should not be judged by any moral message in the work.

I can appreciate the cinematography of a movie that prompts me to delight in wickedness – to a point – without approving of, or even being influenced by, that work. And the converse is also true. A book or movie (Left Behind; Fireproof) with a moral message doesn’t automatically make it a good production/work of art. To be controversial, The Godfather is far better art than Remember the Titans.

Two personally humbling points, to close:
1. I understood only about half of Lewis’ literary references. I guess this shouldn’t bother me, as his career was literature, and he was a Cambridge professor, writing mainly to his academic colleagues. Still, I wish I knew what he knew.

2. I realize every time I write, how hard it is to clearly and compellingly and concisely state my thoughts. Lewis does this so well, both in non-fiction prose here, and in children’s fiction like Narnia. He’s like an athlete who can far outperform me in any event. My only hope is to keep practicing and training. At least he gives me some sense of the goal.


View all my reviews

On Andy Stanley

I've become increasingly alarmed at the unbiblical teaching being not only tolerated but celebrated in the mainstream evangelical church.  Nationally known media personalities, well-respected in the church, endorse pastors who teach such things.

Time to name names.  Andy Stanley.

While Stanley can present the Gospel well at times (see here), he now says we should "unhitch" from the Old Testament because of its apparent inconsistencies, and how it shows a vengeful and wrathful God.  It also appears to come from some embarrassment over the sexual ethics and civil penalties commanded there.

Wow.

Kevin DeYoung coyly called him out for rehashing an old heresy, Marcionism, without mentioning Stanley's name.

I think David Prince gets it right when he says,

"Stanley is adapting his message to the changing culture that rejects many of the Bible’s teaching[s] about origins and ethics. He is not offering a new approach to the Bible but rather an old one which positions us as judges who pick and choose what really matters in the Bible. That old approach has a name: it’s called theological liberalism."

Anecdotally, I've noted a shift among megachurches that used to follow Willow Creek's model.  With its recent implosion, many are now hitching to Andy Stanley, who is unhitching from the Old Testament.  Both seem willing to change the message to be more acceptable to cultural assumptions, instead of preaching the Word of God as it is, and letting it challenge those assumptions.  Which is what it is meant to do.

But shouldn't we be willing to go to great lengths to get the message of Jesus out to people?
Well, yes.  But if we unhitch from the Old Testament and adopt Stanley's approach, we've changed the message.


This all started two years ago, but Stanley's influence since then seems to be growing.  He is a relevant and negative example, on this point at least, of how NOT to bring the Scriptures to the world. 

The lesson to learn is clear:
Don't cater to assumptions people make against the Bible and accommodate to that somehow. 
While some Scriptures need explaining, we should never be embarrassed about anything in the Bible.

Pandemic: Changes by the Day

https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/03/a-covid-19-coronavirus-update-from-concerned-physicians.html

This article is really interesting.  It seems legit, and I’m going to assume that here.

So I understood the “flatten the curve” idea, to not overwhelm the capacity to treat severe cases coming.  I get geometric growth.  Here are some new thoughts:

1. Economic and political fallout.

If this is the medical mainstream writing, it makes me wonder if the CDC or administration is soft pedaling the urgent need to isolate, out of a desire to soften the economic impact.  You don’t have to be a never-Trumper or partisan against him to wonder this.  Humans aren’t very good at preventative austerity measures – we’d rather deal with the pain later – so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

2. Panic or preparation?

Most people seem to be equating panic with a call for a significant disruption to life.  This article is calling urgently for a large scale, intense isolation – very disruptive!  But they aren’t calling for panic.  They aren’t the same thing.  Panic is the response to disruption, which exacerbates it.

3. Developing…

Opinions are changing on this rapidly.  My bakery-employed family got a note today, NOT to come in tomorrow… or all week.  Three days ago, I thought it overkill to cancel sports and seminars and church.  Now it looks reasonable.

4. How important is worship?

The Luther quote from the last post is very revealing to me.  He would avoid places his presence wasn’t needed: I assume he’d be leading worship in church.  During the Black Plague.  But, again, the limits of historical perspective are real.  What would Luther have done, if he had our medical understanding?  That we don’t know. 

5. A personal lesson

I’m really torn.  As a pastor, the need for the saints to gather physically is really important.  Nothing is more important all week, our people are fond of saying.  It sets us apart from the evangelical church that takes church attendance casually.  It really bothers me to consider canceling church along with other churches.  There’s a self-righteous streak in me that wants to be “better” than all the churches that “wimp out.” At least I can be more courageous and hold worship!  But that’s the wrong line of thinking, it seems.  Worship IS most important: that thought also sets us apart from a secular age that lumps worship of God in with going to a movie – in both you have a group of 50-200 people in the same room for 1-2 hours.  That really bothers me to equate the two like that, but medically it’s true.  

So with a genuine yet temporary emergency, why not live-stream for a month or even three?  Lord willing, I would have the courage to meet for worship at the risk of a hostile government arresting me, but this is a different kind of risk, calling for a different kind of humbling.  Will I learn the lesson God is setting before me, or keep thumping my chest on a point irrelevant to the present moment?

6. The Uncertainty

All this assumes the article I’ve linked is accurate in the detail of urging extreme isolation.  I think that’s right.  It’s what I’m now hearing from the most apparently legit sources, but I DON’T see it at the CDC right now.  That’s interesting.  Is it the political motive I mentioned above?  Or is this link overdoing it a little?  This matters for what I’m going to do or cancel tomorrow and the next day!  Feel free to send me the resources to which you’re listening.

Thoughts on the Pandemic

1. Limits of historical perspective

There is a lot of comparison to history going on: “the Spanish flu killed millions in 1918, and we’re shutting down over less than 100 dead in the whole country?”  There may be some truth to the fact that we are freaked out by much less severe troubles than our forebears.  But we also know far more medically now than we did in 1918.  Capitol Hill Baptist Church, where Mark Dever pastors, last canceled a worship service in 1918 for that flu, and just did so for this Sunday.  Not because they think it’s as severe a plague – it isn’t yet – but to keep it from becoming one.  We are shutting down, not out of irrational panic, but to lower the total number of people needing medical care now or in the immediate future.  Then we won’t have to ration medical care as severely if it gets worse.  They didn’t understand this in 1918.

2. Politics

The politics of this have been quite awful, from Pelosi trying to get abortion funding in an emergency bill, to Biden criticizing Trump for his handling of things.  Pointing out the virus started in China is apparently xenophobic now.  That’s crazy, especially given their current threats to not send us medical supplies.  Whether the media has overblown this to hand Trump a politically damaging blow doesn’t matter much if we focus on the CDC instead of Fox or CNN.  Can the populace do that?  I hope so.  Too many conservatives downplayed this early on, to defend Trump, just as Xi did in China, I think.

3. Political systems

Balancing freedom and responsibility is an important theme in this situation.  Nations tend to be covered in the news all the same: “America has locked down as China did” is quite misleading.  Some nations give autocratic directives, but others recommend actions to their citizens.  We are the latter, and that is an important difference, even if we wind up behaving similarly.  Freedom does not disappear in this situation, but it’s more appropriate to protect social health.  Even freedom-loving libertarians are admitting currently that a case like this warrants governmental action.  It is a time to focus on our responsibility to the public, more than on what we have a right to do.  It isn’t time for an objection that the state is overstepping its bounds, until they criminalize rational behavior without warrant.

4. Preparing

Preparing for possible problems is not panic.  An abundance of caution is not panic, though it may be going too far.  Scoffers label those who make any changes as wrongfully fearful.  But the situation really is such that changes are helpful to public health.  The biggest one for me personally right now is that if I have even a mild cold, I shouldn’t go to church, even if the service depends on me.  This is something I’ve heard from every public health agency, and I accept the change, in an emergency like this.

5. Preparing ignorantly

Of course, we can prepare misguidedly when there are so many unknowns.  I don’t understand the toilet paper run: I expect the market to make up for the shortage within 7-14 days (maybe a month?) and a normal supply lasts longer than that.  Doesn’t it?

6. Preparing responsibly

With so many unknowns, the idea of boundaries becomes very important.  Where does your responsibility end, and someone else’s picks up?  When does that line move, in a pandemic?  A week ago, I would have said, anyone with a mild cold shouldn’t feel bad about going to church.  Today I’m rethinking that.  The risk is higher for others.  But then again, for higher-risk folks, it is also their responsibility to avoid that kind of situation.  Wouldn’t it be better to keep holding essential meetings, like worship services (!), and just have fewer, asymptomatic people there?  But then again, many probably (maybe?) have the virus or are carrying it, without showing any symptoms.  Or we’re just getting more people sick than need to be.  Hm.

7. Preparing for church

As far as church services go, it is not irresponsible to keep holding services at this point, though this could change.  But we are firmly into the realm where canceling is not irrational panic.  We have left the realm of, “We’re having church, and you should come.”  A church can hold services without enjoining their members to come, leaving the decision with each individual, whether to attend or not.

8. Panic and Providence

Panic is losing sight of God’s providence over all this, forgetting that all things work together for the good of those who love Him.  There are all kinds of lessons modern Christians can learn from this: to be more thoughtful of loving our neighbor hygienically, the priority of worship and community in times of trouble, that we don’t have 100% control over their health like we often think, and so on.  I also don’t rule out God dealing judgmentally on the nations through this, though I’d want to avoid specifics.  These things humble and tear down towers of Babel people set up in their minds, geopolitically.  This kind of thing happened in the early 20^th century, with WWI, then the Spanish flu, the Titanic, etc.  The excitement of social progress and manifest destiny in the late 1800s came to a crashing halt, but instead of returning to God, we turned to disillusioned decadence in the roaring twenties.

9. Prayer

This leads us to pray.  Our president declared a national day of prayer on March 15.  Whatever his own reasons for doing so, it is right and fitting to humble ourselves, and admit our dependence on Him.  MORE than we depend on sanitary health practices and a competent CDC, we need God to have mercy on us.

Heavenly Father, You move every atom, germ, and virus on this globe as You see fit.  We confess our anxiety to You in this global pandemic, and we ask You to draw us near to You in trust.  Give officials competence and speed to get data into the right hands, develop vaccines, and discover patterns and cures.  Help Vice President Pence to lead his team well, and for he and president Trump to communicate clearly and consistently with us what we need to know.  Give us patience with one another as believers and as citizens, when we have differing opinions about all this.  Finally - and we admit it is hard for us to see this connection – glorify Your Son Jesus Christ through all of this.  Because He sits on the throne, ruling the course of nations, plagues, thoughts, and armies.  For Yours is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever, Amen.

Martin Luther's pastoral advice during the Black Plague:

"I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me however I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above. See this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God."
—Martin Luther, Works v. 43, p. 132. Letter "Whether one may flee from a Deadly Plague" written to Rev. Dr. John Hess

When you're asked to serve at church

1 Peter 4:9-11

Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. 10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

a. Getting involved like this is generally spiritually healthy for you.  

As 1 Corinthians 12 says, each member does his unique part helping the body of Christ function.  If we come to church just to be served and never serve ourselves, something is out of whack.  (I don't say this because I've seen a lot of slackers in our midst, though.)  Parents ask their children to help around the house, because that is good for them.  It's roughly analogous when church leaders ask members to help in the family of God.  As church leaders, we're setting a direction and a goal, and saying, "This is a good thing for us to do - come join us."

b. Don't feel guilted or pressured into serving.

By asking here, we are not intending to pressure you in any way.  We realize some folks have circumstances that prohibit helping in these ways.  We believe we're calling you to do some good things here, but there are always many good things that need to give way to more important ones in your responsibilities. When we ask, we are not intending to violate family boundaries that you know best.  Whether it's a family schedule, or little ones that need more care, or distance, it's reasonable to say, "We can't this time."  No one's looking down on those who don't show for this kind of thing!

c. Do seek to make it work!  Some have a sensitive conscience and will feel guilted into serving.  Others will use the last point with a callous conscience to quickly and always say, "We can't.  (Ever.)"  Maybe there's an adjustment you can make that would make it work?  Again, we're asking you to consider it, but trust you to know whether you can or not.

d. Know your gifts.

If you're an extreme introvert, manning the outreach table might not be your thing.  If you've got a decent singing voice (or if you're tone-deaf), give more thought (less!) to the choir!  What God may be calling you to do depends partly on your abilities, besides your other responsibilities and opportunities.

Bad Worship // Fear // Social Calvinism // Psalm 113

Another example of churches shamelessly trying to appeal to the culture, while compromising moral virtue and reverent worship, which God demands (Hebrews 12:28).


I thought it was timely of Ligonier to put their issue on Fear out there.


Marvin Olasky has a great list of ways Calvin's ideas improved social life after the medieval world.


I have fond memories of singing Psalm 113 in the Book of Psalms for Singing, as Rosaria Butterfield writes about here.  This is an excellent piece on how God, in regenerating our hearts, miraculously changes our priorities and values to align with His.  It is certainly jarring to the unchanged heart to hear churches sing the Psalms.  While they should be explained, the church may never excuse or be embarrassed by God's Word.

For Political Commentary, Listen to Ben Shapiro, not Rush Limbaugh

Chalk me up as a convinced Shapiro-ite.

Is that a word?

I’ve listened to Rush Limbaugh for over 20 years, off and on.  I just discovered Ben Shapiro 6 months ago, and started listening more a couple weeks ago.  Rush’s agenda has become increasingly clear: to advance the Republican party and President Trump, regardless of the truth.  While I was happy to see him awarded at the State of the Union for his life’s work of reviving talk radio and the conservative agenda, these days he is a one-man propaganda machine for the Trump administration.  It’s become a little sickening.

Today was the last straw.

When Rush said that Biden cancelled his events because nobody was going to show up anyway, it was such a trivialization of the pandemic. 

Shapiro, on the other hand, gave an un-prejudiced take on Trump’s speech last night.  Praise where it was due; critique where it was needed.

I’d urge folks to listen to Shapiro’s sense and avoid Rush’s propaganda.

By Grace, not of Works, Lest Any Man Should Boast

Richard Pratt, Broken Homes in the Bible, Tabletalk, Dec 2011

"In recent decades, Christian television has spread what many call the 'prosperity gospel' - the misguided belief that if we have enough faith, God will heal our diseases and provide us with great financial blessings.  Of course, most people reading this article scoff at the thought that faith can yield such benefits.  But don't laugh too hard.  We have our own prosperity gospel for our families.  We simply replace having enough faith with having enough obedience.  We believe that we can lift our families out of their brokenness if we conform to God's commands....

"The good news is that you cannot be bad enough to ensure God's condemnation of your family.... The bad news, however, is that you cannot be good enough to ensure God's blessings on your family....

"We shouldn't be fooled into thinking that the future depends on us."

Coronavirus and the Church

I wrote this to our congregation in Michigan this week.

Some Catholic churches in Washington state have suspended serving communion at mass.  A CREC church in Washington state has received requests to cancel services, given the concern.  Elders in churches on the west coast live very near hospitals with confirmed cases.  How do we think through this?  Here are some of my thoughts:

Fellowship or cleanliness?

This is a bit of a false dichotomy, but they ARE competing principles, to a degree.  Committing to fellowship together means a willingness to share germs, to a certain degree.  We shake hands, hug, talk into each other's faces, and share a common loaf of bread and the same tray of wine.  Even in the face of much more severe viruses and plagues, God's people have always risked their personal health to meet together and serve those in need.  Outbreaks like this challenge prosperous Christians like us to put Christian virtues above what Francis Schaeffer called our idol of "personal peace and affluence."

Observe good hygiene

That said, there is a lot we can do to hinder the spread of germs.  Touch your face less often, cough into your elbow, wash your hands, etc.  For example, at church I've taken to having an elder or deacon break the bread and take the communion tray when I have a cold.

Observe common courtesy

When we catch a cold from each other, we likely take it in stride as sharing in the miseries of this life together.  If we have the stomach flu, though, we feel more obligated to quarantine ourselves and not give that to others.  Whatever the threshold, teach your children and remind yourselves that it is loving your neighbor to avoid giving them your sick germs!  Having a non-sick family member handle the bread and wine could be a way to do that at church.

Allow for varying opinions

This is a hard area in which to extend tolerance for other views, but it remains necessary!  If the family behind you in the pew is coughing or sniffling, it can be easy to judge them for infecting your family.  But they decided it was too mild a case to warrant missing church, and we need to trust each other's decisions.  The threshold for staying home is higher for some of us than for others.  You're risking getting sick from them, so that they can be here in worship.

Don't panic

There are no confirmed cases of Corona in Michigan as of today.  The death rate is low for those who do get it - mostly for those with other severe conditions already.  We don't need to consider canceling church at this point.  If anything, you may want to consider adjusting that threshold for whether you keep a mildly sick family member home or not.  (The experts seem to be saying that in the absence of a vaccine or built up immunity in us to a new virus, good health habits are the best way to slow and stop its spread.)  

 - We don't want to disregard science or basic hygiene, yet we can't see the germs, we don't have perfect knowledge of who is how sick.  So we need in the end to trust God's providence, as we act wisely.