Brethren Reformation

To the Mohlers, on the occasion of sending their eldest son to college.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Ephesians 6:1-4

My wife and I are directly in the middle years of parenting our school-age children. I am often terrified to think what is coming in this next part of our experience. Sure, we’ve worked the soil, removed as many rocks and weeds as seemed right, planted the seeds and consistently watered. We even have tender shoots with some flowering buds.

But the weather man says scorching winds and drought are on the way and there is an ominous black cloud of ravens on the horizon and the tools are growing dull and my hands are sore and every so often a wanderer strolls by the field, greedily looking at my promising start, his bony hands clutching a bag of foreign seed. To be honest, I’m a bit worried.

God knows and understands our weakness. He has given us examples to see the outworking of His word in real flesh to remind us that He is true in what He says. He promises fruit in faithful parenting. He does not only tell us in His word but gives real examples of real soil, seed, water, work and fruit. He has set before us so great a cloud of witnesses that we may indeed lay aside every weight and not grow weary in running the race set before us. We are able to look unto Jesus because we have seen His glory reflected in the lives of those examples He gives us.

David and Susan are this type of gift for us. In them we are blessed to witness godly marriage and parenting. It is simple and honest. We are blessed to see the fruit of their labor as parents in their children. In particular, Jonathon is a testimony to the truthfulness of Ephesians 6:1-4. He is a testimony that there is hope for parents working in the trenches right now.  He is truly a blessing and encouragement to us as parents.

David and Susan, you are gifts to us from God as a living exhortation to keep parenting, keep trusting God, keep obeying His word. Thanks for running the race and continuing to run with endurance.

We are right behind you.

Last night, my wife mentioned a hymn titled “Arise, My Soul, Arise!”, of which I could not recall the tune. Google, of course, usually pops up CyberHymnal which has MIDI versions of a song’s tune. But not tonight - instead, the search returned a YouTube of “Indelible Grace” singing the hymn in question. It was not the tune I expected, and I was intrigued because this was good musical quality. I like stumbling on to surprises like this.

So I went to the Indelible Grace website and thereupon I found not one, not two, but five CD’s of hymns, many set to new, uplifting, musical melodies.

Some of the tunes on these CD’s are not necessarily my preferred style for congregational hymn singing. But for those of us who like to listen while we work, or perhaps sing in the car, this is great stuff.

All of the songs from all five CD’s can be previewed online, and they are all outstanding.

The articles on their website are equally good - such as the one titled, “My Grandmother Saved It, My Mother Threw It Away, and Now I’m Buying It Back”.

You can buy their CD’s on Amazon.

I missed this one. And, as far as I can tell, a couple of more well-known Brethren blogs who usually link to articles of Brethren interest either missed it as well, or chose to remain silent about it.

The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches (FGBC) is apparantly attracting national attention based on this article published back in May by Lighthouse Trails. It concerns the FGBC, CE National & BMH Books and their apparantly indiscriminating embrace of the religious philosophies of our day.

The concluding sentence of the article is 100% correct.

A little different topic than usual thanks to an e-mail from a Brethren minister alerting us to the possibility of a “homeschooling legislation review” in the State of Ohio.

Here in Ohio, we presently have a governor who seems, in my view, to be much better than his predecessor. But, as with all human government (including the human government of church absolutists, as I have recently read) there is nothing particularly comforting about trusting in man’s reason or ability.

We were encouraged to submit comments about our views & experience concerning homeschooling. Any citizen can do likewise by clicking here. The guidance is to select “parent” as the stakeholder type, and also indicate “parent” as the affiliation. (One might also consider entering “citizen” as the affiliation.)

Here are the comments I sent:

“We have homeschooled all four of our children until they have been 9th graders. Then we enrolled them into the public school. Our oldest child graduated from Butler High School (Vandalia) with a 4.0GPA. He has received several scholarships, and will be a freshman at Miami University in the Oxford Scholars program majoring in chemical engineering. Our next two children are both still in high school, a sophomore and a senior, at Butler. They maintain a 3.9 and 4.0 GPA, respectively. We are still homeschooling our youngest child, a 7th grader, also with excellent results.

We live in an excellent school district. Our school administration is outstanding, and the educational quality of Vandalia-Butler City schools is first-rate.

Those excellent results do speak for themselves, whether they are homeschooling results or public school results. Nonetheless, we believe that homeschooling is an excellent alternative for laying the groundwork for a young child relative to study habits, discipline, and maturity. Moreover, the public school system prevents the integration of academics and religious instruction. We believe history proves that such integration is vital to preserving a free, democratic society.

There is nothing broken in the State of Ohio’s homeschooling legislation. The State of Ohio should mind its own knitting, and fix its own mind-boggling educational problems before meddling with homeschooling. After all, we homeschoolers have contributed positively, across the board, to a higher standard of test scores for the public school districts we live in.

College degrees for parents are irrelevant. Homeschooled students of parents without degrees arguably perform more consistently better than students of the public school system. If the degree were important, the public school system itself would reflect it. But it doesn’t: the public school system is broken in spite of the professional nature of its educational employees, a large percentage having masters degrees.

Any legislation that curtails homeschooling in the State of Ohio will undoubtedly be met with a citizen response requiring a wholesale renovation of the public school system itself. The Governor and the State Board of Education has its hands full enough already without forcing its homeschool citizens to actually teach the “Government” what self government really is.”

Probably not as compelling as Patrick Henry would have written, but it’s a start. You can add your voice by clicking here. It is important to remember that God has placed us here, in the country He has, where we have the liberty to be salt and light. Canadian parents barely have that liberty anymore. Christian parents have every responsibility to honor God’s blessing by voicing their opinions and suggestions to their government leaders. This is biblical, and biblically responsible. If Christians do not state their convictions to the government, even as Daniel or the Apostle Paul did, then wherewith shall there be any saltiness?

Most of all, Christian parents have every assurance that God will bless them for obeying Him and doing His Will - even if the State applies legislative thlipsis (pressure) upon the Christian family. Such actions by government do not surprise God. Sometimes, when all goes our way, we are deprived of seeing God’s divine protection and blessing. Yes, I am careful about what I wish for: I pray for God’s continued protection of our liberties - especially where our children are concerned. I am especially comforted that God loves my children more than I do. To God’s glory, then, our assurance is not in government, the process, or homeschool attorneys. If God is for us, who can be against us?

With respect to last week’s Momentum conference, CE National tells us that the “conference changes, but the message stays the same”. No, the message has not stayed the same. The message isn’t even close to what it was one decade ago, let alone two. Sure, Momentum (nee BNYC) still has the same leader at the top, but the message has been changing for some time. I attended as a teenager; I attended as an NAC coach; I have even sent up to three of my four children several times. All along, I witnessed the progressive change in the message.

For example, I was post-high at the Bemidji, Minnesota conference in the mid 1980’s where I remember the Peters Brothers telling us to be careful what we listen to. Now, in 2008, CE National’s youth pastors hype up the pre-conference activity with lyrics from Shania Twain, complete with a teenage audience member onstage attempting to guess “missing” lyrics.

What Shania Twain song did they use, you ask? The following lyrics were projected on the Momentum screen, and the last three words were “missing” as a contest to see who best knew their music favs:

Any man of mine better be proud of me
Even when I’m ugly he still better love me
And I can be late for a date that’s fine
But he better be on time
Any man of mine’ll say it fits just right
When last year’s dress is just a little too tight
And anything I do or say better be okay
When I have a bad hair day
And if I change my mind
a million times

This is infuriating - and repulsive. It is astounding the foul colloquialisms and innuendo that children are exposed to in their Christian homes, “Christian schools” and churches. I can point to certain Christian school teachers and youth pastors in my own life that introduced my imagination to the prurient things of culture. I remember being consternated at the distinct contrast between what the Bible seemed to require of me as a Christian versus the behavior of certain Christian school teachers & youth pastors who would tell and/or laugh at “potty humor”. Where children and teens are concerned, I suspect that learning the nature of the culture from the culture is not nearly as damaging as having the nature of culture reinforced through the unblushed actions of Christians. That’s what was done on the stage at Momentum.

If nothing else, pastors across the landscape of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches should disavow this lyrical incident - and I mean actually disavow it - with the acknowledgment that “it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come.” They should admit, with Ed Lewis, that Momentum is no longer Grace Brethren. They should propose pulling their students from future conferences if there is not a wholesale return to an environment of teaching repentance and holiness. But it is of a certainty that they won’t. One rarely observes Grace Brethren pastors actually taking a stand for something that might cause ripples in their placid pond. (See 2 Cor. 5:10-11; 1 Peter 4:1-6.)

CE National, and certain sectors of the FGBC, have embraced the neo-evangelical penchant for pragmatism.  Last week, the huge outpouring of money for “orphans and starving children overseas” was equated by CE National as “the apparent presence of God” (see here). Really?  Were the spirits tested to make sure? If the presence of the Holy Spirit were really among Momentum’s leadership, there would never have been the inclusion of Shania Twain’s lyrics quoted above. The lyrical silliness may seem innocuous; Momentum’s humanitarian activity may be generous; the leaders may be trusted good ol’ boys of the FGBC. But none of that negates the fact that teachers are known by their fruit. None of that obviates the need for accountability, or exempts ministry personnel from being questioned. Just because they say  they haven’t changed the message does not mean that they haven’t changed the message.

If CE National should ever desire a Holy Spirit-empowered youth conference for their students that transcends Shania Twain and fund raising, their leadership will have to stop quenching the Spirit, leave the cheap object lessons in their boxes, and preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Momentum must decrease and Christ must increase. It is time for a new youth conference among Brethren people where students who want to become adults in their spiritual lives can be equipped to do so.

To diffuse a slight bit of confusion, the July 25th article below was written with respect to the Wednesday night (August 23) meeting at Momentum, not the Tuesday meeting. Tuesday’s meeting raised over $24,000 in funds for the anticipated “Momentum Youth Project” (see here). The evening I wrote about was led by Jim Brown; he is the one who made the claim (see here) that 100,000 people would be fed on $15,000.

Both days saw over $94,000 given by the attendees. That’s a lot of dough, and methinks it smells Laodicean. Laodicea was convinced that they were “meeting needs” through their riches, and saw no need for anything else. That arrogant church was so “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (everything contrary to what they thought they were) that Jesus Himself said He would spit them out of His mouth. There is every reason to expect that if anyone would have suggested to those Laodicean Christians that they were missing the point biblically, doing the wrong things in “ministry”, and not even preaching the true gospel, the Laodiceans would have denied that such was the case. Surely they would have insisted that such morbid change in their message from the true gospel simply was not possible - especially when so much bounty was an obvious endorsement  by God Himself.

Let us not forget that Jesus Christ was standing outside the door to that church. They were not, in fact, dining with Christ but only with themselves. They were content to dine in His name, and enjoyed it so magnificently that they did not even miss His presence. Such is the chloroform-effect of self-deception.

The Church’s primary focus, when meeting physical and material needs, should be on Christians. You did not misread that: it is biblical. Widows who are proven members of Christ’s body are among the first in line for our attention and our funds - not the nations of the world. So are missionary-preachers, who are among those worthy of double-honor. The world will know we are Christ’s disciples NOT because we are caring for the world, but because we are caring for (i.e., “loving”) each other. The question is fair: why wasn’t money raised by Momentum designated for persecuted Christians who need food, clothing, lodging and even legal aid? Why wasn’t a portion given to Grace Brethren International Missions to directly support those who ostensibly have the best influence within the culture itself (and really need it, given the decline of the dollar)?

Did I just say “We should not care for the poor of the world at all?” No, I did not say that. The point continues to be that our children should not be handed over to men and women who will unilaterally influence them to embrace pragmatism and humanitarianism. The point also is that it is not the church’s responsibility to band-aid the earth which is groaning and travailing under the curse. The issue for all Christians is very simple: bathe people who are covered in the the dirt of sin, and give the cold water which forever quenches the soul’s thirst. Either be hot or cold; once that command is obediently employed, liberty exists for other things. But lukewarmness ignores the preeminent requirement for repentance from sin; lukewarmness does not invigorate the soul by quenching the thirst for holiness. Lukewarmness locks the door to Jesus Christ, and employs earthly things in the name of Christ to build up that which will ultimately burn. Lukewarm people will cry, “Lord, Lord, did we not do things in your name?” And Christ will say to them plainly, “I never knew you.” He will tell them to depart just like he tells all unfaithful servants to depart. The Church cannot serve both God and money. Laodiceans serve money; they see it as the first remedy-of-choice. Momentum said, “Give money” and the assembly said, “Yes, and watch how much!” But where was the sermon that explained that poverty is a result of the curse? Where was the sermon that explained that man does not live by bread alone? Where was the sermon that God clothes His own children who seek first His kingdom and His righteousness? Those things were absent because Laodiceans see no need for that. All they need is enough money.

Some will insist that “decisons for Christ” were made or “commitments to full-time Christian ministry” were made. Great…I pray that those decisioners and committers will be discipled by godly pastors and godly youth leaders who will equip the students to understand the priority and demands of living a life separated unto Christ. I hope that their decisions are rooted in repentance. I hope that their commitments are of such strength in the Holy Spirit that they can withstand the hate of the world. In due course, we will see whether they put their hands to a plow and looked back.

This is a rant. If you need a happy fix, this is not it.

The former (Grace) Brethren National Youth Conference (BNYC), now named Momentum (”Mo” for short), seems to have gained some momentum in the fund-raising category. A recent report states that $70,000 was raised within 30 minutes Wednesday night during the evening session. That’s on top of the $444 bucks per student families forked over to attend (plus spending cash.)

I used to work in religious radio where we called these fund-raising episodes “Sharathons” on the air, and begathons off the air. The particular fund raiser at BNYC - I mean Momentum - began with an appeal for around $15,000 to (quote) “feed 100,000 people for one year”. But they raised $70,000 instead. So with the extra $55,000 in funds, an orphanage will be purchased and humbly named, “Momentum”.

This seems wrong on so many levels. Just do the math:

100,000 people for one year = 36.5 MILLION single meals per day.

ONE meal per day, mind you, for 100,000 people, at the bargain cost of $15,000.

And $15,000 per 100,000 people is only 15-cents per person.

May I suggest that $15,000 is not  providing one meal per day to 100,000 people for a year? And, no, the loaves and fishes (a gruel of grain, actually) dispensed by these humanitarian agencies are not multiplying miraculously. Think biblically people: if this was God’s miraculous provision out of the measly contribution of 15-cents per person, world hunger would be in exponential decline and there would be food left over. Contrary to humanistic opinion, the Kingdom isn’t on earth yet.

First of all, those teenage ears at Momentum only heard “feed 100,000 people for one year at a cost of $15,000″. And that is fundamentally deceptive. They were stirred by an emotional appeal to give money, with the metric of “quantity” being the guide: quantity of money for a quantity of people.

While the calculus of a ridiculously low figure of 15-cents per person is not computing in the minds of teenagers, I wonder if it is computing for you even as you read this? Consider what kind of food people are being fed for only 15-cents per person for one year.  Even if those dollars are combined with 1,000% matching funds that’s still only $1.65 per per person. Go ahead, match those funds by 10,000% - it’s still only $15.15 per person per YEAR - not per day - a little over four cents per person, per day.

As my math-genius son has pointed out, if it only cost $15,000 to feed 100,000 people for a year, there wouldn’t be any world hunger. Using Momentum’s figures, and assuming that the economy of scale reduces costs rather than raises them, It should only cost $750 million to feed 5 billion people for one year. That’s very cheap: Bill Gates alone should be able to feed 5 billion people for at least the next 33 years on only $25 billion, leaving him money to burn.

It ain’t happening.

The obvious reality is it does cost more than fifteen cents a year to feed a person. Surely there are cost-mitigating factors such as donated grain, donated packaging, donated transportation, donated labor, etc., which accounts for the disparity between the realistic cost of providing and distributing food, and the pseudo-cost being advertised to those Momentum-ized teenagers.

Momentum’s organizing corporation, CE National, has apparently partnered with “Convoy of Hope” to facilitate this humanitarian gesture. Convoy of Hope looks nice, and appears to be very well managed. They boast that 88% of their funds goes straight to the needs program itself. Their audited financials show that in 2007, $19,675,512 was expended for distribution through their program. (This figure excludes all of the administrative costs.) Thus, using the math the teenagers found compelling, this would equate to potentially 131,170,080 people being fed in one year by Convoy of Hope (if the charity provided only food.) Convoy of Hope claims to provide for only 16 million people.

My point is the numbers are meaningless in reality. These numbers serve only two purposes: 1) as a sales tool to impel funds from people as quickly and as effortlessly as possible; 2) as a way to “relatively benchmark” the cost-to-benefit ratio.

Secondly, since the stated appeal was for $15,000 to feed 100,000 people for one year, but they raised $70,000 instead,

• Why isn’t $70,000 being used to feed 466,200 people for one year?
• Or, why isn’t $70,000 being used to feed 100,000 people for 4-1/2 years?
• Or why isn’t $55,000 being paid to a missionary couple to distribute $15,000 worth of good food to a manageable community of people, thus facilitating the ability to devote quality time in evangelism, preaching, and discipleship along with better nutritional provisions?

What I am saying is that Christians make great pushovers, giving money away to the next great cause and thinking they have done what Jesus would do. Where is the accountability for these perpetual visions that people keep having, claiming to be given by God, and asking us to finance? Exhausting hype accompanies the plea, money is sent, and in two or three years all eyes are on another cool vision ostensibly given by God. This has been the increasing stock-in-trade since the 1970’s. Given the way visions come and go in parachurch communities, one would think God is an indecisive schizophrenic.

Thirdly, Momentum’s call for money was billed under the guise of sacrificial giving. No, the little boy with the loaves and fishes did not sacrifice  his lunch basket.

Based on 1,500 people giving money, that’s an average of $47 per person. Depending on your view, it’s either a lot or not much. Seeing as how “sacrifice” was apparently the spiritual keyword of the night, we’re talking the sacrifice of maybe one tank of gas per giver. Of course, these are teenagers and prolly 50% of them don’t drive yet, let alone actually buy a tank of petrol for dear-old-dad. So I’m not sure what they sacrificed. Pool money, perhaps. A year of Clearasil? Maybe they didn’t sacrifice anything.

Does it ever occur to pastors to remind their people that Solomon believed that the righteous do not go hungry? Or that Jesus said to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness…THEN all those other things, like clothing and food, are added to our mortal lives?  Why not ratchet up the faith of these students by declaring what it means to live a truly sacrifical life of preaching the gospel so that people are offended by their personal sin, offended by the global curse which wreaks starvation upon humanity, and moved by the Holy Spirit to become children of God, and therefore recipients of His mortal provision?

That is not the teaching teenagers heard at Momentum. The several generations of the late 20th century are being raised to believe that money and good deeds are synonymous with preaching the gospel and making disciples. These young minds are being mortared into the structure of a mixed-multitude, believing that all people - Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, gnostics, agnostics - are traveling their own, unique faith journey on roads paved with Common Love. In other words, “we’re all God’s children”.

THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE THE “MANY” OF MATTHEW 7:22-23. “But Lord, Lord, they said I was feeding the poor in your name! Didn’t I feed the poor in your Name? They told me I was being led by the Holy Spirit!”

Fourth, If I was the father of one of them youngun’s - or an FGBC pastor - I’d ask to see an accounting of those collected funds:

1. Ready cash was carried forward to the platform.
2. Checks were accepted - teenagers were at Momentum with checkbooks?
3. Credit cards were accepted. (In case you read too quickly, I said CREDIT cards - in an audience of TEENAGERS. I guess that’s one way to teach stewardship.)

One Momentum leader, seeing the ease with which $70,000 was raised, suggested going for another $20,000. That alone is just incredible. I mean, was God leading in the provision of the $70,000 - more than 4 times the original “goal” - or not? What is the basis for asking for more money? Were students holding back their money like Annanias and Sapphira?)

Fifth, this isn’t BNYC. But is it even a youth conference, or is it a Jesse Duplantis crusade?

When I attended BNYC, I was told that we should dare to “Stand in the Gap”, not being afraid to be the minority - to take risks, and contend for the gospel. It looks to me like things have changed over the years, and the momentum is moving in the wrong direction.

To spin up teenagers into assuming they are doing a great thing - namely, feeding people some gruel for a year by throwing money at the problem - is a travesty. Among other things, these students will consequently develop a mindset that the priority of preaching the gospel falls below feeding the belly.

“In his lapsed and sinful state, man is not capable, of and by himself, either to think, to will, or to do that which is really good; but it is necessary for him to be regenerated and renewed in his intellect, affections or will, and in all his powers, by God in Christ through the Holy Spirit, that he may be qualified rightly to understand, esteem, consider, will and perform whatever is truly good. When he is made partaker of this regeneration or renovation, I consider that, since he is delivered from sin, he is capable of thinking, willing, and doing that which is good, but yet not without the continued aids of Divine grace.”

Once upon a time, a lady was bankrupt. She had no means to evict herself from the positon she had willfully placed herself in. Her decisions in life were bent toward selfishness and greed, and she spent herself into oblivion. A man, who happened upon this lady, was moved of his own accord to pity her, and wrote her a check that would save her from her bankruptcy. She endorsed the check, and deposited it into the bank. Her bankruptcy was absolved. Her marriage to the man prevented any more bankruptcy, as he taught her his prudent ways and provided for her needs out of his own riches.

The lady, in her cheer, often went about town telling everyone that the decisive element of her financial rescue was the moment she endorsed and deposited the check.

Is the lady right or wrong?

“Imagine this scene. People coming before the Lord Jesus Christ with great anticipation of what is ahead and then hearing that earth shaking voice declare the verdict none should long for, ‘I never knew you; depart from me.’“

Those words are an excerpt from Pastor Tony Hall’s blog last week. Tony pastors the Cornerstone Community Church in Columbus. Some of you will remember the outstanding Christmas concert at Basore Road Grace Brethren Church where he accompanied Shawn McDowell with the guitar & piano.

Click here to read Tony’s thought provoking post.

If I have learned anything, it is that we Christians are sometimes our own worst enemies because we cannot keep our eye on the ball, and we cannot make the hard decisions that Christ said we would have to make in order to be faithful within the sphere of responsibility He has given us. Christians are so easily distracted by the shiny ball of change and variety, and so easily bored with steady work.

How often it is that we embrace “new” Christian experiences or church-related activities, attribute them to God’s sovereign plan, play at them for a while, then whip our heads to the right or left as new things start to call out for our attention. If such appealing distractions are entertained, the rationalistic tendencies of human nature are certain to kick in and sway us to dabble in yet another endeavor, leaving the former plow sitting in the middle of an unfinished field.

The activity of Christians, in our culture especially, often appears as a graveyard of abandoned plows.

My recent study in 1 Kings 18 brought some of this to mind, when Elijah asked the Israelites “How long will you hesitate between two opinions?” Notwithstanding Israel’s idolatry, I think the people discounted the truth of their calling by God. Christians do that today: we actively discount, if not deny, that God does call us to specific service. Therefore, we zig and zag through whatever turns us on in terms of “spiritual fulfillment” or “Christian service”. When it gets hard, or boring - when the luster of that ball becomes dull - we feel free to leave that work half-done and chase another shiny ball. And we take God’s name in vain by suggesting this is His (new) “plan” for us.

Certainly, our Christian lives are not meant to be “static”, wherein we reach a sort of equilibrium in our spiritual work, merely executing rote activity. But the work of Christianity really is doing the same things all the time. Christ’s work for us is hard, progressive, spiritual work, requiring much focus, much time in training, and much more time in execution. Blood, sweat and tears, to put it another way. In that vein, wannabes and hobbyists are a bane to the Church. The only thing worse is a legalist.

In explaining the hard work of pressing on toward the goal (Phil. 3:14), Paul uses the metaphor of a race (Heb. 12:1-2.) We are, certainly, to run with the intent of winning (1 Cor. 9:24.) But Christians engaged in the race often forget that we work within the Church as if the race was a relay, cooperatively working to pass the baton between runners as the laps continue. Who has ever seen an effective team where some runners trot side-by-side nursing their misgivings about the other runners on their team? Or runners that keep grabbing the baton out-of-turn because they  want to carry it? Or even a team where a runner decides to help the other  team?

Preachers have a hard road, preaching to the same people week after week, exhorting them to take up their own mantles within their own church. But shiny balls look nice; changing the race course for a pleasant path through the woods would be refreshing; rich, soft soil sure would be nice to work in for a while. The people in the pew are no different.

Well, the metaphors of shiny balls, plows and race-running are mixing a bit, but you get the picture. We should strive to say with Paul, “I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it…so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:23, 27b).

Disqualification does not occur only as a result of the gross sins we think of; I even wonder if that’s the least frequent occurrence of disqualification. Certainly, disqualification occurs when Christians sacrifice the Church for the sake of the world - and that happens a lot. But disqualification occurs even more frequently when Christians simply will not complete the tasks set before them, tasks given to them by Christ according to their ability.

Jesus Christ articulated the nature of disqualification quite bluntly: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).