Justin is a traveling evangelist known for his discernment seminar called Clouds Without Water, a biblical critique of the Word-Faith/New Apostolic Reformation/Prosperity gospel. He also preaches, “communicating biblical truth through expository preaching and teaching resources designed to deepen the believer’s knowledge of God and, in turn, his love for God” as his About statement reads. He and his wife are members of a church outside of Billings, Montana.
Mr Peters sends out a monthly newsletter bringing his followers up to date on his ministry activity. This month, November 2024, I read the following:
As of this writing, I’ve had two international trips, Brazil and the Philippines. Each was special in its own way, but something quite memorable happened in the latter. At my first preaching venue, there were about 1,100 in attendance. One of my presentations, delivered on a Friday, was on the history of the charismatic movement during which I made a brief point on the biblical truth that only men can serve as pastors and quoted 1 Timothy 3 as support. It was not a major part of this message, and I did not think much about it – until a few days later.
One of the Filipino brothers who organized the conference came up to me and said, “Justin, remember what you said on Friday about how women cannot serve as pastors?” “Yes,” I replied. “Well, you did not know this but towards the back of the room there was a group of female pastors who attended the conference. One of them was convicted by what you said and resigned as pastor of her church the next day.”
“Really?!” I replied. I was floored. But isn’t that amazing? She was a pastor on Friday, was convicted by the truth of God’s Word, resigned as pastor on Saturday and did not even preach in her own home church on Sunday! Praise the Lord! It’s not often that we get to see such a dramatic and immediate change in people – especially one that comes at a great personal cost. God’s Word indeed will not return to Him void without it accomplishing what pleases Him (Isaiah 55:11).
It might seem strange to post an excerpt of a ministry newsletter update on Thanksgiving, but isn’t that what a Christian’s Thanksgiving is all about? Praising the Lord for His work in hearts? The blessing of the Holy Spirit’s piercing of bone and marrow to bring conviction, then light, to minds?
Happy Thanksgiving to my friends. The Lord God above, for whom we are all thankful, is working today on this holiday and every day.
But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” (John 5:17). As we gather today on a day of not working, but a day to praise and thank, we are grateful for the Lord’s work in us humble and frail humans. As Mr Peters’ Philosophy of Ministry quotes Charles Spurgeon,
We are nothings and nobodies, but that we do not think so is very evident, for as soon as we are put on the shelf we begin anxiously to enquire, ‘How will the work go on without me?’ As well might the fly on the coach wheel enquire, ‘How will the mails be carried without me?’
And yet the Lord chooses to use us for His glory. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.Romans 11:36
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a time when we traditionally celebrate the blessings we enjoy in life. Many families have a tradition of sitting around their table and each guest or family member saying what they are thankful for.
I’m thankful for my salvation. For that to be possible I am thankful for the Holy Spirit drawing me to Jesus. For that to be possible I am thankful to Jesus for obeying the Father and dying on the cross. For that to be possible I am thankful for God who created all the world and who is so Holy that His Son obeyed Him and took all the wrath that was destined for me on that cross. I am thankful He revealed Himself to us in His word, and that we have the privilege of prayer, the Bible, the gifts, the fruits, and eternal life. I am thankful for the promises of prospering us in the regenerative process of growing in Christlikeness, for treasures and rewards in heaven, for the promise of rest and peace.
I love books! I love everything about them. I like inventorying them when I bring one home. I like looking at the ones on my shelves. I like my library room full of books. I like thinking about the ones I have read and the ones I want to read. I like the covers (I DO judge a book by its cover). I like the thrill of maybe finding a first edition (I have a 1st ed C.S. Lewis and a 1st Book Club edition of Dune). I like book bindings. I like antiquated books. I like the thrill of the hunt for books.
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Like this find delivered to the Metropolitan Museum. Maybe someday I’ll find a book like that!
I also like reading. I’ve always been a reader. I was weaned on 1960s Dick and Jane. I grew into Nancy Drew in 2nd grade, enjoyed Harriet the Spy as a 5th grader, got wrapped up in King Arthur as a High Schooler (The Once and Future King, The Crystal Cave, Le Morte d’Arthur), and the Classics. I loved the classics, like Huck Finn and Following the Equator from Mark Twain, The Great Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I did go on a tear in my early 20s on South American literature’s Magic Realism from Marquez, Esquival, Allende, Neruda etc.
In my thirties I was living on the sailboat and also traveling a lot and the internet hadn’t come to the little people yet so I always had a book in hand. I liked at that time the traveling/adventure narratives such as A Year in Provence, Into Thin Air, Tim Cahill books, seafaring books and explorer books like The Lost City of Z.
In my 40s I was establishing my business of a local newspaper and read journalism books and books about civic society. In this era the book Bowling Alone stood out.
Reading is my identity as a person. It’s also my professional identity. My two education degrees revolve around literacy, so my professional days are to urge people to become better readers, to enjoy stories, to find the value of reading.
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In my 50s I still read but not as much. I went back to work in education, this time not a teacher but as a teacher’s aide. It is a demanding job and with my aging I found I was tired when I got home. But the frequent breaks from school still provided ample time to read, and I revisited the classics and some modern literature. I had also been saved by the grace of Jesus and I started reading theological books such as the Puritan Paperbacks and other religious topics.
Then I turned 60. I was still working, and the job had deepened into being a teacher’s aide PLUS doing interventions with struggling readers and keeping up with the data. Educators make as many decisions all day as an air traffic controller. Decision fatigue is real. The irony of aging is that as one gains seniority or more experience, she is given more responsibility. This is natural. However more responsibility comes at a time when the person is tiring mentally and physically. This is natural too.
I realized that I just don’t actually read much any more. My brain is tired when I get home from work. On weekends my eyes are weary, dry, and sometimes aching or throbbing. It’s tempting to just watch a screen when there are so many options for entertainment.
I berated myself for a long time for being weak-willed, for being lazy, for starting to become aliterate (unwilling to read, although able to do so).
But I DO want to read! It’s a habit I cherish. I’ve read so many good books. I’ve used books as escapism, I’ve learned so much, expanded my vocabulary, and sparked my imagination. Many of my travels had a goal to visit bookish places, such as the great bookstores of the world, or the homes of famous authors, or locations where famous book events happened.
Why, WHY don’t I read (as much) anymore?
Smith Family Photography source
I set about to find out and to solve my problem.
I came across a video where the host proposed Why Adults Don’t read…And How to Start Again from The Book Guy. I don’t know anything about the Book Guy but his video was articulate and well researched.
Here are his reasons. But don’t just read them and go ‘Oh yah’, there’s more to them than first appears.
For example, in No. 1, he gives information about 4 levels of literacy. As an educator, I found level 1 and 2 to be interesting when thinking of my students and the lack of literacy at home. It helped me be more informed and more sensitive.
No. 3, not having enough energy is definitely a major reason. Between old eyes, decision fatigue, mental weariness, it had become much easier to watch TV mindlessly than read a book engagingly. And reading is a habit, letting it go even for a while like I have, dulls the skill. It’s harder to pick up later.
No. 4 is more complex than one would think from the statement. It’s not just a bad experience, which does tend to turn some people off. It’s the pressure from others or pressure put on one’s self to read certain books.
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After I was saved in my early 40s I happily read lots of theology. As my 40s were left behind and then the 50s as well, I then realized I had put pressure on myself to read what I thought I SHOULD read rather than what I wanted to read. I had incrementally viewed fiction as ‘dessert’, only to be enjoyed after dutifully absorbing ‘better’ books or more worthy books. Now, don’t get me wrong. I LOVE the Puritan Paperbacks, Commentaries, Christian living books I’ve read. Many have impacted me deeply and added greatly to my life.
[From Death to Life: How Salvation Works, Blood Work: How the Blood of Christ Accomplishes Our Salvation, Valley of Vision, Pilgrim’s Progress are just a few!).
I felt also that if I had time and inclination I should be reading the Bible. Was I letting Jesus down by not spending MORE time in the word if I had the chance?
But reading fiction is instructive in its own way. It’s not dessert. I’m amazed that as a younger adult all I read was fiction and now all I read is non-fiction. Did I become a snob? Perhaps.
I decided to get a fiction book from the Library that had been recommended to me. I pushed my computer away and got up to snuggle in my chair under a quilt, and read it. It was so relaxing. I sort of gave myself permission to indulge, and I even had a sink full of dishes, too.
Buying more books. EPrata photo
There are a few lessons for me here. First is just because I’ve been a reader all my life, I took the SKILL of reading for granted. As I transition to a slower season of life, I can’t take anything for granted- not energy, not skills, not time.
Second, read what you want. I will continue to read solidly theological books, but I will intentionally fold in fiction to the pile, and not feel guilty.
Third, just do it, as the saying goes. If I want to read, and I do, then just do it. Resist the temptation to first do the dishes, fold the laundry, and dust before, only to be too tired after. If it is important to me, then make the time.
So that’s my confession, my search for answers, and my resolve. Now if you will excuse me, I have a book to finish.
I was researching for an essay recently and came across, I don’t know how or where, a phrase calling Irish preacher Rev. William Patteson Nicholson “The tornado of the pulpit“. This is surely a vivid expression and nickname of a then-well-known traveling evangelist preacher in Ireland in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Another nickname I have come across is one given to 1700s British Methodist Mary Bosanquet Fletcher. She was known as “Mother in Israel“, a throwback to prophetess Deborah. She was given this nickname not only because of her charity work and running an orphanage, but because of her preaching. Fletcher is seen as the first woman to advocate in the Methodist denomination for women to preach in public. She was an early lay preacher ‘credited’ through a letter writing campaign to convince John Wesley that some women should be allowed to preach, a stance he eventually caved into. Fletcher said that some women are not called to preach just as some men are not, but ones who do have “an extraordinary call” should be allowed. In 1781, Bosanquet married John Fletcher, John Wesley’s successor, and they worked in partnership as co-clergy team. He died only four years after their marriage but Mary continued her preaching ministry for almost 30 more years.
How many preaching women today do we hear of excusing their rebellion by claiming that it is God ‘calling’ them to preach.
Lloyd-Jones
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones is known as The Doctor because, well, he had been a medical doctor before he submitted to the call of Jesus to preach. He earned a medical doctorate (MD) from London University and became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians. LLoyd-Jones was one of the most well known and revered preachers of the last century. His sermons are recorded and just as timely today as they were in the mid-1950s. He at first sought to cure bodies but God’s call positioned him to offer a cure for souls.
Charles Spurgeon was called “The Prince of Preachers“. AI explains, “Charles Spurgeon earned the nickname “the Prince of Preachers” due to his immense popularity as a preacher during his time, particularly in Victorian England, where he was known for his powerful and impactful sermons that drew large crowds, his strong theological convictions, and his ability to effectively communicate the Gospel message to people from all walks of life; essentially, he was considered the most prominent and influential preacher of his era, leading to this title.”
Itinerant evangelist Billy Graham was called “Pastor to Presidents or “America’s Pastor.” That’s because Graham had a personal audience with many sitting US presidents, from Harry S. Truman to Barack Obama – 12 consecutive presidents. Of all of them, Truman saw through Graham’s façade, naming Graham a “counterfeit” and publicity seeker.
Billy Graham
Emperor Aurelian was known as Restitutor orbis, a Latin phrase that translates to “Restorer of the World“. Wikipedia says, “Aurelian was a Roman emperor who reigned from 270 to 275 during the Crisis of the Third Century. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited the Roman Empire after it had nearly disintegrated under the pressure of barbarian invasions and internal revolts.“
We know who the REAL Restorer of the world is. Jesus. We know which city is the REAL Eternal City. Not Rome, New Jerusalem.
Some nicknames may give us a prideful push toward self-involvement. Spurgeon’s nickname, for example. Banner of Truth’s article “Lessons from the Prince of Preachers“, says of Spurgeon,
Spurgeon was convinced that the dangerous sin of pride could find him anywhere, even in the pulpit. Perhaps today’s ministers are even more vulnerable to hubris than in Spurgeon’s day. With the advent of social media in which ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ are the baseline for success, it is all too easy for a pastor to lose sight of the life of sacrifice to which he has been called.
I started thinking about the millions of people who are Jesus’ trophies of grace we will meet in heaven. I hope you have an eternal perspective, and think often of heaven, which is our country and our eventual destination.
Revelation 7:17, “…the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Art by Chris Powers at fullofeyes.com, free to use
There will be throngs on Jesus’ right hand, named as His sheep, and will be welcomed with love and joy. There will be millions we have not heard of. We are familiar with some of the missionaries of old, like William Carey and John G. Paton, Elisabeth Elliot or Corrie ten Boom. But those fine people are just a drop in a large bucket of folks whom Jesus has graciously saved to labor for Him on that side of the veil. Some of them have fine nicknames, others don’t. But we will have an eternity to meet them and learn of how they became Jesus’ trophy.
The most important thing is whether you have a nickname or not, is your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life?
Meanwhile, here is a snippet of a rabbit trail I embarked on when researching nicknames of famous Christian or historical figures. I love how smart and funny people are. This is from Reddit:
–Which historic person had the coolest nickname? I submit Isabela, ”the she-wolf of France”. –Basically any famous Vikings have anyone else beat. My personal favorite is Thorir the Troll-burster. –Ivar the boneless. –Don’t forget his brothers, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, and Bjorn Ironside. Not to mention his father, Ragnar Hairy-Breeches. –Bjorn Ironside; tried to raid Rome & accidentally raided random town. –Some people just hate to ask for directions.
And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. (Genesis 22:7-8)
The Sacrifice of Isaac is a familiar chapter to most Christians. We study it in Sunday School, it’s taught in VBS, we read it familiarly as mature Christians, our eyes having passed over the verses many times.
But sometimes the gravity of the moment just grabs you and won’t let go. The Father DID provide the Lamb for the sacrifice. The grandest, most beautiful, most terrible moment in all of history or ever shall be, was the death of Jesus on the Cross at Calvary.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)
Ambassadors have all the authority of the sending nation behind them. As Christ’s ambassadors, we have all the authority of heaven behind us!
Sometimes just thinking about how Jesus died for us and absorbed the wrath that was rightfully due me, is overwhelming. Sometimes thinking of how despite my craven sinful nature, God cleaned me and forgave me. Sometimes thinking of the fact that God uses me, a poor clay vessel, for His glory, is just too immense for my mind to absorb.
The Christian journey is sometimes not easy, and it is always demanding, but it is also the most joyous and entrancing life a person could ever imagine. If you have not turned to Jesus for forgiveness of your sins, sins that incur the wrath of a Holy God against you every minute of every day, please do it. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth split history. The event divided the world into two paths. One is narrow and leads to everlasting life. The other path is broad and many find it, and will descend to hell for everlasting wrath.
The Father did provide the Lamb. And He is exalted.
The Lamb Exalted Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” (Revelation 5:11-13)
Jennie Allen is the founder of the global conference for women called IF:Gathering. She founded it in 2013 based on a “voice from the sky” to use Allen’s words, telling her to equip and disciple this generation. IF:Gathering was born, “Inspired by the question “If God is real… then what?”
No. Romans 1 tells us that every single soul knows God is real, they just suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
I admire people who are committed to prison ministry. It’s important to heed the Lord’s commission to try and reach every tribe, tongue, and nation no matter where they are, in the 10/40 window of the hard and closed countries or behind bars where they cannot come to us in church so we must go to them.
But like everywhere, we need to be careful who we allow ‘in’ to our mind and soul. Women in prison are a captive audience, so it’s even more important to properly vet the speakers coming to teach. It is sad that the organization God Behind Bars chose Allen to minister to women.
Why?
Allen as mentioned above, she believes that disembodied voices from the sky are God. So, she believes in extra-biblical revelation. She also finds no worries in preaching to men, employs spiritual formation practices such as Enneagram, seeks unity at the expense of truth, and partners with terrible false teachers.
Below is a clip of Allen’s appearance at a max security women’s prison near Las Vegas. Allen wrote on her Instagram, “160 women attended in a maximum security prison in Las Vegas. 130 stood up to pray to receive Christ and we baptized 110.”
Mass conversion events like these always make me skeptical. These type of events are often musically manipulated, emotional events. Mass conversions are rare. Even Jonathan Edwards after the success of his piercing sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God which sparked the Great Awakening, was skeptical of the genuineness of the people rushing to claim they were converted. As John MacArthur has said,
So you must enter, you must enter this gate, you must enter alone, you must enter with a certain amount of violence (difficulty), and you must enter naked, in a sense—with nothing in your hands. You can’t go through the narrow gate with your baggage; it’s a turnstile.
On the other hand, you could choose the wide gate, easily found, easily marked with all kinds of false teachers pointing you in that direction. Lots of crowds, no difficulty, no self-denial. Bring your baggage, bring your sin, bring your self-will. No repentance, no surrender, no submission to Christ. It’s the gate of self-indulgence. It’s for those who want a little religion, but religion that doesn’t ask them to give up everything.
To be fair, it’s just a clip, so I don’t know if she preached a good sermon or not.
But to be realistic, she has never taught rightly so…likely when Allen says “Colleges to prisons! What do they have in common? They are all DESPERATE for God” I must ask myself, ‘Yes, Jennie, but WHICH God are they hungry for? Because your God is not the God of the Bible.”
When she speaks in interviews about submission to elders in one’s church, for example, it’s only if they are not controlling. And only if it doesn’t impinge on her ambition to preach.
I do mourn the false theology Allen probably gave in that prison. I HOPE it was a message solidly exegeted from the Bible to women’s souls in holiness and rightly dividing the word. I HOPE so. But I fear it was not.
I wonder how many of those women’s repentance was real or not, how many will continue to walk toward holiness as the emotionalism of the event wears off. It’s a grief to know that these false teachers spread their brand of faux-Christianity to unsuspecting women.
Satan is active everywhere, roaming the earth to see whom he may devour. We need to be just as active. I know it seems that the numbers are skewed in the direction of satan, i.e. that there are many more of them than there are of us. But God in His power will save whom He wants to save and He has no difficulty doing it. Yes, it is disheartening to see satan’s activity but it is more than heartening when one genuine believer is converted, adding to the trophies of grace in Jesus’ kingdom for His glory.
While I genuinely doubt all 130 women in the event were truly saved, I know that the Lord would probably have saved one or two, or a few. And they will be a light and a witness to His grace in that prison while they live, and then forevermore.
Growing up in my town in the 1960s, there was a train track running along the shoreline. Behind the tracks there was a busy wharf with fishermen, moorings for recreational boaters, and shoreside homes and their children running about. There were a lot of train crossings, and many of them weren’t guarded by automatic gates and warning signals.
Sadly, we frequently read back then in our local paper of crossing fatalities, both vehicular and pedestrian. To my impressionable ears it seems like almost a weekly occurrence. It wasn’t that frequent but I do remember my father, who was on the town Zoning Committee for a time, talking about the Town Council’s plans to automate and/or close some of the crossings to reduce potential for fatalities.
There is the false wall of fame and the true wall of fame. Many women already have their reward, but if your name is in the Book of Life, you are eternally known
So many people, especially women, are hopscotching the globe founding important ministries, establishing orphanages, ’empowering’ native women, or teaching to packed arenas, that it makes some of the rest of us humdrum ladies feel, ahem, left behind. Should we be doing the big things? Can we do the bigger things? Are we doing enough?
All I do every single day, is go to work. I come home and I study my Bible and pray, I write, and if I have enough energy after that, I read a bit. Then I go to sleep and do it all over again. On the weekends all I do is grocery shopping, laundry, cooking the week’s lunches ahead, and study a lot more and write a lot more. I go to church on Sunday. Bed time. Repeat.
I wash dishes in obscurity in north GA and my job is to help kindergarteners tie their shoes and struggling readers learn their ABC’s. It’s not glamorous. It doesn’t seem like it’s very much at all of a contribution to the kingdom.
I mean, Beth Moore is a nearly 70 year old grandma busy helping her daughter through her unbiblical divorce & remarriage and interacting with her grandchildren yet keeps a packed schedule. Joyce Meyer is 81 and still spouting what she spouts. Younger women also seem to be doing the big things, the glamorous things, like Bianca Olthoff with the charmingly titled book “How To Have Your Life Not Suck” or Dancing with the Stars runner-up Sadie Robertson flitting around from conference to conference. As for me, I’m just trudging along in one small sphere.
Well, let’s hear it for the trudgers.
First, if you are a mother, you are in a highly esteemed Biblical position. You are doing such wonderful work for the kingdom in being a foundation block in society, in raising pure young women and strong young men for the next generation. I thank Lois $ Eunice, Augustine’s mom Monica, Elisabeth Elliot, Mrs John G. Paton, Paton and Mrs Susie Spurgeon and Mrs Patricia MacArthur and all the other Missus’ who raised men and women who in turn, impact the kingdom.
Secondly, mother or not, married or not, if you think of the life of Paul most often we think of the highlights. His speeches before thousands, his dramatic miracles, his appearances before kings and leaders.
However, Paul also walked. Thousands upon thousands of miles, he plodded. He trudged. He hiked. From one town to another, in all weathers. In addition, Paul sewed tents. (Acts 18:3). He did the mundane. He wrote letter upon letter to friends. He fundraised. The in-between miracle times in his three missionary journeys were rife with the mundane and the insignificant, except nothing about a Christian’s life is insignificant. Not Paul’s and not mine and not yours. The Lord cares for all our concerns. He clothes us and feeds us and He even knows the number of hairs on our heads. To Him, it’s all significant.
As for the women of the New Testament, Dorcas was beloved not because she was Raechel Myers on storytelling tours of Rwanda empowering women for great things, but because she sewed. She made clothes for the poor and she “was always doing good”. (Acts 9:36). She lovingly helped, humbly and quietly, within her own sphere.
Mary, mother of God? Do we hear of her going on her book tour, telling about the angel that came to her one day, and the miracle of the three wise men or hyping up audiences with her harrowing tale of narrowly escaping the massacre of the innocents? No. Whether she was in Egypt or in Galilee, Mary simply raised her Son. She brought Him up in the faith and managed her household and she raised Jesus’ siblings too.
A few times a year she made the pilgimage to the Temple and the rest of the time, she did what women then and onward have done, she lived in her home and she was faithful to the Lord through His word.
Here are two articles about the plodding kind of faith that endures. That kind of faith is cement. It’s bedrock.
It’s sexy among young people—my generation—to talk about ditching institutional religion and starting a revolution of real Christ-followers living in real community without the confines of church. Besides being unbiblical, such notions of churchless Christianity are unrealistic. It’s immaturity actually, like the newly engaged couple who think romance preserves the marriage, when the couple celebrating their golden anniversary know it’s the institution of marriage that preserves the romance. Without the God-given habit of corporate worship and the God-given mandate of corporate accountability, we will not prove faithful over the long haul.
This one is one of my favorites. It’s by John MacArthur, titled An Unremarkable Faith
Meet Larry, a thirty-six year old Science teacher. Larry married Cathy 12 years ago. They love each other and enjoy raising their two sons. Larry’s life wouldn’t hold out much interest to the average citizen. His Facebook account doesn’t draw many friends and nobody ever leaves a comment on his blog. In fact, most people would summarize Larry’s life with one word—boring. But not Larry. Teaching osmosis to junior high students, playing Uno with his kids, and working in the yard with Cathy is paradise to him. But the real love of his life is Jesus. Larry’s a Christian. He’s been walking with the Lord for more than 20 years.
Not that founding orphanages isn’t worthwhile or something women or men can’t or shouldn’t do. Not that going on a missionary trip to Africa isn’t something Jesus wants us to do. But the big doers are fewer than we think, despite the hype. Most of the church is populated with plodders. As Kevin DeYoung concluded his article,
Put away the Che Guevara t-shirts, stop the revolution, and join the rest of the plodders. Fifty years from now you’ll be glad you did.
Ladies, keep doing what you are doing, one dish at a time, one child at a time, one year at a time. You are preceded by many magnificent plodders who we will gloriously meet in heaven.
Chris Martin used to write at his blog Millennial/Evangelical, which is now defunct. FYI, Hardcover or paperback books never go defunct, but online essays come and go like milkweed seeds in the wind. OK, old lady rant over, lol.
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In 2015 he wrote a piece called 3 Bad Reasons to Leave Your Church which is in archive mode now. The link works. Mr Martin is currently content director for Moody Radio and keeps a substack instead of a blog now.
I had not read a great quantity of articles at his site, but I did enjoy this piece. At the bottom of it, he has a link to a companion piece called 3 Good Reasons to Leave Your Church. Here is his archived essay ‘3 Bad Reasons’ opening paragraph:
“Stop treating your local church like your high school girlfriend, and start treating it like the bride of Christ.”
“You don’t leave the church when it doesn’t share the same musical interests, when it hurts your feelings, or when a newer, more popular one catches your eye.“
“The people of God, the Church around the world, is the bride of Christ, and the bride of Christ deserves the faithfulness of a bride, not the summer crush you bailed on when you were a jerk in college.“
And in like manner Mr Martin did indeed write about 3 ‘good’ reasons to leave your church. In the former (the bad reasons) they were trivial and self-serving. But sometimes there arises an issue in one’s church which violate one’s conscience, harms the sheep, or otherwise provide a basis for a holy reason to leave. Here are his opening paragraphs about ‘good’ reasons to leave:
On Wednesday I shared “3 Bad Reasons to Leave Your Church.” That sort of piece is common, almost a rite of passage for Christian bloggers these days. As I was brainstorming some blog posts the other day, I realized that I’ve read a bunch of posts on why not to leave your church, but I’ve read very few on reasons why you should leave your church. Allow me a bit of disclaimer as well: even among these “good” reasons to leave your church—it is my hope, as one who deeply cares about the local church, that even these problems wouldn’t cause you to leave. My hope is that somehow you could work through the problems listed below, stay at your church, and see them through to health and new life. However, not everyone is in a position to enact major change in their churches, so leaving may be the best option, unfortunately. Here are three good reasons to leave your church…
I recently left my church. I left in good standing and with recommendations from my elders to the church I’m currently a member of now. It was a plant to which I’d been a member since before the first service when we were praying and organizing. One of the elders who planted it had been my Sunday School teacher for 5 years prior to that. It was very hard to leave. I miss him so much to this day.
EPrata photo. Leaving your church is hard. It SHOULD be hard, anyway.
I left for 3 reasons. I’d had an issue since 2 years into the plant, then another issue cropped up 5 years later, then a final issue which cemented my decision to depart. I’d prayed for the elders and been a submitted member the entire time I was wrestling with my issues, but eventually, the Spirit in me made it clear in the way He makes it clear, that it was acceptable to depart. My first and longest-lasting issue was my church’s eschatology.
This week on Twitter/X I saw a poll and a discussion about eschatology which brought to mind this issue of whether to leave a church over its eschatology. The question was, “If your church required a specific end-times view to become a member, would you agree with that policy, though you held that same view of the end-times?“
I haven’t thought through the part about a membership requirement, but it brought to mind the issue of a church member believing differently on Last Things than their church teaches.
I noticed two things about the replies. Everyone called Eschatology (Doctrine of Last Things) a ‘secondary doctrine’. In purely theological terms a secondary doctrine is one that isn’t salvific, that is, requires a person to believe in if they are to be considered saved. The Deity of Christ is an Essential Doctrine. In addition, most of the Essential Doctrines contain a biblically stated penalty for NOT believing. CARM.org calls them Essential Doctrines and outlines them here.
Then there are Secondary Doctrines, AKA Non-Essential Doctrines that don’t touch on one’s salvation. Believing in the timing of Jesus’ return or the specific sequence of end-time events, isn’t a doctrine that illustrates that a person is unsaved. It’s not that the doctrine isn’t important when we call it ‘Secondary’ or ‘Non-essential’, but that it isn’t a biblical mandate to believe.
EPrata photo
CARM asked this question about secondary doctrines: Women pastors is not an essential doctrine, so why worry about it?Shouldn’t we just let those with whom we disagree go ahead and believe what they do about women pastors and not worry about it? The answer is that we should be concerned – very concerned. The reason is that in order to justify having women pastors and elders, several Scriptures need to be reinterpreted.”
If you’re interested, CARM has a Doctrine Grid here. Last Things is classified on CARM’s page as a secondary non-essential, “Any of them can be denied or affirmed, and regeneration is not questioned.”
But that does not mean these secondary non-essentials are insignificant. They are significant. All doctrines in the Bible are tied together with a thread, all of them touch on all the others. In order to believe certain stances, the interpreter needs to change his interpretive method and/or blatantly discount other clearly stated verses. So though a Last Things doctrine isn’t salvific, it comprises a third of the Bible and are a hinge point for many other interpretations and doctrines. It informs the preacher’s hermeneutic, that is, the WAY they interpret all the scriptures. And the way your pastor interprets the scriptures touches every person under his authority.
The second thing I noticed about the Twitter discussion of Last Things and membership was that though most people said ‘nah, do not require a specific eschatological stance for membership, don’t divide over non-essentials…EXCEPT…’ and then the person would state his exception. ‘Except if they believe preterism…except if they want to become a leader…except if they become divisive over it…’
I agree that Eschatology isn’t salvific, but it’s more important than one would think. The Prophets taught on it. It’s taught in the Gospels, referenced in Corinthians, Thessalonians, 2 Peter, and of course Revelation, among other mentions.
Eschatology informs us as to what to think and how to act when certain things come to pass. Eschatology makes certain demands and commands of us, as in Matthew 24, 2 Peter 3, and 1 Thessalonians.
Also, believing alternately from your elders and your church friends creates difficulties and temptations for the member. Several of the Twitter comments referenced this. When one signs on the dotted line to become a member of a church, often there is a clause with asks the prospective member to submit to the church’s teaching.
EPrata photo
In my case, as some of my friends studied and came to eschatological conclusions different from the teaching of our church, they came to me to ask about it. I always referred them to the elders if they had questions. We had open and approachable elders, a blessing. If they insisted to know my stance, I told them in general, but again strongly referred to the elders. If a member goes around teaching something different behind the Elders’ backs, it is divisive and causes confusion and a stumbling block.
This caused me a temptation to teach differently. My conscience was caught between needing to be a submitted member, which the Bible tells us to be, and my conscience in referring people to a teaching I honestly believe is error. A hard go.
Another issue is that the member who believes alternately from his or her church’s teaching on Last Things is muzzled. I wanted to joyfully shout the doctrines and exult in the Lord’s plan. I could not. Eschatology is a third of the Bible that I could not speak to, proclaim, or even encourage. After a while, this hurt my conscience so much.
Why did I join such a church, you ask? It was a plant by a then-young minister who had not completely cemented his personal reconciliation about the Doctrines of Last Things. Two years into it, he had, coming down on an opposite side of what I believed from my own 10 year study of the Old Testament first then the New Testament. What did I do? I was disappointed, but I focused on all the positive things my church did well, and there was a lot to be joyful about.
Until some other issues piled up. Until my conscience issue about the three issues I was having made it impossible and it as clear that I needed to go, not just for myself but for my church family. Let them be joyful in their interpretation, and I’ll go somewhere else and be joyful in mine.
Our church family is family. I know that blood ties feel strong, but they are only fleshly ties. Emotional, yes. Long lasting, yes. But the church family is eternal. It’s a family that is united not by our blood but by the infinitely holy blood of Jesus. Our union is with Him, through Him, and with Him. Leaving one’s church should not be a trivial matter, nor should it be casual.
Here are a few ‘church search’ sites that help you find a church according to the search directory.
TMS church search lists churches led by or planted by The Master’s Seminary Graduates. If you know the doctrinal stances of TMS then you fairly well know the doctrinal stances of these churches. Plug in your zip code or city info and a radius and it brings up a map and a listing. There are links for each search result that bring you to their website with contacts so you can check further:
There are good reasons for leaving a church and there are good reasons for staying. Pray it through, don’t be hasty, honor the Head of the Church and the under-shepherds (your pastors), and may the Lord bless your decision.
Seeing recently that David Platt, though exposed for malfeasance and deception in the documentary The Real David Platt, is still a sought-out speaker on the Conference Circuit, it got me thinking again about his book Radical. Radical was published in 2010, but like many Christian books, started an ongoing cottage industry of related merchandise, podcast, and so on.
Platt’s stance was that particularly American Christians, have had their holy senses dulled by comfort and prosperity. That our call is sometimes to be uncomfortable and abandon all to God and go on mission. A gross simplification, but that is essentially Platt’s stance.
Except! the book heavily intimates that UNLESS you are doing the hard thing and abandoning all for the cause of the Gospel, you’re not a real Christian. That was the overtone.
The Prosperity Gospel
I agree that the American church has a lot to answer for when we all meet Jesus. The prosperity gospel has sunk in deep and permeated every corner of the US. Now it’s exported abroad, and polluting churches in India and Africa and elsewhere. The prosperity gospel is no gospel. It teaches congregants to indulge their flesh, seek worldly things, and keep their eyes focused laterally instead of vertically. Joel Osteen is a master of this kind of gospel.
Joel Osteen flatly laid out the main precepts of Prosperity gospel out in a 2005 letter to his flock. “God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us,” Osteen wrote.
No, that’s not what God wants us to do. God wants us to live holy lives, pick up our cross, obey Him, be witnesses for His name, worship Him, be wise, and share the true Gospel all over the world, among other things. (1 Peter 1:15, John 4:24, Matthew 16:24, 1 John 5:2-3, Matthew 10:16, Matthew 28:19). The destiny he laid out for us includes trouble, persecution, hatred, and hardships, (John 16:33, John 15:18, Acts 14:22, 2 Corinthians 6:4).
The “prosperity gospel,” an insipid heresy whose popularity among American Christians has boomed in recent years, teaches that God blesses those God favors most with material wealth. Cathleen Falsani Wikipedia gives a quick overview of how this insidious gospel came to the fore:
It was during the Healing Revivals of the 1950s that prosperity theology first came to prominence in the United States, although commentators have linked the origins of its theology to the New Thought movement which began in the 1800s. The prosperity teaching later figured prominently in the Word of Faith movement and 1980s televangelism. In the 1990s and 2000s, it was adopted by influential leaders in the Charismatic Movement and promoted by Christian missionaries throughout the world, sometimes leading to the establishment of mega-churches. Prominent leaders in the development of prosperity theology include E. W. Kenyon, Oral Roberts, A. A. Allen, Robert Tilton, T. L. Osborn, Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, David O. Oyedepo and Kenneth Hagin. Source
The Prosperity gospel was preached so heavily on televangelist tv channels throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, that the 2010 David Platt book “Radical” touched a nerve and swept the pendulum rapidly in the other direction.
The Uncomfortable Gospel
The book blurb for Radical states:
It’s easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily…But who do you know who lives like that? Do you?
The book challenged Americans to reassess their commitment to the Gospel and make changes if necessary. Making sure that we are living biblically in submissive commitment to Christ is a worthy reassessment, but many people feel (me included) that the book made it sound like if you were living a normal life that happened to include comforts, you were somehow less committed Christian. Tim Challies reviewed Radical in 2011, saying,
First, I think our attempts to live radically can ignore the Bible’s concern that we be radically godly in character. There is no doubt that I am called by God to live sacrificially and generously. My first calling, though, is to know God, to be shaped by him and on that basis to preach the gospel and to live as if it is true. I am called to do all of this right where the Lord has placed me. This means that there is great dignity and great value in doing whatever it is that I want to do, like to do, and can honor God doing. We do not all need to be foreign missionaries and evangelists; we do not all need to move to faraway lands. We can (and must!) primarily honor God in whatever it is he has given us to do. I am concerned that it is difficult to read this book and believe its message and not feel that normal life is dishonoring to God.
However despite book reviews of Radical stating these same concerns, and a subtle rebuttal by John MacArthur titled An Unremarkable Faith, the pendulum swung hard toward ditching everything and running off to Bali barefoot to evangelize whoever happened to be in the way. The collateral damage of this pendulum swing included a backlash against Suburban Christians and suburbia in general. This is where it gets personal.
I agree with Challies. I have not been called to be a missionary in Tonga. I am not called to be a preacher’s wife in the 10/40 belt. I am not a Bible smuggler living dangerously in China or North Korea. I am a white, middle aged Christian woman living in rural/suburban Georgia. I go to a boring ole Baptistic church with regular people who have a variety of blue collar jobs, or are farmers, or work in professional settings. I drive the 2 miles to school every day, assist children in Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades, and drive home. I enjoy covered dish suppers, grocery shopping at the same place where I know all the checkout ladies, and banking at a small town bank where they know my name when I come in.
I live where there are rural farms all around including my own rental property where the birds flit about the tall pines. But horror of horrors, there are also ‘suburban’ subdivisions nearby, malls a half hour away, and a Burger King within a mile.
I don’t make a lot of money and in fact have to watch every penny, but I know by global standards I’m rich. I am comfortable in every aspect of my life, from what I drive, to what I wear, to where I worship, to where I work. Suburbia has gotten a very bad rep. I live in suburban-ish America, and according to many liberal and hipster Christians, I’m doing Christianity wrong.
Here are a few of the most prominent Christian objections to living in the suburbs. How many of them hold up to even a slight bit of scrutiny?
Suburbs are inauthentic: I confess to not quite understanding what this means. Yes, suburban things are often newer and feature less exposed brick, but how is that a moral argument? Suburbs are consumeristic: No more than large cities. Suburbs are morally repressive: Wait, overt exhibition of immorality is a good thing? Suburbs lack diversity: The most diverse places in the country are suburbs. Suburbs are full of a lot of Evangelicals who vote Republican: Oh, wait, now we are getting somewhere…
Obviously, each of these charges deserves a post of its own to address these issues with the requisite nuance, but even the one-liner responses should cause us to think. Why are we down on suburbs? Do we have a biblically grounded objection rooted in our personal experiences, or have we merely baptized a secular prejudice and called it Christian ethics?
Why do Christians hate the suburbs? Or if hate is too strong a word, why do so many disparage it? The question was asked by Matthew Lee Anderson in his 2013 article “Is Radical Christianity Radical Enough?“
David Platt, Francis Chan, Shane Claiborne, and now Kyle Idleman are dominating the Christian best-seller lists by attacking our comfortable Christianity. But is ‘radical faith’ enough? … Really. If there’s a word that sums up the radical movement, that’s it. Platt’s Radical opens with it, by describing what “radical abandonment to Jesus really means.” Idleman says he’s going to tell us “what it really means to follow Jesus.” Furtick says that “if we really believe God is an abundant God … we ought to be digging all kinds of ditches [for when he sends the rain, as Elisha did in 2 Kings 3:16-20].” Do those who lead mediocre, nonradical lives for Jesus really believe at all?
Working in day to day jobs, raising children, Coaching Little League, and living holy where God places us IS the great Commission! One thing absent from all the talk against comfort, is that this is where the Lord placed us. Others heed the call to go to the hard places. And some heed the call to dwell in places without discomfort. Like Lydia, Abraham, and others one could name from the Bible.
And there is exposed the subtle two-tiered system that books like Radical instituted. Therein lay the insidious mindset by these holier than thous, that the millions of people living and worshiping and witnessing in suburbia are ‘lesser-than.’
living in suburbia. EPrata photo
I reject that notion because of one important factor. This is where God put me.
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, (Acts 17:26)
God made the nations and all the peoples in the nations. He placed each one of us where He wants us, whether it be India or Canada, suburban Ohio or metropolitan Paris. He is sovereign and in His will and plan it pleased Him to give me this life. Who am I to speak back to God? Or worse, who am I to disparage His plan for me and many others He has set forth?
Yes- it would be sin if I lived in a comfortable environment and felt the call to become a missionary in Burma and refused Him because I was comfortable. Yes, I understand the original intent of the book Radical was to get us to reject sinking into a mealy mouthed Christianity because we’re surrounded by comfort.
The true fact is, no matter where a person lives, if they are doing Christianity ‘right’, it is not comfortable. It takes commitment, energy, a proactive stance, and diligence. Matthew Lee Anderson concluded his piece this way-
The Good Samaritan wasn’t a good neighbor because he moved to a poor part of town or put a pile of trash in his living room. He came across the helpless victim “as he traveled.” We begin to fulfill the command not when we do something radical, extreme, over the top, not when we’re really spiritual or really committed or really faithful, but when in the daily ebb and flow of life, in our corporate jobs, in our middle-class neighborhoods, on our trips to Yellowstone and Disney World—and yes, even short-term mission trips—we stop to help those whom we meet in everyday life, reaching out in quiet, practical, and loving ways.
The essence of Christianity is loving your neighbor. Suburbia needs loving neighbors ‘reaching out in quiet ways’ just as much as the poor need help in Calcutta or the lost need help in Afghanistan. The daily grind of being a faithful witness for Jesus occurs all over the world, in jungles, mountain villages, cities, farming communities, and suburban plats. I reject the Prosperity gospel, and I also reject the Uncomfortable gospel. I accept and live by the only Gospel.
The Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia summarizes the gospel message this way: The central truth of the gospel is that God has provided a way of salvation for men through the gift of His son to the world. He suffered as a sacrifice for sin, overcame death, and now offers a share in His triumph to all who will accept it. The gospel is good news because it is a gift of God, not something that must be earned by penance or by self-improvement (Jn 3:16; Rom 5:8–11; II Cor 5:14–19; Titus 2:11–14).
The Uncomfortable Gospel is a pendulum swing from rejection of the Prosperity Gospel. A knee-jerk reaction to the crass consumerism and dulled senses of prosperity. Lot was lulled by prosperity of Sodom, Abraham wasn’t. It is not inevitable that living a quiet life in the suburbs, and doing the day to ay mundanities isn’t real Christianity. It is. So is death by martyrdom in the New Hebrides. Real Christianity is obeying to the best of our ability (and beyond) whatever the Lord has set before us.
Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received—that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 15:4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve…( 1 Corinthians 15:1-5)
the-end-time.org 