City Sanctioned Perversion
September 28, 2009
This past Sunday was the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco. I had happily forgotten about this annual event until I was detoured by the street closures on my way through the city early that morning. The city grants permits, police protection, and street closures for the largest “celebration” of leather and fetish sexual perversion in the world. The organizers web site claims 400,000 people attend the festival. Although that number sounds inflated, even if half that many people attend, it is still a national disgrace.
What happens at the party? Again, according to their web site and other news reports – nudity, oral sex in the streets, displays and demonstrations of sexual positions, unusual sexual toys and practices, along with lots of music, dancing, and drinking. One vendor sponsors a “fully-equipped” dungeon so sexual partners can escape into their fantasies of torture, bondage, or other masochistic practices.
The most alarming part of all this is photos of adults walking through the fair with children in tow, taking it all in and being permanently scarred by the debauchery their ignorant parents are exposing them to. How can California Children’s Protective Services not be in attendance to arrest adults who take children to an event like this? Child abuse has never been more openly practiced and willfully ignored by the authorities.
The fact this event, or anything even close to it, is tolerated by San Francisco is a civic disaster and national disgrace. Our rebellion against God, openly flaunting his standards for sexual decency and fulfillment, has consequences almost too painful to imagine. We are flirting with catastrophe. God will not be mocked. His judgment is and will be to simply allow the full results of this destructive behavior – not only on the participants, but on all of us who tolerate it in our community.
So, what do we do? Some would say, “Abandon the city.” And, sadly, many have. But others have chosen to stay – to share the gospel, confront destructive behavior, heal the hurting (including innocent victims like the children of our city), demand governmental response, and build churches as oases for hope and stability.
C. T. Studd, a missionary from a past century said, “Some men want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” I’m with him! Let’s do all we can to support the brave believers who stand strong in the city of San Francisco, representing Jesus and casting light into almost impenetrable darkness.
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New Missions Leaders
September 21, 2009
With Dr. Jerry Rankin’s announced plan to retire at the end of July 2010, both Southern Baptist Convention mission agencies (North American and International Mission Boards) are undergoing presidential leadership changes. Despite our shortcomings and foibles, Southern Baptists are a people who believe in missions and support missionaries. We recognize the importance of our mission boards in coordinating our overall effort at evangelism and church planting. We circle the wagons around the Bible and missions. Always have…and I hope, always will.
We also recognize the importance of leaders. The biblical importance of leaders can’t be underestimated. When God is ready to do something dramatic, this pattern usually unfolds. First, a leader is called. Second, God’s vision is shared. Third, supernatural results happen through the leader in the lives of people. God works the same way today.
For that reason, it is essential for all of us to pray for God’s direction in the selection process for these two presidential offices. Both boards have trustees elected by Southern Baptists to represent them at a time like this and make this important decision. Both boards have announced their search committees and both are already at work. While there is always speculation about political processes in these appointments, these trustees are rank-and-file Baptists pastors and lay leaders who want God’s will more than man’s. They can be trusted to filter through all the suggestions, input, and recommendations and make a God-led choice.
You can help in two ways. First, pray for these search committees. Do it personally and lead your church, class, or group to do the same. This is a good time to educate people about Southern Baptist polity as part of challenging them to pray. Second, suggest quality candidates to the search committees. Yes, you can do that. Every Southern Baptist can.
With both mission boards undergoing significant leadership change, and the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force working on recommendations to improve our overall denominational mission effort, these are mementos times for Southern Baptists. We live in challenging times, but also times ripe with opportunity. The next year will bring significant changes as we move ahead together.
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Don't Give Up!
September 14, 2009
Sometimes, when we run headlong into a dead end, God is trying to get our attention and aim us toward a new direction. But other times, he is testing us to give us the opportunity to learn perseverance and endurance.
Randy Pausch was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University until he died of pancreatic cancer last year. He wrote the little book,
The Last Lecture, to chronicle his experiences as his teaching career drew to a close. This story is included.
At one point early in his career he applied for his dream job, only to be summarily rejected. After earning a PHD and preparing himself so thoroughly, he was crushed – but only momentarily. He wrote, “…it was a bit of a setback. But remember, the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the
other people.”
I don’t want to be one of the other people. I want to be a person who encounters difficulty and hammers away until a breakthrough is found. When we started our church in Oregon, a man asked me early in the process, “What’s your backup plan if the church doesn’t make it?” He was asking because a market research firm we had hired to help us get started had discovered our community was the most spiritually insensitive community they had ever surveyed! My answer was simple, “We don’t have a backup plan. We are going to start a church. It will grow and become vital. We don’t have any other options.”
So, how do you know the difference between a difficulty God allows to change your direction and one he allows to test you endurance. The answer for me is two-fold – calling and mission. When God calls – gives a profound impression that establishes parameters for your life – you pursue his call no matter the difficulties. That’s what kept us going in Oregon. The second reason is mission. When you are sure you are on God’s mission, doing eternally significant kingdom work, you press on no matter the hassle. Along with calling, that keeps me going at Golden Gate. When the job is tough, I remember our mission, and I keep hammering on the bricks until I find a way through.
If you are facing a wall of opposition, ask yourself these questions. Did God call me to this task? Is his mission through me dependent on overcoming this opposition? If the answer is yes then don’t quit. The
other people can quit. You can’t and you won’t. The wall in front of you is there to stop someone else, not you. Press on!
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Joy in Leadership
September 9, 2009
A few days ago, Dr. Thom Rainer, President of LifeWay Christian Resources was a guest on our Northern California campus. Besides speaking in chapel, Dr. Rainer also spoke in a leadership class I am teaching this semester. He shared a set of qualities often found in effective leaders. These qualities have emerged from studies by LifeWay Research looking for correlations of personal and interpersonal qualities among people who are accomplished leaders.
Most of what Dr. Rainer shared was very similar to what others have written or said on this subject. But one of his insights was unique and new for me. Dr. Rainer said one of the qualities they have identified in effective leaders usually have is joy. These men and women are joyful, generally happy people who like the people they work with and the work they do. As a result, they tend to have joy-filled organizations of people who work hard and productively.
Dr. Rainer contrasted genuine joy with being flippant. Christian leadership is serious work with eternal consequences. He acknowledged that and said Christian leaders, while not being flippant, can still be joyful. Joy is a biblical quality that emerges from our confidence in God and security in our service assignment. Dour, sour, kill-joy leaders are always looking for the negative – and often confusing this perspective with spiritual devotion. Joy seems like a much more accurate barometer of spiritual health.
It concerns me when Christian leaders live in the accusative case and kickative mood! Some remind me of the person who told me they had the gift of criticism motivated by a root of bitterness (they were joking, I think!). Legalism, narrowness, and harshness don’t demonstrate spiritual power. They just prove a person is mean.
It is possible to hold doctrinal convictions, refuse to compromise on key issues, and make tough decisions without being vindictive or angry. While those attitudes might make a leader seem strong in the moment, over the long haul they will discourage followers more than motivate them.
Dr. Rainer’s challenge is worth taking! Be joyful. As a leader, you will attract and motivate followers as well as build the appropriate aura in your organization by making this choice.
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