Do Christians really want Muslims to be saved?

In light of recent venomous criticism raised by self-proclaimed Christians against Christian author and apologist James White because of his willingness to dialogue with and debate Muslim apologists and imams with respect and fairness, an important question needs to be asked of the Church.  Do we, as followers of Jesus Christ, really want Muslims to come to know the love of God that is in Jesus Christ?  Do we want Muslims, any and all of them, to be violently killed or saved by love and grace?

If you actually do, as a Christian, want Muslims to come to know the love of Christ, (like any of the Lost: Atheists, Mormons, Hindus, etc.) what attitude would best help that evangelistic effort?  Do expressions of hatred help spread the Gospel?  Does calling all Muslims terrorists help them see that they need to come to Jesus by faith?  Or do we actually push forward the cause of the Gospel through dialogue, openness, respect, honesty, and charity?

James White has been the lightning rod of this issue, but it is far bigger than him.  The Church is being challenged by the violence of terrorism to reject hatred and remain steadfast in the embrace of the peace of Christ.  Giving in to hatred it easy, it appeals to our fallen human nature, it appeals to our tribalism and racism, but it is the opposite of the Fruit of the Spirit which we are supposed to be cultivating as disciples of Jesus.

Consider Saul of Tarsus.  He was a violent man, full of hatred, responsible for the deaths of Christians.  Should the Early Church have killed him in self-defense?  Should they have spewed hatred at him in return?  What did God do about Saul of Tarsus?  He showed him Jesus, and turned him into the Apostle Paul, perhaps the greatest missionary the Gospel has ever seen.  If Peter or John had given in to the temptation to respond to Saul with hate, how many souls would have remained Lost instead of hearing the Gospel?

A related question that we, as Christians, need to answer: Is our hatred of Muslims being driven by our politics?  When contemplating the criticism directed his way, much of which has only a token connection with the truth, James White recently said, "If your politics destroys your passion for the Lost in your life, dump the politics, stick with what has eternal value."

Are you a Christian?  Do you want Muslims, the vast majority of which are non-violent no matter what nonsense you read online or hear from politicians trying to get your vote or businesses trying to get your money, but even the terrorists who have killed Christians, to find forgiveness in Christ?  You have been forgiven for your sins, you came to Christ by grace, are you willing to be so ungrateful an adopted child of God that you would push others away from God's love?  All have sinned, all need a savior, if you think you have any right to be God's gate-keeper and decide who deserves God's grace and who deserves God's wrath, you are woefully and dangerously mistaken.

If the Gospel you claim to believe isn't for everybody, then you don't really believe it.

If you don't show love to the Lost, you have failed in your responsibility to share the Gospel.

The Church in a Post-Christian society

Much discussion has occurred in recent years, and will continue to occur, regarding what the Church's response should be to the growing number of non-committed, agnostic, and atheist young people in the Western World.  One of the motivations behind the conscious decision made by Pastor Andy Stanley eight years ago to change his approach to evangelism is his desire to make a greater impact upon a post-Christian America.  While it remains to be seen if we truly are entering into an era of post-Christian society, after all a majority of Americans still self-identify (I know the accuracy of such things is debatable) as Christian and trends can run both ways, but given that a significant portion of Millenials and other young people have a negative view of the Church, Scripture, and God, it behooves us to consider whether or not we ought to change our ministry approach in response.  Those churches which have embraced a seeker-friendly attitude are one such attempted response.

Let me, however, offer a counter-point and word of caution.  If indeed our society continues in its current direction of removing the sacred and the divine in the process known as secularization, does it really seem wise for the Church to imitate them by downplaying Scripture, prayer, or worship?  Shouldn't we maintain our emphasis on the exalted nature of our worship services so as to provide a contrast to the secular world?  Aren't we showing the world what it is missing as God's Creation when we continue to hold high not only the authority of Scripture, but the sacred qualities of prayer and worship?  For a church to downplay its religious symbols and to make worship more approachable for the Lost by putting the Bible and God in a lesser role, is not making them more appealing to those who need God, but removing from them the one element that society without God cannot imitate, the presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst.
It is absolutely legitimate to hold a rally or have a special gathering that is seeker-friendly, but this cannot be what we allow our worship service to devolve into.  Why are we in the house of the Lord on his day?  To lift his name, to worship the Almighty, and to be molded and shaped as his disciples.  The Lost are absolutely welcome to join us, to observe our worship, and hear the Word of the LORD preached, but it would be a mistake for us to remove from our worship the things that make them uncomfortable.  The Lost should feel welcome in our midst, but they shouldn't feel comfortable, for the wrath of God abides on them until they repent; seeker-friendly can't change that fact, and the Church should never try to hide it.

"No Earthly Good", in defense of Ecumenism

I recently experienced my first significant resistance to our efforts through Mustard Seed Missions to work ecumenically to help the needy.  Thankfully, this opposition did not come from anyone in my church, or even anyone here in our community or in one of the forty churches we partner with.  The objection to the work of Mustard Seed Missions came from people who had no direct knowledge of our work, but rather only an objection to the principle of ecumenism, in most of its forms, regardless of its application in our case and without any first-hand, or even second-hand knowledge of what it is that we actually do for people here in Venango County in the name of Christ.

It did of course bother me somewhat, and sadden me, to know that sincere Christians would object to a ministry that has brought so much hope and brotherly love not only to our clients but to our churches, but it didn’t really surprise me.  There is a long standing tradition in Church history of choosing principles over people in the sense that the people involved are considered to be casualties of the need to hold on tightly to principles and therefore such casualties are regrettable but not avoidable.  As I pondered this situation this morning I was reminded of a song that I knew as a kid that was covered by the Oak Ridge Boys but originally written and sung by Johnny Cash, “No earthly good”.  A portion of the third verse speaks to this point: “If you're holdin' heaven then spread it around, There are hungry hands reaching up here from the ground, Move over and share the high ground where you stood, So heavenly minded and you're no earthly good”.

Principles are an important thing, the fundamentals of the Christian faith are an essential part of what defines us that we cannot afford to lose.  That being said, the fractured and varied Church that exists today is the reality with which we must work.  In an ideal world, there would only be one Church, all in doctrinal agreement and all correctly following the Word of God.  In case you haven’t noticed, this isn’t an ideal world.  We have two primary choices then as we face the reality of the divisions within the Church of Jesus Christ: #1 Build a wall around our church to avoid the “corrupting” influence of the theology of churches that we object to and only work with completely like-minded people for the kingdom of God #2 Work with all of our sister churches for the sake of the lost even though we have important differences in our theology.

As someone who grew up enjoying the hard-nosed theology of the Apostle Paul, I can see the appeal of taking a stand on principle, but the words of Jesus Christ compel me forward, “whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”  In a world of darkness, I choose to seek out other lights that shine besides my own, together we will shine brighter as we share the light of Jesus Christ.

Who is responsible for the poor?

Whose responsibility is it to help the poor, the government or the Church?  Prior to the Industrial Revolution the answer was the Church by default, nobody else had the resources to help much, even if the various kings or emperors had wanted to.  After Constantine, the Church had grown in influence, wealth, and power, eventually receiving tithes in the forms of taxes and taking on the responsibility to help the destitute.  After the French Revolution, that arrangement began to change, modern constitutional governments were more efficient and the horrors of Dickensian working conditions in overcrowded cities cried out for universal protections against misfortune.  By the time of the New Deal and Great Society, the Church had taken on a much smaller role in poverty relief, relegated to running the occasional shelter or food pantry, organizing disaster relief, perhaps helping out with an electrical bill or overdue rent. 

                But what if the answer to the question of helping fight poverty wasn’t either the government or the Church, but instead the government working in cooperation with the Church?  What if government could tap into the willingness of faith inspired volunteers to help their fellow man, and the churches could tap into the resources of government for help with financing and administering that volunteer spirit?  It would take a degree of trust from both parties.  The government would have to understand that fighting poverty requires a spiritual element alongside all the others in order to find long-term success, and the churches would have to understand that their call to make disciples is best fulfilled when real help in the name of Jesus Christ is included.

                This isn’t just a hypothetical, it has been tried with success in a variety of places and circumstances, recently here in Western Pennsylvania where the Human Services Department of Venango County has partnered with dozens of churches to work together to help the most vulnerable living amongst us.  The resulting leap of faith created Mustard Seed Missions of Venango County, a non-denominational para-church organization which in two years has helped nearly 300 clients by harnessing over 6,000 hours of volunteer labor and multiplying a local government grant, as well as charitable grants and donations from churches and individuals, by at least four-fold.  The answer to poverty isn’t the Church OR the government, the answer begins with trust and cooperation from both of them.

A seed is planted...Mustard Seed Missions of Venango County

There have been several pleasant surprises here in Franklin in my first ten months: the ease of making the transition due to the overly friendly people, the amazing ecumenical cooperation among our churches, and now the fulfillment of a vision that began before I arrived but which I have become a part of.

Mustard Seed Missions of Venango County: a cooperative effort where Faith Works

This group is the official name of the Venango County Children's Roundtable's effort to come to an understanding with local churches in order to help (primarily) the children who are on the CYS caseload.  Of course, when you help the children, you help their families; and when you help families, you help the community.  This effort represents cooperation between more government agencies than I can possibly keep track of (amazing in and of itself) and more churches and denominations (a God thing if anything is) than I can list. 

My involvement began this past spring as a substitute pastoral representative at a meeting of about 20 people where we heard about the work of Seeds of Hope in Tioga County, an organization that has been doing something similar for the past ten years.  Other meetings followed, and the numbers began to grow; 30, then 40, and finally over 75 in September.  By then, there were representatives from about 50 churches throughout the county that had attended or expressed interest.  There was a critical mass of enthusiasm and hope, but a beginning still needed to be made.

And now, in the last 2 weeks, we have chosen representatives to be on a committee that will begin to move this vision into reality.  Our first priority: get out into the real world and help one of the families that we've been talking about all year.  That is now a reality that will soon be coming true; a local mom with a teenage daughter living in a home that is not safe will be receiving new windows, probably a roof repair, likely some new plumbing, and new doors (more or less).  All this with the generous donation of people's time and money, and especially the help of people with training and expertise in the building trades.

Soon, the project will be regularly helping with unsafe housing, rides to doctors appointments (using county vehicles, expanding an already existing system), and mentoring and counseling of families.  Each time a church offers real help to real people the potential exists to turn that moment into the beginning of a relationship.  Our goal, even beyond the very big task of helping in these situations, is to help construct the support structure that every person and family needs.  Where does that structure exist already?  Within our churches, as those of us who have been blessed with a church family know.  Where is the answer to drug abuse, alcoholism, neglect, anger, hopelessness, insecurity, grief, and every other such trouble that is common to man?  In the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We, Mustard Seed Missions, are not a social service organization; those already exist.  We're not an evangelism arm of our churches, they exist too.  What we are is a mixture of both.  By offering real and meaningful help to people, by showing the love of Jesus Christ through deeds not just words, we show to those in need that they have value; that God loves them.  If those who receive our physical help decline our spiritual help, we offer them God's blessing and leave the door open; if those who receive our physical help wish to know why followers of Jesus Christ would be willing to help them, we have an answer ready to share, "we love because he first loved us." (I John 4:19)

Will it be easy?  No.  Will it be without bumps along the way?  No.
But then again, what worth doing really ever is, and can you think of anything else our churches should be doing more than this?

The website: mustardseedmissionsofvc.org is up and running; it will soon become the hub for upcoming projects and will alow us to see what materials/volunteers are needed and also allow those who wish to help see what is needed and when.

The Undesirables

I've been preaching through the Gospel of Luke as Jesus meets one person after another who was marginalized by their own culture (fishermen, the leper, the paralytic, and finally a tax collector).  Each of these people are given Jesus full attention and treated as if they're the most important people he knows.  The fishermen (Peter, James and John) are invited to follow Jesus and fish for men, the leper is first touched by Jesus and then in that same moment healed, the paralytic is told that his sins are forgiven and then healed, and finally the tax collector is simply told to follow Jesus who then eats dinner at his house.
In each case, there would have been some who questioned Jesus' choices, who would have wondered why he seems intent on ministering only to the downtrodden while angering those in positions of wealth and power.  There's no mistaking Jesus' approach, he's clearly choosing to side with those whom society has discounted against those whom society has elevated.
It makes me wonder with fresh eyes, who are the marginalized in our society who are not being reached?  Who are the people for whom Christ died who are currently not hearing his message of repentance and hope?  How can the Church, and this church in particular, better reach them and show them the same love that Christ has shown us?
We're in the process of developing a radical program of ecumenical cooperation with CYS (Children and Youth Services) here in Venango County with the hopes of paring up church volunteers with the most needy kids and families in our area.  Those of us in the church don't always see them, but in most cases the caseworkers do.  As such, we'll be using their knowledge of the need to give our willingness to help a specific direction one family at a time.  The potential is amazing; there were 2,000 kids that CYS caseworkers worked with in this county alone last year.  What if 100 churches reached out to 20 of those kids each, wouldn't that be a profound change for the better?
Who are the undesirables that our society has turned it's back on, and how can the churches step in and declare God's love to them?  That is a question torn right from the pages of the Gospel of Luke; hopefully, our cooperative effort will begin to help them.

When you know the little ol' ladies are praying...

I have a theory: God listens to those little ol' ladies when they pray.  How do I know this?  I've had a sizable number praying for me, they've told me they are and I know they take it seriously, and something that happened on Sunday night proved God was listening to them.

As I was walking across the church parking lot to go invite some kids from the playground to our Awana kick-off event that was about to start, I noticed a young man (maybe 20, at least my size) walking along the sidewalk toward the parking lot carrying a baseball bat.  In the parking lot stood a group of teens (3 or so of them, probably all 15-16) who were yelling a variety of profanities at the approaching man.  It was obvious in a moment that a fight was about to begin.  With plenty of little kids in the area, not to mention a busy street a few feet away, I reacted on instinct.
Now, I've broken up a variety of fights in my day, one can't avoid physical confrontations when working with troubled teens, but this was something new.  Within moments I was standing between two young men, both of whom were yelling through me at each other, and one of whom I was facing as he held that baseball bat in his hands.  Were the cops coming, had anyone called them, no idea.
After several minutes of telling both sides that a fight wasn't going to help them any, that the cops would be sure to haul of to jail a guy swinging a bat in public, the two sides drifted apart.
It was only then that the realization hit me that I had been face-to-face with a guy I didn't know who was in a mood to swing a baseball bat at someone.  As I said before, the little ol' ladies pray for me.
That young man went to jail that night, the cops hoping to diffuse the situation, and the teen, whom I know a little bit from playing basketball at the park, came over later to apologize for using profanity in front of a pastor; who knows, perhaps this crazy moment will bear positive fruit in the future.
Five minutes later I'm leading 30 kids and a group of parents in prayer so we can start our Awana cookout, what a crazy thing the ministry is sometimes.

Sermon Video: "What I have I give you" - Acts 3:1-10

On his way to the temple to pray, Peter is stopped by a crippled man asking for money.  Rather than simply give what is expected (and needed, the man had to live too), Peter offers healing in the name of Jesus Christ.  Peter then helps him to his feet and moments later his is jumping for joy.  This episode illustrates for us the need to take action when we see suffering in our world and not simply turn a blind eye.  Moreover, we need to offer help in the name of Jesus because only the Gospel can take a glass of water and turn it into Living Water.  As Christians, we have no excuse for not being active (as individuals and as churches) in helping to alleviate and solve suffering.  Whatever you have, you can give.

To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video