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Archives For November 30, 1999

Personal belief, salvation, spiritual disciplines, formation

It could have been me

Meredith Flynn —  September 9, 2013

Jonathan_HayashiHEARTLAND | Jonathan Hayashi

Editor’s note: The following column is adapted from a response Jonathan Hayashi wrote after a gang-related shooting outside Uptown Baptist Church in Chicago August 19.

August 19 was a normal Monday here at Uptown Baptist Church.

We started our second service that evening with “Amazing Grace,” while around 100 people in the pews waiting to hear the sermon. Then, “Bang, bang, bang!” About 20 loud noises that sounded like fireworks. In fact, that’s what our speaker said from the podium. But it was too loud to be fireworks.

Pastor Michael Allen rushed to the east side door that opens onto Sheridan Avenue. We opened the doors to chaos. It looked like a war had taken place. People running in every direction, hundreds of people on the streets, people screaming and crying. Shattered glass, bullet shells on the ground; two men I remember coming through the building, one was shot in his thighs and another in his wrist.

I knew I could have been one of them.

If I had stayed in the gang, it could have easily been me. I still remember like it was yesterday, when I found out a friend had died at age 18 because of gang activity. I knew God loved me and had a plan for my life. But what about them?

God is not willing that any should perish. The problem is us.

We would rather stay safe, while neglecting our call to evangelism and discipleship. We are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. The Great Commission itself is about people being with the people and living there with the people!

Evangelist Dwight L. Moody recognized this important principle. “Moody was one of the few who had the audacity and courage to go into the worst district of Chicago, the Sands,” writes Lyle Dorsett in his biography of the missionary. “Sometimes called ‘Little Hell,’ this is where Moody went to rescue souls.”

Church, we are to rise up! Let’s get out of our seats and go into the streets. We wonder why revival doesn’t break forth in our community. But where are all the Christians? We are to be salt and light, seasoned by God’s grace and holding to the teaching of Scripture. Surely, then, there will be change in our communities.

We must learn how to view both the city and the Gospel with new eyes. We must see every person as more than a number, each made in the image of God. Every number has a name, and every name has a story. We must recognize the Gospel more like an every day process than a one-time event.

Moody himself said, “Water runs down hill, and the highest hills are the great cities. If we can stir them, we shall stir the whole country.” It’s time for a fresh wind in the Windy City. We must win souls for Christ and have victory for Jesus, but there will be no victory without a battle.

Jonathan Hayashi is minister of music at Uptown Baptist Church in Chicago and a student at Moody Theological Seminary.

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Choosing style over substance?

Meredith Flynn —  September 4, 2013

pull quote_flynnIn the struggle to keep young people in church – or bring them back – are we simply choosing one trend over another?

COMMENTARY | Meredith Flynn

Blogger Rachel Held Evans sparked numerous online conversations this summer with her posts about young people and church. Evans, 32, is a lightning rod in the evangelical community, having already tackled evolution and gender roles in her books. Her columns this summer on CNN’s Belief blog about why millenials are leaving the church are probably less polarizing, but likely more important too.

The disconnect between young people and the church is a real, documented problem. And the news is bleak: Barna found 59% of young Christians will leave the church permanently or for an extended period of time at some point after they turn 15.

Evans posits that young Christians can see straight through the church’s attempts to keep them. She writes, “Many of us, myself included, are finding ourselves increasingly drawn to high church traditions – Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, the Episcopal Church, etc. – precisely because the ancient forms of liturgy seem so unpretentious, so unconcerned with being ‘cool,’ and we find that refreshingly authentic.”

Young Christians, Evans says, don’t want a change in style; they want a change in substance.

Indeed, candles are cool again. And robes and vespers services and responsive readings. In fact, some churches have gotten so cool that those of us millenials who have grown accustomed to stopping by the coffee station before heading into the service are no longer cool enough. We’ve aged out of our own demographic.

That’s what happens when you emphasize style over substance. Style is divisive. So is substance, but we’re promised it will be if the church is focused on the Gospel.

Evans claims substance trumps style, but she’s still advocating for a change in the latter. The instruments of the ancient church have much deeper roots in church history than online giving and electric guitars, but they’re still accessories we use to “decorate” the corporate worship experience and draw people to participate.

None of those things are inherently right or wrong. But they are part of the overall style of a church, and hopefully not its substance.

I know the authentic, unpretentious church Evans writes about in her blog post. I grew up there, except mine was a Southern Baptist church that didn’t follow the contemporary wave of the early 1980s and 90s, but instead waved real palm branches on Palm Sunday. We dressed to the nines, sang along with a pipe organ, and recited the same prayer of contemplation every week. And in my small youth group, kids still struggled with their faith. Some even left the church.

Style may attract people to a church, but it won’t keep them in. No matter how old the style, or how young the people. The church needs something substantial, and fortunately, we have it.

Blogger and LifeWay editor Trevin Wax wrote that he mostly agrees with Evans’ style vs. substance thesis, but would tweak it this way: “What millennials really want from the church is substance. Not a change in substance, necessarily, just substance will do.”

And that never goes out of style.

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Young people are leaving, but why?

Meredith Flynn —  September 3, 2013

Tuesday_BriefingLeaders debate disconnect between millenials and the church

THE BRIEFING | Meredith Flynn

“Some millenials, like many from generations before us, want the church to become a mirror – a reflection of our particular preferences, desires, and dreams,” Trevin Wax blogged earlier this summer.

“But other millenials want a Christianity that shapes and changes our preferences, desires, and dreams.”

Those words from Wax, managing editor of LifeWay’s “The Gospel Project,” succinctly explain the debate sparked in July by a blog post by Rachel Held Evans. At issue: the millennial generation (generally defined as those born around and after 1980), the church, and the perceived distance between the two.

Evans, a 32-year-old author right on the edge of the millenial divide, shared on CNN’s “Belief” blog that too often, church leaders think they can bridge the gap with better, cooler style choices in music, technology, and the entire worship experience. But, “we’re not leaving the church because we don’t find the cool factor there; we’re leaving the church because we don’t find Jesus there,” Evans wrote.

She gives to church leaders who want to appeal to young Christians: “…I explain how young adults perceive evangelical Christianity to be too political, too exclusive, old-fashioned, unconcerned with social justice and hostile to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

“I point to research that shows young evangelicals often feel they have to choose between their intellectual integrity and their faith, between science and Christianity, between compassion and holiness.”

Evans’ column lit up social media and garnered thousands of comments on CNN’s site, where it’s still getting feedback more than a month after it posted. Other Christian leaders responded too, agreeing with some of Evans’ points but also offering their own take on the problem: 59% of young people disengage from the church for an extended period of time or for good, according to Barna.

It’s an important conversation to have, said Chase Abner, IBSA’s collegiate evangelism strategist. “Like it or not, Millenials will soon be at the helm of our churches, schools and governments. Let us labor that they might hear and respond in faith to Christ.”

It’s the in’s and out’s and how to’s of that labor that had leaders talking about Evans’ blog post. Trevin Wax noted that although Evans says Millenials long for Jesus in the church, the ideal church she describes may not look like Him.

“When I read the Gospels, I’m confronted by a Jesus who explodes our categories of righteousness and sin, repentance and forgiveness, and power and purity,” he blogged. “I see a King who makes utterly exclusive claims, and doesn’t seem to care who is offended.”

Wax writes later, “Rachel says Millenials want to be ‘challenged to holiness,’ but the challenge she appears to be advocating is one on our own terms and according to our own preferences.”

Several leaders who commented on Evans’ post turned the focus away from the church and took a harder look at Millenials themselves. Are today’s young Christians giving the “me generation” a run for their money when it comes to self-centeredness?

“I’m sorry Millenials, but I’m going to have to throw us under the bus here: we do not have everything figured out,” wrote author Brett McCracken on The Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog. “And if we expect older generations and well-established institutions to morph to fit our every fickle desire, we do so at our peril.”

In response to Evans’ suggestion that church leaders sit down with young Christians and talk about what they’re looking for in a church, McCracken proposed the opposite. “Millenials, why don’t we take our pastors, parents and older Christian brothers and sisters out to coffee and listen to them?”

Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, echoed that idea in a column on Baptist Press, but took it a step further by calling on church leaders and parents to help young people experience the church as a member of the body, rather than just part of various age-graded programs.

“When they are disconnected from the congregation, it should not surprise us that young adults, who have never known the church as a whole, are disinclined to embrace it when their age-graded group has run its course.”

Allen wrote he wants his children to get to know people at all stages of life in the church – from young couples to senior citizens. That focus on relationships is increasingly important to young Christians, Abner said. In a day when technology can make anyone an expert on anything – even Christianity – young people want to know whether the information we have is making a difference in the world.

“They can’t see that just from shaking your hand before or after a service. They can’t see that just because you teach the Bible well,” Abner said. “But they can see it in the way you love your spouse and children. They can see it in the way you follow Jesus at work. They can see it in the way you refuse to compartmentalize your devotion to the Gospel.”

Read more about young people and the church in the next issue of the Illinois Baptist, online this Friday at http://ibonline.IBSA.org.

Kazakh Baptists fined for meeting
Authorities in Kazakhstan fined 18 Baptists this summer for participating in religious activity not authorized by the state, Baptist Press reports. The country’s Administration Code bans participation, leadership or financing of any unregistered religious community. Forum 18, a religious freedom organization based in Norway, reported three Baptists fined an two months’ average salary for leading the meetings, and 15 others were fine one month’s average salary for attending worship.

Kazakhstan’s Council of Baptists don’t seek state registration, maintaining that the country’s constitution and international human rights commitments forbid requiring government approval for worship. Read more at BPNews.net.

Doves offer something for everyone
The nominees for the 44th annual Dove Awards showcase Christian music’s diversity, from rock to hip-hop, Southern Gospel to praise & worship. “The Doves represent the best of the best – in all genres of Gospel music, celebrating talent, ministry and outstanding performances,” said Jackie Patillo, executive director of the Gospel Music Association. The Dove Awards will be presented Oct. 15 and broadcast Oct. 21 on the UP network. Worship leaders Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin each received nine nominations, and will vie for song of the year with “10,000 Reasons” and “Whom Shall I Fear,” respectively. Read the full list of nominees at DoveAwards.com.

NAMB offers online resources to encourage church leaders
With Pastor Appreciation Month coming in October, the North American Mission Board is providing churches with resources to encourage and support their leaders. NAMB is encouraging churches to pick one Sunday to lift up their pastors during a worship service. The web page NAMB.net/honoring_pastors offers posters and bulletin inserts with 50 practical, specific ways lay leaders can encourage their pastors and their families year-round. Read the full story at BPNews.net.

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The Gospel, with no sugarcoating

Meredith Flynn —  August 29, 2013

Justin_KinderCOMMENTARY | Justin Kinder

A recent article in the Illinois Baptist newspaper caught my attention:

“The Presbyterian Church USA chose not to include the song, ’In Christ Alone,’ in their new hymnal all because the song mentions the ‘wrath of God.’ On Christiancentury.org, Mary Louis Bringle, chair of the committee who made the decision, wrote that the song propagates ‘the view that the cross is mainly about God’s need to assuage God’s anger and that view could be harmful to future generations of worshippers.’”

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by such an article in today’s day and age. However, I did almost spit out the Cheerios I was having for breakfast as I read it.

We must understand what the Bible says about sin and about God and His wrath. When our first parents Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, they let sin enter into our world. We are all sons and daughters of Adam. In other words, we are all born into this world as sinners. Adam and Eve did not escape punishment for their sin either. They were going to die a physical death and they also died a spiritual death. The same holds true for us: we are all going to die someday and before we ever come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we are spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins.

We must also understand that God, the God of the Bible, is a holy God. He cannot tolerate sin. In fact, He hates sin and He must judge sin. We deserve God’s wrath for sin but God in His mercy and grace sent Jesus Christ to be the perfect sacrifice to take away the punishment and penalty for our sin. When Jesus was on the cross, He endured God the Father’s wrath for sin for us. I believe that shows amazing love and grace by God!

There is also further proof from the Bible that Jesus Christ endured God’s wrath for sin while He was on the cross. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane remember that He prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” The cup that Jesus was talking about is referring to the wrath of God. Remember that Jesus also said while He was on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” He was quoting a psalm of David but in reality what was happening is that Jesus Christ was experiencing the wrath of God the Father at that very moment.

In John 3:36 it says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” In that passage, there is good news and bad news all at the same time. The bad news is this:  if you reject the cross of Jesus Christ, then the wrath of God still abides on you, but you don’t have to remain in that condition.  You can be saved.  Saved from what specifically? The wrath of God. Here is the good news then: when you believe on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior the wrath of God is taken away from you and you are given eternal life. You are no longer under condemnation but under God’s grace. My friends, we must not sugarcoat the Gospel. We must speak the truth in love and not be afraid to offend people with the truth of God’s Word.

Justin Kinder is pastor of Main Street Baptist Church in Braidwood, Ill.

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Young author donates book proceeds to Haiti relief

Meredith Flynn —  August 26, 2013
“Leila’s Big Difference” is 7-year-old Mackenzie Howell’s latest project to help Haiti. Photo by Kristi Burden

“Leila’s Big Difference” is 7-year-old Mackenzie Howell’s latest project to help Haiti. Photo by Kristi Burden

NEWS | August 26, 2013

On the first page of “Leila’s Big Difference” by Mackenzie Howell, a little girl stands with her arms crossed as the words “Too Little” float around her.

As the baby of her Haitian family, Leila sometimes feels held back by her youth. But when a teacher tells her class the story of a young shepherd who kills a giant that’s been menacing his community, it inspires Leila and her schoolmates to band together to make a difference.

First-time author Mackenzie likely can empathize with her main character. The 7-year-old Texan started trying to make a difference in Haiti when she was just five years old. The book is her latest project to raise money for relief efforts in the country where hundreds of thousands were displaced after a massive earthquake three years ago.

The first 400 copies of “Leila’s Big Difference” are nearly sold out, and Mackenzie has spoken at two local churches about the project. Her story was also featured in the Beaumont Enterprise newspaper. She has already sent $1,565 in book sales to the Illinois Baptist State Association for continued work in Haiti.

“When you hear about missions in action, Mackenzie is a true example,” said Bob Elmore, IBSA’s short-term missions coordinator, who has led several mission teams from Illinois to Haiti since the quake. “Her heart was touched by a need, she determined what she could do and didn’t limit herself. Her efforts are truly making a difference.

“This is commendable for anyone, but astounding for a 7-year-old.”

It started two years ago, when Mackenzie saw a TV show about the one-year anniversary of the earthquake and told her mom she wanted to do something to help. The Howells organized a coin drive at her preschool and a bake sale at their church. They raised more than $1,400 and sent the money to International Mission Board missionaries Jo and David Brown, who were instrumental in the re-building process.

The missionaries then connected Mackenzie with Elmore and IBSA’s continued work in Haiti through short-term mission trips. She sent IBSA the proceeds from her next project – selling homemade sidewalk chalk, playdoh, crayons and finger paints through a local mall’s program for enterprising kids. Her donation helped build a church in Port-au-Prince that doubles as a school.

This summer, with a 15-month-old brother in the house, Mackenzie decided she needed a project he couldn’t get in the middle of. “So we decided to do a book,” she said.

She enlisted the help of Jace Theriot, a 9-year-old in the Sunday School class her mom teaches at their church, Hillcrest Baptist in Nederland, Texas. Jace illustrated Mackenzie’s story, giving life to Leila, her kind-hearted teacher Mr. Bertin, and her lush homeland.

The two recently had a signing party where they autographed 150 copies of their book. And ate pizza and cookies, Mackenzie added.

Watching her daughter “gives me such an appreciation of the Lord being willing to use us,” Alison Howell said. “Because for her, the calling is so clear, and we could see how genuine it was, that it reminded me that the Lord really wants to use us.”

Mackenzie corresponded with Elmore as she created the story, e-mailing him questions about Haiti. Alison said he asked the questions of a young boy and girl in Haiti, so Mackenzie could use their input too. The young writer also researched the country online.

“She was so adamant,” Alison said about her daughter’s will to write the book. “And that’s been the really neat thing in this process, that she has wanted to do this. She has had the passion. Not one time has she said, ‘Mom, this is getting old,’ or ‘I don’t want to work on this story.’”

And while the book has made Mackenzie a bit of a local celebrity, her parents are careful to remind her of the spiritual lessons she’s learning.

“One of the things we’ve learned…is how blessed we are to live in America, and how much we have,” Alison said. “And so we’ve tried to teach her that when much is given to you, much is expected from you.”

“Leila’s Big Difference” by Mackenzie Howell is available for order here.

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Churches, Christians under attack in Egypt

Meredith Flynn —  August 19, 2013

EgyptHEARTLAND | Charles Braddix, on Baptist Press 

Christians and churches in Egypt need prayer this week, as violent protests continue in the country in response to the ousting of President Mohammed Morsi.

Egypt’s government cracked down on protestors last week; so far, nearly 700 people have died and 3,700 more are injured. And nearly 70 churches, Christian institutions and businesses have been attacked, burned or destroyed.

Beni Mazar Baptist Church in Minya, a city of 250,000 people 150 miles south of Cairo, was burned last week. No casualties or injuries were reported, although the pastor and his family live on the premises.

Months earlier, John Amin*, pastor of the Beni Mazar church, had said, “We live here at the church, so if someone attacks our church, they attack our home. The kids are afraid.”

Many in the community around the church are afraid, Amin said, but he still had a vision to see the church packed with those seeking Christ. “We want the community to see us and come and grow the church,” he said.

Minya reported the country’s highest number of attacks against churches, totaling 14. One of Egypt’s oldest Coptic Christian churches, the fourth-century Church of the Virgin Mary there, was torched and burned Wednesday.

In addition, the Egypt Bible Society bookstore in Minya was destroyed.

“Fear is a part of life in Egypt,” said a Christian worker who serves in the region. He encourages believers in Egypt not to give in to fear. “The enemy is strong here. He makes people afraid.”

Spiritual oppression is real, the worker said, stressing that boldness to share the Gospel, especially in difficult times, must come from the Holy Spirit.

*Names changed.

For Charles Braddix’ full story, go to BPNews.net.

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The ‘radical’ backlash

Meredith Flynn —  August 15, 2013

pull quote_BRIDGES_augCOMMENTARY | Erich Bridges, from Baptist Press

The backlash against striving to be a “radical” follower of Jesus started earlier this year.

Giving your all for Christ – including your life – goes back to the earliest Christian disciples and has been one of the marks of true faith throughout church history.

“Radical” living, however, has a more specific meaning in this controversy, stoked by several articles in Christian publications. It refers to the commitment young evangelical leaders, particularly Southern Baptist pastor/author David Platt, have urged American Christians to make.

In a popular series of books and teachings beginning with “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream” (2010), Platt has challenged American believers to forsake the comfortable, materialistic, watered-down Christianity many of us practice. In its place, he calls for the kind of sacrifice and obedience that might lead some to give up possessions, go to risky places to proclaim the Gospel, maybe even suffer and die for Christ.

He’s been joined by evangelical voices such as Francis Chan (“Crazy Love”), Kyle Idleman (“Not a Fan”) and others calling for a faith that looks more like the one found in the New Testament than the one commonly seen in suburban American churches.  

Hold on, respond the critics. You’re setting up an elite category of super-sanctified commando Christians, leaving the rest of us feeling like inadequate, second-class believers. What about everyday folks who quietly go about their lives and provide for their families, while faithfully worshipping God and serving others? Are they failing the test of basic discipleship if they don’t leave their homes and families and do something “radical” for Christ?  

“The heroes of the radical movement are martyrs and missionaries whose stories truly inspire, along with families who make sacrifices to adopt children. Yet the radicals’ repeated portrait of faith underemphasizes the less spectacular, frequently boring, and overwhelmingly anonymous elements that make up much of the Christian life,” wrote Matthew Lee Anderson (founder of the influential Christian blog “Mere Orthodoxy”) in a March cover story for Christianity Today magazine.

“[T]here aren’t many narratives of men who rise at 4 a.m. six days a week to toil away in a factory to support their families. Or of single mothers who work 10 hours a day to care for their children. Judging by the tenor of their stories, being ‘radical’ is mainly for those who already have the upper-middle-class status to sacrifice,” Anderson wrote.

Anthony Bradley went a step further in a commentary for the Acton Institute, reprinted in WORLD Magazine in May. He called the push to be “radical” – and the “missional” church movement generally – manifestations of a “new legalism” among evangelicals.

Bradley, a well-known commentator and professor at The King’s College in New York, said he reached that conclusion after a long conversation with a Christian student struggling over what to do with his life.

“I continue to be amazed by the number of youth and young adults who are stressed and burnt out from the regular shaming and feelings of inadequacy if they happen to not be doing something unique and special,” Bradley wrote.

“Today’s millennial generation is being fed the message that if they don’t do something extraordinary in this life they are wasting their gifts and potential. The sad result is that many young adults feel ashamed if they ‘settle’ into ordinary jobs, get married early and start families, live in small towns, or as 1 Thessalonians 4:11 says, ‘aspire to live quietly, and to mind [their] affairs, and to work with [their] hands.’

“… The combination of anti-suburbanism with new categories like ‘missional’ and ‘radical’ has positioned a generation of youth and young adults to experience an intense amount of shame for simply being ordinary Christians who desire to love God and love their neighbors (Matthew 22:36-40)…,” Bradley wrote. “Why is Christ’s command to love God and neighbor not enough for these leaders?”

This supposed “shaming” of young Christians sure is news to me.

I seldom pass up a chance to challenge young people to get involved in local and international missions – and I’m regularly inspired by their responses.

Ask counselors who work with young missionary candidates and campus ministers who mentor students, and they’ll tell you the same thing: Millennial Christians want to make a difference in the world. They want to serve the poor and fight injustice. They want to act on Christ’s command to take the Gospel to the nations. Sometimes they get impatient with parents and other elders who try to hold them back. And they’re willing, even eager, to go to some of the toughest places on earth.

True, not everyone is equipped by God to go to such places. Those who do go need to demonstrate a clear calling from God; otherwise they’ll never make it when the going gets hard. But everyone can participate in the task through awareness, prayer, support and local church mobilization.

The old division between “regular” church folks and the special few who go to the mission field has been bridged by the vast new opportunities for participation afforded by modern travel, technology and networking – and the rediscovery of the biblical truth that reaching all peoples is the mission of the whole church and everyone in it.

The only non-negotiable requirement is obedience.

One of the young people profiled in Platt’s “Radical” is Genessa Wells. The Texas Baptist teacher lived and served in Egypt for two years – and died there at age 24. She wasn’t a martyr; she was killed in a bus accident in the Sinai just one day before the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. I never met her, but I had the privilege of attending a memorial service for her a few days later in Cairo.

Wells, who had an angelic singing voice, had planned to pursue her study of music in seminary after she came home from Egypt. She never made it back, but she packed enough passion for several lifetimes into her brief life.

Shortly before she moved to the Middle East in 1999, she wrote: “I could give up (on overseas service) and get married and become a music teacher. All of this is very noble and to be quite honest, sounds good to me! But in my heart, I want to change my world – more than I want a husband and more than I want comfort. I need this opportunity to grow and to tell others about Jesus. One of my favorite praise songs says, ‘I will never be the same again, I can never return, I’ve closed the door.'”

Two years later, in her last email home, she quoted another praise song: “‘Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, open the eyes of my heart, I want to see you … shining in the light of your glory….’ It seems that everything we do comes down to one thing: His glory. I pray that all our lives reflect that…. It seems like a floodgate has been opened in my heart . I have a passion for it I never knew God had given me. He’s given it to me for His glory.”

She shared her passion for God with Egyptians, with Palestinians in refugee camps, with Bedouin in the desert. If she had lived, she might have gone home to Texas, gotten married, started a family, become a music teacher. Or she might have opted to serve long-term overseas. Either way, she had one grand purpose in life: to love God and praise Him wherever she went and in whatever she did.

Erich Bridges is an International Mission Board global correspondent. Visit Worldview Conversation, the blog related to this column.

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How will you celebrate your 120th birthday?

Meredith Flynn —  August 13, 2013

Tuesday_BriefingTHE BRIEFING | Meredith Flynn

A majority of Americans don’t want to be centenarians (plus 20 years), but they think their neighbors might, according to a new study by Pew Research. The survey of 2,012 American adults found 56% of them said they wouldn’t choose to undergo medical treatments in order to live to 120. But 68% expected most people would.

According to the survey, 69% of people place their ideal life span in the 79-100 range.

Pew also asked leaders from a variety of religious groups about their views on radical life extension. Jeffrey Riley, a professor at the Southern Baptist seminary in New Orleans, said evangelicals’ acceptance of life-extending technology and methods would depend on how those strategies are framed.

“If this was being advertised as never dying, I think a lot of people and the leadership of my church would be opposed,” Riley said in an article on Pew’s website. “However, if this was incremental and was seen as a way for people to continue flourishing, my church would more readily accept it.”

To read more about religious leaders’ responses and the study itself, go to PewForum.org.

Other news:

Judge orders new name for baby “Messiah”
A judge in Tennessee has ordered the parents of 7-month-old Messiah DeShawn Martin to change his first name because, “The word Messiah is a title and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ.”

According to ChristianPost.com, Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew first met the parents when they appeared in her courtroom to argue over the child’s last name. Judge Ballew helped settle that dispute, but may find herself in the middle of another, as the baby’s mother plans to appeal her ruling. Christian Post reports more than 700 babies were named Messiah last year in the U.S., making it the 387th most popular baby name.

Read the full story at ChristianPost.com.

Warren returns to pulpit after son’s death
Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Ca., stood in his church’s pulpit July 27 for the first time in 16 weeks. Warren, the author of the bestseller “The Purpose Drive Life,” took a leave of absence after his son, Matthew, committed suicide in April following a long struggle with mental illness.

Warren received a standing ovation that Saturday evening, and thanked Saddleback staff, members, his family and local pastors who supported him. Then, with comments from his wife, Kay, he shared the first message in a series titled, “How to Get Through What You’re Going Through.”

Read writer John Evans’ full story on BPNews.net.

Carmen Halsey to lead IBSA mobilization, WMU
Carmen Halsey will serve as the Illinois Baptist State Association’s new director of Missions Mobilization beginning this month. As part of the role, she also will give IBSA staff leadership to Illinois Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), and serve on the national WMU board along with Illinois WMU President Gail Miller.

Read more in the new issue of the Illinois Baptist, online now at http://ibonline.IBSA.org.

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So long, kitchen table

Meredith Flynn —  July 1, 2013

tableHEARTLAND | Erich Bridges, from Baptist Press

We hauled the old kitchen table out to the curb the other day.

My wife found another table she liked at a yard sale. The old one was battered and beat up, so it had to go. We called a charity group to pick it up. I was in a hurry to go somewhere. My wife had errands to run, too. So we left it there. No moment of silence. No fond farewell. When we came home that afternoon, it was gone.

I felt a pang of sadness when I thought about it later. That old table deserved a better send-off than we gave it.

It wasn’t an antique or a fine work of craftsmanship, just a pine table from a low-end furniture store. But it was the center of our home for nearly 30 years. It’s where we got to know each other, where we talked, argued and made up. The first time our infant son laughed out loud, he was watching an empty pop bottle roll across the tabletop (he thought that was hilarious for some reason). The kids spent countless hours wriggling around underneath it as toddlers — and countless hours doing school projects atop it. My parents, both gone now, rocked their grandchildren to sleep beside it.

How many meals did we eat together around that table? How many prayers did we pray?

“Things don’t matter; people do,” was the motto of Martha Myers, the late, great missionary physician who spent her life — and ultimately gave it — serving the people of Yemen. For her, things had significance only if they could be used to help the needy. She had little interest in personal possessions for their own sake.

Martha was right. Things don’t matter. But things do have meaning, if we use them for people. That’s the difference between selfishly accumulating stuff and blessing others with it.

A missionary in Africa broke one of his sandals recently. What to do? “I did what I have always done,” he wrote. “I went to what I considered a nice store, sought out a pair of sandals that I thought would be serviceable and purchased them for $24. An astronomical price for the Africans, I am sure. But I am an American. When things break we don’t fix them; we throw them away. My new sandals broke two days later. I asked a local friend what he would do.

“‘Fix them,’ he replied. Apparently there are men all over town who repair shoes for a living. He took my old sandals home. The next morning he brought them back, having sewn the sole of my favorite sandal to the upper part. Amazing! They still work. They feel great. Cost: $1. I had them fix my new sandals as well for the same price.”

The missionary also brought a new soccer ball with him from America, but it wouldn’t hold air.

“I went and bought another ball. The Africans with whom I was playing asked if they could have my broken ball. ‘Why?’ I asked.

“‘Because we can sell it,’ they replied. They were able to get $4 for it. Apparently one of the boys from the area took some glue and inserted it into the hole and plugged the leak. Who knows how long it will stay inflated, but some kid and I are each $2 richer!

“What have I learned? God is teaching me how to be a better steward of what He has given me. Can what I am about to throw away be repaired or used again in some other way? In America, when something breaks, you replace it. In Africa, we are learning to see things differently — and even find the value in something that looks ‘broken.'”

I wish I had done that with our good old kitchen table.

Erich Bridges is an International Mission Board global correspondent.

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How should same-sex marriage change the church’s witness?

Meredith Flynn —  June 27, 2013

pull quote_MOORECOMMENTARY | Russell Moore

Posted on Baptist Press, June 26

The Supreme Court has now ruled on two monumental marriage cases, and the legal and cultural landscape has changed in this country.

The court voted to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act and remand the decision of the Ninth Circuit in the Proposition 8 case, holding that California’s Proposition 8 defenders didn’t have standing. The Defense of Marriage Act decision, meanwhile, used rather sweeping language about equal protection and human dignity as they apply to the recognition of same-sex unions.

But what has changed for us, for our churches, and our witness to the Gospel?

In one sense, nothing. Jesus of Nazareth is still alive. He is calling the cosmos toward His Kingdom, and He will ultimately be Lord indeed. Regardless of what happens with marriage, the Gospel doesn’t need “family values” to flourish. In fact, it often thrives when it is in sharp contrast to the cultures around it. That’s why it rocketed out of the first century from places such as Ephesus and Philippi and Corinth and Rome, which were hardly Mayberry.

In another sense, though, the marginalization of conjugal marriage in American culture has profound implications for our gospel witness.

First of all, marriage isn’t incidental to gospel preaching. There’s a reason why persons don’t split apart like amoebas. We were all conceived in the union between a man and a woman. Beyond the natural reality, the Gospel tells us there’s a cosmic mystery (Ephesians 5:32).

God designed the one-flesh union of marriage as an embedded icon of the union between Christ and His church. Marriage and sexuality, among the most powerful pulls in human existence, are designed to train humanity to recognize, in the fullness of time, what it means for Jesus to be one with His church, as a head with a body.

Same-sex marriage is on the march, even apart from these decisions, and is headed to your community, regardless of whether you are sitting where I am right now, on Capitol Hill, or in a rural hamlet in southwest Georgia or eastern Idaho. This is an opportunity for gospel witness.

For a long time in American culture, we’ve acted as though we could assume marriage. Even people from what were once called “broken homes” could watch stable marriages on television or movies. Boys and girls mostly assumed they had a wedding in their futures. As marriage is redefined, these assumptions will change. Let’s not wring our hands about that.

This gives Christian churches the opportunity to do what Jesus called us to do with our marriages in the first place: to serve as a light in a dark place. Permanent, stable marriages with families with both a mother and a father may well make us seem freakish in 21st-century culture. But is there anything more “freakish” than a crucified cosmic ruler? Is there anything more “freakish” than a Gospel that can forgive rebels like us and make us sons and daughters? Let’s embrace the freakishness, and crucify our illusions of a moral majority.

That means that we must repent of our pathetic marriage cultures within the church. For too long, we’ve refused to discipline a divorce culture that has ravaged our cultures. For too long, we’ve quieted our voices on the biblical witness of the distinctive missions of fathers and mothers in favor of generic messages on “parenting.”

For too long, we’ve acted as though the officers of Christ’s church were justices of the peace, marrying people who have no accountability to the church, and in many cases were forbidden by Scripture to marry. Just because we don’t have two brides or two grooms in front of us, that doesn’t mean we’ve been holding to biblical marriage.

The dangerous winds of religious liberty suppression means that our nominal Bible-Belt-marrying parson ways are over. Good riddance. This means we have the opportunity, by God’s grace, to take marriage as seriously as the Gospel does, in a way that prompts the culture around us to ask why.

The increased attention to the question of marriage also gives us the opportunity to love our gay and lesbian neighbors as Jesus does. Some will capitulate on a Christian sexual ethic. There are always those professional “dissidents” who make a living espousing mainline Protestant shibboleths to an evangelical market. But the church will stand, and that means the Gospel which Jesus has handed down through the millennia. As we stand with conviction, we don’t look at our gay and lesbian neighbors as our enemies. They are not.

The gay and lesbian people in your community aren’t part of some global “Gay Agenda” conspiracy. They aren’t super-villains in some cartoon. They are, like all of us, seeking a way that seems right to them. If we believe marriage is as resilient as Jesus says it is (Mark 10:6-9), it cannot be eradicated by a vote of justices or a vote of a state legislature. Some will be disappointed by what they thought would answer their quest for meaning. Will our churches be ready to answer?

This also means we must change the way we preach. Those with same-sex attractions, who follow Christ, will be walking away from what their families and friends want for them: wedding cake and married life and the American Dream. Following Jesus will mean taking up a cross and following a hard narrow way. It always does.

If we’re going to preach that sort of Gospel, we must make it clear that this cross-bearing self-denial isn’t just for homosexually-tempted Christians. It is for all of us, because that’s what the Gospel is. If your church has been preaching the American Dream, with eternal life at the end and Jesus as the means you use to get all that, you don’t have a gospel that can reach your gay and lesbian neighbors – or anyone else for that matter.

Same-sex marriage is headed for your community. This is no time for fear or outrage or politicizing. It’s a time for forgiven sinners, like us, to do what the people of Christ have always done. It’s time for us to point beyond our family values and our culture wars to the cross of Christ as we say: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

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