If you’re like me you’ve been keeping up with the federal government’s attempt to bailout failing housing and financial markets this week. I found an article from Reuters in which the blame for this economic slump has been traced to a decline in Christian influence in our nation.
DALLAS (Reuters) - Conservative U.S. Christians say the culture has gone to hell and it has taken the economy and Wall Street down with it. It is a view which outsiders may find puzzling but has wide resonance in the U.S. heartland: the notion that moral decay and a lost sense of responsibility has brought on the worst banking and credit crisis since the Great Depression.
Such a view helps explain the unpopularity in conservative Christian circles … of a $700 billion bailout plan which the U.S. House of Representatives rejected on Monday, rocking financial markets. Mounting consumer and household debt as housing prices fall is one of the main reasons behind the current crisis -- a crisis that religious conservatives say has moral roots.
The narrative goes roughly like this: the "collapse" of the traditional family, widespread divorce and a "permissive" culture have led to a disregard for personal responsibility. A culture focused on instant gratification -- through the overuse of credit cards to buy consumer goods, for example -- has also lost other "traditional values" such as thrift and hard work.
"You can’t have a strong, vibrant society when you don’t have strong, vibrant families. It’s a crisis of commitment, it’s a crisis of responsibility," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative lobby group with strong evangelical ties. "If you don’t live up to your responsibility you are going to see that in the broader culture. You see this on Wall Street," he told Reuters.
It is a view that has been echoed by other conservative commentators, on Christian radio stations and on popular "Talk Radio" programs. "To spend more than you’ve got is not the way we brought up our kids ... You have a whole credit industry that grew up around people wanting what their parents had without working 20 years to get it," said Gary Ledbetter, spokesman for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.
"Although debt is not a sin, it also is not a normal way of life, according to Scripture ... debt is a dangerous tool that must be used, if at all, with extreme caution and much prayer," says the conservative evangelical advocacy group "Focus on the Family" on its web site.
“Evangelicals see moral decline in Wall St. woes” by Ed Stoddard, http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE4905RF20081001, 10/1/2008
I wholeheartedly agree with the Christians who were interviewed for the article. Biblical values, if accepted by a society, would lead to a prospering economy. There is one glaring insight missing from the story. Why do Christians have so little impact in our country today? It seems as if we’ve lost our ability to influence. It’s as if our light is hidden under a bushel. We’re the salt of the earth, but it appears that the salt has lost its flavor and is instead trampled underfoot. Jesus calls His people to impact the culture where they’re placed, yet we certainly seem impotent to make even the slightest change in our current situation.
How did we get here? The answer to that question would probably take longer than a 20 minute sermon. Rather than concentrate on what went wrong, I want to focus on what we can do right so that we can improve our influence and lead our families, community, and nation toward positive change.
In the Genesis story we read a few minutes ago there is a stark contrast between two men. On the one hand there’s Abraham, who impacted the world for generations to come for God, and on the other there’s Lot, whose influence was so completely impotent that he couldn’t lead his own family or much less his city to the Lord. The differences we see between these two men are instructive because from them we can understand why some people and churches influence their society while other are influenced by it.
Don’t make the mistake of concluding that Abraham was a believer and Lot wasn’t. Both men were considered righteous by God. Both were what we might today consider to be saved. I would have never concluded Lot as a godly man had it not been for two verses from 2 Peter:
… He rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)… 2 Peter 2:7, 8 (NIV)
Lot was a spiritually impotent man despite his righteousness. He failed his family, his city, and ultimately his descendants. The Moabites and Ammonites, his offspring through incest, both attacked Israel on their journey to the Promised Land and tempted them to engage in idolatry. Although he was a man of God, in the loosest sense of the term, Lot’s life for God was a dismal failure. A changed heart doesn’t guarantee that you will change the world.
We’re going to learn from his mistakes and take our cue from his uncle. If you want to improve your influence for Christ, apply these lessons from the life of Abraham.
Improving Your Influence
Focus on compassion and forget self-interest.
In the story both men petitioned God to save a city, but for totally different reasons. Abraham petitioned the Lord to spare Sodom and the other cities of the plain. Why? Not to save the wicked from a fate they obviously deserved, but to keep any righteous people safe who might be living there. Abraham was concerned that the just might be swept away with the evil. He haggled God down to 10. If there are only 10 righteous people will you spare the city. And God said “yes.” Apparently, there weren’t even 10. Rather than spare the city God rescued the handful of righteous from it.
Lot also petitioned the Lord to spare a city, but for a different reason. Lot asked Him not to overthrow the little city of Zoar. Why? He felt he was too old to escape to the mountains and Zoar was close by. Lot didn’t care about the people of the city. It was his personal safety that took first place. He wasn’t concerned about justice either. Lot’s basic argument for saving Zoar was that it was so small that the city’s sin was insignificant in comparison to the more heavily populated cities of the plain.
Concentrating on self-interest will derail our potential impact every time. Think about your family. If you are more concerned about the possibility of conflict and personal rejection you’ll probably never share your faith with your children. You probably won’t pray in front of them at home or talk about Jesus much either, unless it’s misusing His name because you hit your thumb with a hammer.
If you’re more concerned about self-interest that the souls of your co-workers you won’t share your faith at work. You’ll probably try to hide it. If you’re afraid of public opinion and how you look to the wider community you won’t sound off about the biblical view of issues affecting us today. You’ll justify your silence by saying that religion is a private matter between you and God. If you’re all about self-interest you’ll choose job and hobbies over service to your fellow man.
We can apply the same idea to churches. If a church focuses on the self-interest of filling seats they’ll increase attendance, but they won’t change hearts. Offer enough Christian ministry options and they’ll come, but they’ll never become. The church and its activities are just more things to consume and then go merrily about their business.
We must concentrate on compassion as individuals and as a church to make an impact. We must affirm that lost people will die and spend eternity in hell apart from Christ. Only genuine compassion for God’s lost sheep will compel us to pull out all the stops to go after them. We must also be firmly convinced that living by biblical values leads to the best possible life. Our compassion for people shackled by debt or agonizing in the insecurity of uncommitted sexual relationships or destroying their bodies through drugs and alcohol will lead us to demonstrate and share the truth of the Bible over all of life’s issues. We can never leave self-interest behind, but we can intentionally concentrate on acts and words of compassion to relieve the misery that so many people are living in.
During the declining centuries of the Roman Empire unsanitary conditions in the cities made them susceptible to plagues. When these hit the rich and wise folks quickly packed up and left town. The poor generally had no place to go and were left to suffer and fend for themselves. Thankfully, many Christians stayed and tended to the sick and dying. They sometimes turned their own church building into hospitals. They literally stared death in the face out of compassion for their neighbors and the call of Christ to love your neighbor as yourself.
“The care Christians showed often did result in their succumbing to the plague themselves. But paradoxically, their compassion did not deplete Christian ranks in the long term – quite the reverse. Tending to the sick increased the disease survival rate by as much as two-thirds, and this witness attracted many new converts. By acting on the teachings of Christ, without regard to their own welfare, these Christians, against all expectations, progressed from being a small sect to the dominant cultural group.”
Charles Colson, The Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Pub., 2008), p. 17
You can improve your influence by focusing on compassion and forgetting self-interest.
Shoot for excellence rather than settle for the minimum.
In order to see this example I’m going to have to remind you of last week’s study. In the heat of the day Abraham was visited by three men who, it turned out, were angels on a mission to deliver a message from God and inspect the evil cities of the Jordan Valley. When they arrived at Abraham’s doorstep, he quickly invited them to sit in the shade, washed their feet, and prepared a feast for their enjoyment, including a fattened calf which was a rare treat in those days. Abraham’s gift was excellent. It was the best he could possibly provide.
Genesis contrasts Abraham’s offering with that of Lot. Two of the three angels arrived in Sodom in the cool of the evening. He rushed them into his house, so the men of Sodom wouldn’t see and also prepared a meal. Rather than a feast, they were treated to dry, unleavened bread. He offered them the barest of essentials. Here’s the contrast. From Abraham, God received the equivalent of a Thanksgiving meal. From Lot, God received a micro-waved Hot Pocket. Lot wasn’t a poor man. Remember that he’d previously departed from Abraham with just as many possessions. The fact that he sat in the city gate signified that Lot was a leading man of the city. Hobos aren’t usually considered for justice of the peace. By its inclusion of the meals Genesis tells us that both men did the right thing in offering hospitality, but one was shooting for excellence and the other settled for the minimum.
Their distinct approaches inform us why Abraham made an impact, but Lot was spiritually impotent. Excellence doesn’t mean perfection. It means offering the best you possibly can. Excellence is costly, often risky, and requires wholehearted commitment. God is honored and people are attracted when we offer excellence. I would go so far as to say that God empowers and people are transformed by what we offer with excellence.
Think about it this way. What does an individual or church communicate to their culture about God when they offer excellence? Turn that question around. What does an individual or church communicate to their culture about God when they offer the bare minimum?
I’ve noticed that many Baptist churches also minimize faith. We boil it all down to accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. While that is true and necessary, there’s so much more. Biblical faith includes personal repentance from sin, a transformed heart, and a passionate love for God which translates into a brotherly love for neighbor. Biblical faith is about discipleship in which we train up men, women and children to live in obedience to the teaching of Christ, make more disciples, and transform the world. Whether we hold to a minimal faith or a biblical faith makes a difference in our impact.
T. Vaughn Walker became the pastor of First Gethsemane Baptist Church in 1984. Membership had peaked at 135 and attendance at 200. By 1990, average attendance nearly doubled to 375. In 2003 attendance ranged from 1,000 to 1,330 on any given Sunday. How did they do it? Excellence in ministry. Walker and his wife fast and prayer regularly. They also lead members in times of intensive corporate prayer.
“…Walker and the other leaders at First Gethsemane believe that anything attempted for God should be done with excellence. For instance, Walker insists on excellence in music and worship. He is leading the church to excellence in facilities. His preaching reflects hours of labor and prayer that could be described as excellent. Walker has also led the members of his congregation to do ministry with excellence.”
Thom S. Rainer, Breakout Churches (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Pub., 2005), pp. 129-131.
How is it with you? Do you shoot for excellence or settle for the minimum? What about our church? Would Antioch be characterized as a church in which outreach and ministry are excellent or somewhat mediocre? If you don’t know the answer, try a back door approach. Are we making an impact or are we impotent in this community?
Intentionally instruct instead of just hoping that it happens.
Let me show you how little influence Lot actually had. When he advised his neighbors to back off and leave his guests alone, they violently opposed him. When he encouraged his sons-in-law to escape the coming destruction, they laughed at him. As he led his wife to safety, she turned back to Sodom and died before reaching the city. The last scene the Bible provides of Lot is of a drunk who incestuously impregnates his two daughters … and it was their idea. Rather than turn to God for help, they choose the easiest and most contemptible means to solve their problems.
It is clear that Lot had little moral impact on those closest to him. Instead, they were all corrupted by the conventional wisdom of Sodom. It appears that Lot failed to intentionally instruct his family and acquaintances. Like many of us, he seems to have just hoped they’d attain righteousness.
Abraham was altogether different. Did you catch what God said about him?
“Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” Genesis 18:18-19 (NIV)
God’s promises were fulfilled through Abraham. He became a great nation called Israel. God’s interaction with his descendants is recorded in the Bible. God ultimately revealed Himself through the person of Jesus Christ, who was a descendant of Abraham. The man impacted not only his family, but all families on earth. This happened largely because Abraham actively instructed his offspring in the ways of God and equipped them to do the same. Abraham cultivated a people who sought justice and righteousness. At times they were influenced by the culture around them, but for the most part they remained distinct. This intentional instruction, begun by Abraham and passed onto succeeding generation, enabled them to influence rather than be influenced.
The need to intentionally instruct is just as critical today, if we and our families are to make an impact. In his book, Think Like Jesus, author George Barna concludes that most Christians don’t because we’re not intentional about instruction and our culture tends to influence us more than we influence it. Here’s why:
“…most [Americans] are immersed in daily exercises of covert worldview training via the mass media, public law, public school education, the Internet, and conversations with peers. Only an intentional process to develop, integrate, and apply a biblical life lens can protect us from the savage mental and spiritual assault that occurs every day.”
George Barna, Think Like Jesus (Nashville, TN: Integrity Pub., 2003), p. 42.
When it comes to faith and biblical values if you’re just hoping it happen for your kids and loved ones, you’re wrong. In fact, it won’t just happen even if you get them inside the church walls. Any given individual has a maximum of 2 hours instruction time from this church per week. Factor in talking, texting, and sleeping and instruction is reduced even further. The institutional church can’t compete with the hours most people are immersed in the culture’s values each day.
Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, you must unapologetically, intentionally instruct those you have some influence over. Don’t just hope it happens. If you’re kids aren’t studying the Bible on their own, you begin leading them. Teach with your words. Talk about the themes of movies and TV shows. Debrief your kids on the things they picked up at school from teachers and peers. Live your faith out loud. Most instruction is caught rather than taught. If you want to be an influence and raise up influencers intentionally instruct instead of just hoping that it happens.
A changed heart doesn’t guarantee that you will change the world. Antioch Baptist Church has a great past. This church has impacted lives for Christ. Will it continue into the future? A changed heart doesn’t guarantee that you will change the world. If we are to continue influencing our families, our community, and the world we’ve got to make compassion our focus, excellence our characteristic, and instruction in biblical faith exceedingly intentional.
