Scott’s Blog

Sometimes leadership requires unpopular stands. About five years ago the elders were trying to change the focus of our church family from how we do church to the God that church is about. We felt we had to raise the value of worship so that we were more focused on actually worshiping God than how we worship God.

As a part of that effort we made an intentional decision to stop singing purely patriotic songs in worship. When a church family comes before God to worship, it should not then take a break from celebrating God to start celebrating man. We felt that there were times when we did just that. The point was not that Christians should not get together and celebrate their civic heritage. The point was when the family of God gathers during its worship time, it should worship. It was a matter of raising the value of the most important thing, at the expense of the less important thing. One of the hardest things about any kind of leadership from parenting to being a CEO of a large corporation is saying no to some very worthwhile and important things so you can say yes to the most important things.

That decision became one of the most controversial issues we’ve faced. People were passionate about it. Some genuinely saw their Christianity as a part of their civic pride.

The other way this issue manifests itself is when Christians want to rally around a particular political issue in an effort to reform or “Christianize” the culture.

There is nothing uniquely American about being a Christ follower. Certainly we are thrilled that we enjoy freedoms to worship as we will and we do thank God for that. However, that is different than celebrating our civic past as a break in the worship of God. As a church family, our focus is on one very narrow thing… moving people toward a passionate relationship with God. To whatever degree we allow ourselves to do other things we will dilute the purpose around which we exist.

It is also true that the central purpose of the church is not culture reform, its not to get everybody acting like they’re a Christian. The central purpose of the church is heart reform.

Having said that, the church simply being the church will produce Christ followers that are the salt of the earth. Those Christians will have a defining impact on their culture. Take some time and read the biography of William Wilberforce as one example. And, while the church should not be primarily concerned about cultural reform, it is the job of the church to speak out in grace and love where the Bible speaks out. The sanctity of life and the treatment of the weak and oppressed are two examples where we should lead in truth and grace. 

As Christ followers let’s be model citizens and work for the betterment of our communities. Let’s do that work humbly and with a spirit of servant hood for God’s glory. Let’s remember that our real citizenship is not on earth, it’s in heaven, and that Kingdom will reign forever.

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Dr. Gil Peterson was the president of Lancaster Bible College while I was a student there. We struck a relationship and Gil became my mentor. We’ve stayed in touch through the years. He has been one of the people that I can count on to tell me the truth no matter what. There was one thing about Gil that taught me more than his leadership of the college. Gil’s wife was diagnosed with MS. Her illness was a problem. She couldn’t travel with him on speaking trips very often. Mostly confined to a wheel chair, Dolores was a brilliant lady who needed to be taken care of. I remember wondering why God would allow this couple to be hampered by such a debilitating illness. It seemed to me that it cost so much time and effort that could have been used in other very productive ways. It was a moment by moment, day by day consideration for them. Several years ago Gil went through a series of medical issues himself. After a pretty extensive back surgery Bren and I made the trip to their home in Lancaster to take a meal to them and try to encourage them. While we shared lunch Dolores was talking about her work with others that walk through being diagnosed with MS. She shared that one of the first questions is always; “Why me?” In her own inimitable way she normally responded by simply saying; “Why not you?”

In the years since that lunch I’ve had many people ask the same question; “Why me?” While I never say it, I often think of Dolores’s simple response.  For some reason we tend to think that because we are Christians we should be protected from tragedy. The Bible never gives us that expectation. Christ followers in the Bible are not presented in idyllic circumstances by far. Nevertheless our surprise and frustration at suffering tends to surprise us.

The truth is that being in Christ doesn’t remove us from the junk that comes with living in a sinful world. God does make us new and he saves us in the world, not from it. As I write this we are dealing with a few weeks of higher than normal suffering in our church family. There are lots of issues; financial struggles, lots and lots of health issues, marriage crises, you name it. Many of the issues feel pretty serious. They are the kinds of things that have the potential to change the trajectory of the lives involved.

Yeah God.

 Yep, yeah God. Suffering provides a unique opportunity for us to show off the extraordinary attractivenss of God. Suffering gives us credibility with other sufferers. Suffering forces us to refocus on what is most important, what is eternal.

One time when Jesus was walking with his disciples they came across a blind man. The disciples wanted to know if he was blind because he had sinned or perhaps because his parents had sinned. Jesus was pretty quick with his response. “He was born blind so the power of God could be seen through him.”

Interesting. The guy’s suffering was not about him. It was about God and his faithfulness. Next time my plans are diverted by a crises, mine or someone else’s, I hope I can remember that. I don’t want to blow it the next time God orchestrates an opportunity to show his brilliance through tough stuff.  

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