Beware! Tipping Sacred Cows Can Be Dangerous

Last week I introduced a new concept, new at least to me – “tipping sacred cows.” What a crazy notion! I took the phrase from the sub-title of Pastor Brad Powell’s book, Change Your Church for Good: The Art of Sacred Cow Tipping. I share Pastor Brad’s conviction: “I believe that the church is the hope of the world … when it’s working right. And therein lies the problem. Most aren’t!”

These three truths resonate with me:

1. The church is indeed the hope of the world!

2. The church is the hope of the world “when it’s working right.”

3. Sadly, most churches are not working right today.

The question we must ever ask ourselves is this: Is our church working right? Does the local expression of the Body of Christ called First Baptist Church, South Lyon, Michigan – a local expression we cherish – operate according to God’s vision, purposes, and values? The impact we make as the hope of the world provides our answer.

How many lives are we seeing transformed by the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ? How many people have we seen be born-again this week, this past month, or so far this year? How many of our friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors have been drawn to Christ by His work through us as “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world”? The bottom line: Jesus Christ expects His body to make many and more disciples who engage in ministry and mission.

Jesus states unequivocally: “I will build My church, and the forces [gates] of Hades will not overpower it” (Matthew 16:18). Jesus’ claim bears three important implications:

1. First Baptist Church does not belong to the families who have invested their lives and livelihood here, though their investments have often been noteworthy. Neither does this church belong to any denominational entity, though we proudly align ourselves with the heritage and mission of the Southern Baptist Convention. This church does not belong to her pastors or her leaders, though their ministries have been praiseworthy through the years. First Baptist Church belongs to Jesus Christ alone. We are His church answerable to His design and desire for us.

2. The responsibility of building His church is … His. We may find certain methods, strategies, programs, or even gimmicks useful for a season, but the real Generator of growth in church life is the Head, Jesus Christ Himself. Make no mistake, He intends for His church to grow, to multiply. I am persuaded that He is so committed to building His church because He has commissioned His church to be the hope of the world!

3. Jesus also assures us that His church is to have an indomitable influence. The right understanding of His claim that “the forces of Hades will not overpower” His church is not merely that we will survive but that we will thrive. He does not emphasize here that we will be under attack “by the forces of Hades” but that the gates of Hell will be under attack by His church, and His church will prevail!

What has all this to do with tipping sacred cows? Well, I believe and contend that when the church is not working right, when the church is not growing and making disciples at a rate that threatens the dominion of darkness, more often than not the problem is with what we value. When believers value their way of doing church more that what Jesus says, they begin to cherish sacred cows.

What are we to do with sacred cows? Rick Warren famously proposed once: “Sacred cows make great hamburger.” We may chuckle at the witticism, but that approach would also be hurtful – to the sacred cows and to those who value them.

Let me close this week with some levity. Perhaps some folks have thought, as I did, that cow tipping was actually only an urban myth. My friend, Bert Spann, the pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Saline and an old country boy from Arkansas, assures me that cow tipping is an actual recreational activity, though he denies ever having participated himself. He did offer some counsel about how to “git ’er done,” though. I also found some sage advice from a sister’s blog called “emerginggrace.” Here are some realities to observe if one hopes to tip any cows safely and successfully – sacred or not.

1. Always remember, cows simply do not volunteer to be tipped. It is not natural to their preferred worldview. In other words, they will resist. For that matter, their owners are not to cozy with the notion either. They also will resist.

2. Make sure you have targeted a cow and not a bull! ’Nuff said.

3. A cow’s sheer body mass and center of gravity make the prospects highly unlikely, even for a group of people working together. In fact, the task requires a sizeable group with clearly-defined roles. Teamwork makes the dream work!

4. For the same reasons, momentum plays a key part in this adventure. We cannot simply stand still and pick up a cow. We have to get a good head start, build up speed, and hit the target squarely.

5. Apparently, cows are not all that susceptible to sneak attacks. They are hard to catch unaware. Moreover, if a cow is startled, they are quick to communicate to the rest of the herd that something is amiss. Think: Stampede!

6. Beware! Any attempt to tip a cow is by nature a dangerous activity. Despite a reputation for being placid and slow, a cow is actually quite capable of causing real and severe damage to humans when provoked or nervous.

Let’s moooove on! We will be chewing on this cud for some time yet. (Sorry, I could not resist)! Time to focus on Jesus!

Pastor Rob

Tipping Sacred Cows

Brad Powell, the lead pastor at the dynamic NorthRidge Church in Plymouth, writes: “I believe that the church is the hope of the world … when it’s working right. And therein lies the problem. Most aren’t!” (Change Your Church for Good: The Art of Sacred Cow Tipping, p 24).

Now that is one observation that should produce a reaction from anyone who loves Jesus Christ. In fact, I find Pastor Powell’s assessment to be downright provocative … and prophetic. His statement is certainly provocative in that it provokes a response and challenges me to think deeply and honestly about three people I love very much: Jesus Christ, His bride (the church), and … me. (I wish I could with integrity have listed lost people as the third person I love so dearly, but if I am to be absolutely truthful, I must candidly admit I think I love me more that I do them).

I also find Pastor Powell’s comment to be prophetic, not in the sense we tend to imagine prophetic – as some mystical foretelling, but in that I believe he is forth-telling – he is telling forth from God’s Word and heart the truth. Specifically, I recognize three obvious truths in his claim:

Truth #1: Yes! The church is indeed the hope of the world! God has established the confessing and possessing fellowship of Christ-followers as the Body of Christ – not government, not education, not religion, not economics. And this Body of Christ is charged to grow up and mature in a manner commensurate with the fulness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16). That means we are to be like Jesus, designed to remind heaven and earth of the love and grace and mercy afforded us in Jesus Christ. We are to function as His hands, His feet, and His voice to invite all nations to know Him and to make Him known (Matthew 22:1-14; 28:19-20).

Moreover, when He returns for His Bride, again, He is not coming for governments, or financial institutions, or even benevolent organizations. He is coming for His Bride, the church! Even when He comes for her – for us – the bride is found in Scripture applying herself to His mission – inviting all people to come to the Living Water (Revelation 22:17).

Truth #2: Yes! The church is the hope of the world “when it’s working right.” When the church does not work according to “specs” – according to God’s original design and desire for His people – then we actually become a hindrance, even an obstacle to people’s clear reception of Jesus. I find it enlightening that when Jesus says to His disciples, to us, “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world,” He immediately follows each of those glowing commendations with warnings. “Don’t become contaminated and, thereby, lose your salt-like capacity to draw people to God.” “Be careful you don’t cover up the light and, thereby, obscure the path for people in the dark” (Matthew 5:13-15).

You see, the bad news is that when the church is not on mission, operating according to God’s vision and values, then our systems and strategies, our ways of “doing church” actually make the Gospel unclear to folks. The good news, however, is that when all we do as a church, when our programs and practices are governed by God’s vision, God’s mission, and God’s values, then we are indeed the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the great hope of the world Jesus says we are. And when we are operating at peak proficiency, informed by God’s Word and inspired by His passion for all people, then we our light will shine in such a way before people that they see our good works – not our hypocrisy, not our secret code words, not our exclusivity – and they will give glory to our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16)! Hooray! and Hallelujah!

Truth #3: Yes. Sadly, most churches are not working right today. We are all familiar with the statistic by now: 80% of all churches in the United States today are declining or plateaued (a polite way of saying “dying more slowly”). I actually heard this week, that figure could be more accurately measured as high as 92-94%!

When churches love their way of doing church more than they love God’s mission, or more than they love lost people, then those churches are not working right. And when they are not working right, the common perception of the church is that we are out-dated, irrelevant, and unnecessary. So, leaders like Dan Kimball discover and write to warn us that the emerging generations “like Jesus but not the church.” When people begin to think that of His ambassadors, then a disregard for “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” is sure to follow. Who would argue that we are not seeing a massive war effort in our culture today to “dethrone Jesus,” as scholars and authors Darrell Bock and Daniel Wallace contend in their book, Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture's Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ?

Here’s the tough question: What do people in our community see when they look at us? Do our activities direct them to God? How many of our neighbors, our co-workers, or our classmates are giving glory to God because of our “good works”?

Much, if not most of what brings a church to decline is a fascination with what we like, forms of faithful practice that appeal to us, that are meaningful to us. We step onto a slippery slope when that fascination completes with or worse, even drowns out the appeal of God for us to be or become “all things to all people” so that we might “by any means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). When we find ourselves in that condition, it is time to look around and see if we may have some sacred cows that need to be … tipped. I have much more to say about this in the weeks to come. Maybe next time I will write about lessons from the dangers of cow tipping. Until then, let us strive to be His church, the hope of the world!

Pastor Rob

There's a Song in the Air

In the first volume of his classic Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, CS Lewis portrays Narnia before the arrival of the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, and the subsequent thaw that heralds the coming of Aslan, as a land where it is “always winter and never Christmas.” Can anything be more dreadful to a child’s mind? Long frigid nights, shortened days colored dreary and gray, cold winds imposing their will on bare trees that can only creak in mournful complaint, week after tiresome week of school with Christmas vacation far from view, snow, ice, chill, and more snow, … Hold on a minute, that sounds a lot like winter in Michigan this year. To make matters worse, with the writers’ strike, I have to endure winter without some of my favorite television programs! (sigh)

Indeed, winter has maintained a relentless grip on us this year. Since early December, it seems creation has been chastising us with one wintry blast after another. In fact, we have had so many snow storms, ice events, and arctic temps on Saturday nights these past 8-10 weeks that I am very nearly convinced our enemy, the prince of the power of the air no less, has specifically targeted pastors’ hearts with this weather cycle and its impact on folks coming together on Sundays for worship and fellowship.

Take heart, beloved! I have some wonderful news! A most gladsome sound has reached my ear this week, a song with indiscernible lyrics but a most clear message in the melody. Three times this week, after long, cold nights, I have been greeted in the morning with the singing of birds! They have begun to greet the dawn just outside my bedroom window. Birds singing in the morning – surely the grip of winter must soon break!

They sang again this morning. They were still singing at mid-morning when a home health care professional visited my father-in-law. From my study, I heard him comment as well on the aviary arias (a fancy reference on my part to birdsong). He called the day “delightful” and declared it was especially so because of the birds singing.

Delightful – snow-covered, frosty, but delightful. The power of hope fascinates me. How marvelous that dreariness can be so easily transformed into delight. How magically hope warms our hearts, thaws our spirits from the icy clutch of despair, and stokes the embers of our courage so that we can trudge forward! When I had nearly resigned myself to give in to the gloom, hopeful whispers of joy steady me and stir me to look upward and outward again.

I find particularly intriguing today the messengers God often uses to transport hope from the holy majesty of His love to the humdrum monotony of our lives. The heralds He employs are not often grand, glorious, or awesome. Rarely does Father announce His graces and mercies into my life with the trumpets of angels or the rolling back of the skies like a curtain or anything my limited imagination might equate with a God-sized, heavenly declaration. He does not often bowl me over in dim or dark with an explosion of bright light. Instead, He seems to favor first dispelling the darkness and preparing my eyes to adjust with the softer glow of candles. He uses birdsong to melt the ice on my soul.

Seems to me God frequently introduces flickers of hope and joy with small and common things, hardly conspicuous and rarely ornate. Whether in plain sight or public hearing of any who would notice, God invites us to remember He is Who He says He is. He would remind anyone who would pay attention that He can, always has, and surely will continue to do what He says He can do. Winter may not want to let go, but let go it must, because God has ordained it so.

One man once heard God’s invitation to him when he was in the deepest throes of despair, a severe winter of the soul. What is particularly striking is how Aurelius Augustinus heard God call. The man, who would become better known to us as Saint Augustine, found himself weeping uncontrollably, in fitful despair at his failure to reconcile his heart with his mind and with his lifestyle. Try as he had, he could not find a truth that would liberate his soul from the emptiness his choices left him. Then he heard a child-like voice chanting what sounded like a nursery rhyme from beyond the garden where Augustine sat. The child sang, “Tolle, lege” – “take up and read.” He retrieved a copy of Paul’s epistles and began to read. God’s Word came alive for him that moment, and he finally found hope, joy, and new life in Christ that day. The messenger God used? Apparently, the instrument of God’s invitation to Augustine was a child singing a children’s song.

Have you ever thought God might desire to use you to be someone’s song? I believe He would use each of us if we were available to Him. His employment of us for eternal ends may very likely be so subtle, however, that even we, His instruments, might not recognize the impact of the song He sings through us to another person. Consider, for instance, an incident David Bruce reported to us in our prayer service Wednesday night.

While setting up his Pepsi display at the Speedway on Nine Mile and Pontiac this week, David nudged one two-liter over, which led to the whole stack rolling across the floor. As he set himself to picking up the mess, he thought how people just tend to walk on by rather than help one another. Then, to his surprise, someone stooped down and began to help him. When they looked at each other, they thought they recognized one another. As it turns out, David’s unexpected assistant, and God’s song of hope to him that day, also attends First Baptist Church – a young man named Nick! With no side-glances at God to get His favor, Nick simply saw a need and met a need. The result was a thawed, thankful heart.

“In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may … give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Pastor Rob

Love is a Verb

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about love. What is love? What does it really mean to love? When we say, “I love the Detroit Pistons, or Diet Pepsi Jazz, or my wife’s lasagna,” what does that suggest, if anything about other objects of my affection such as my wife, my kids, my church, or God?

I have wondered and worried this past month about what I could do for Donna this Valentine’s Day to convey to her how much I love her. What convinces Donna she is loved, treasured, cherished by me? How do I love my wife? More than the idea or feelings of love, how do I demonstrate to my bride I love her? How do I say to her that she has no competitors for my heart’s devotion? Is there enough evidence in my life to convict me of love in the first degree for my wife?

Saying “I love you” is nice, but is that all there is to love? If I say to Donna, “I love you,” every morning and every evening and countless times through the course of every day, is that enough? Surely love is more than a declaration, more than words spoken, sung, or put on paper. I mean, it’s a start, but merely saying the words does not a lover make me.

Perhaps the fact that I need her so much is proof I love her. I need her smile, her wit, her wisdom, her hugs. I need her near me to complete me, to protect me from myself, to encourage me and to cheer me on. But love cannot be defined by our need for the person or object we claim to love. That is actually selfish when we think about it.

In my quest to define love for my sweetheart, I have landed on a place of deep commitment and challenge. I come most near to loving her in a way that she feels loved when I invest myself in discovering what pleases her and then set myself to presenting that pleasure to her. Seems simple enough, but if I really want to show Donna I love her, a good place to start would be to ask, “Honey, when do you feel most loved by me?” Take care, however, that if the question is asked, there must be a commitment to act on what she says.

For instance, if I know that my wife feels loved by me when I spend time with her, when I rub her feet, or when I pray with her, well … love would prompt me to do so. If I know she feels loved when I help with tasks around the house or give my time and attention to our kids, love acts on that knowledge. If I learn she doesn’t want more jewelry or would be upset about our finances if I bought her a car, but that simply planning and taking a day or two away together fills her love cup to overflowing, not only do I save money, but I invest in our happiness when I hit the road with my beloved. In fact, if I know what pleases her but do not do that under the guise of finding the perfect gift, then I have actually shunned the perfect gift for my own ego’s sake. And that would not be love.

I learned a long time ago that if I truly love my wife, I could not play softball eight nights a week. I had to adjust my routine to accommodate her desires. Love is more than words. Love is more than feelings. Love is more that stuff. Love is a verb, an action verb. Love is demonstrated or proven authentic by the actions love takes. The Bible says, “we must not love in words or speech, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18).

How do we love God? For many of us, we almost instinctively answer the question by finishing the statement: We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind. Bravo! Jesus did in fact declare this to be the first and greatest commandment. But what in the world does that look like? What sets of attitudes, what sort of behavior will typify our lives if we love God with our whole being?

Perhaps some church people would follow up with: Well, if we love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind, then we are supposed to love our neighbor as we do ourselves. So, if we really love God we will love our neighbor. In fact, some would say we cannot honestly claim to love God unless that devotion moves us to love our neighbor. I would add, we cannot love our neighbor as ourselves until we love God first. But the question remains unanswered even still. How do we love our neighbors? What is love?

What are the indications in a person’s life that they do indeed truly love God? What if we were to ask God, “Lord, how could we show You we love you? What if God were to say, “Do this and I will know you love Me.” Well, actually, Jesus does say as much. He says:

If you love Me, show it by doing what I have told you. … the person who knows My commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves Me. … if a person loves me, he will carefully keep My word … Not loving Me means not keeping My words. … If you loved Me, you would be glad that I am on My way to the Father because the Father is the goal and purpose of My life (John 14:15-28, The Message).

If we love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind, then we will manifest that love in at least these three ways:

1. We will commit ourselves to know what He expects.

2. We will commit ourselves do what He expects.

3. We will commit ourselves to rejoice in His ways, even when we don’t feel His presence or understand His process.

To the ends of the earth until the end of time!

Pastor Rob

To Grow or Not To Grow

Since becoming your pastor some eighteen months ago, I have definitely grown. In more ways than not, this growth has been much needed and gratefully received. For instance, I have grown in my capacity to love people. In addition, I have rejoiced in the growth Father has brought to my Bible study and my prayer life. I have also marveled at the opportunities He has provided me to lead people to Christ, though I have not been as faithful as I would like to seize each moment.

Some of my growth has been unexpected and, though needful, not particularly welcome when it began. For example, with the increase of my capacity to love people has come a commensurate amplification of heartache for people. I feel much more sharply than I can ever remember grief and anguish for other people when they lose loved ones, reap consequences of poor choices, or encounter the painful course life in these shadowlands affords.

I also miss people much more. On any given Sunday, when I see empty places once regularly occupied by one of our FBC family … well, it is very much akin to that first meal with my mom and siblings after Dad graduated to glory. It is as if a place remains at the table left vacant, but strangely filled with longing for someone dear to return.

I must admit, I have not always appreciated as quickly as I should the growth God brings to my sense of His greatness and my minuteness. Is it possible to grow in humility? Sounds ironic, but the truth is, while God has brought me to a place of much greater confidence in the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ, He has situated that place directly over the rubble of my own abandoned arrogance. This is good growth, but it is also more than humbling. It is often downright humiliating!

Indeed, in more ways than I can list here, I have grown since becoming your pastor in August 2006. At the end of each day, I am, for the most part, grateful for almost all the growth God has begun in me. One area of growth confronts me daily, however, about which I am not at all happy. Perhaps it is the most obvious growth to most of you (O wretched thought!). I have gained over 50 pounds in my brief tenure here! Yes, I have grown – over six inches in my waist alone!

This is not healthy growth. This growth threatens to shorten my lifespan and limit my effectiveness as a husband, father, and pastor. This growth must be arrested. Nay, more! This growth must be turned around.

This is not a new path for me. When I moved to Michigan, I weighed about 215 pounds and wore 38” trousers somewhat comfortably. A few years of travel across Michigan, dining out with pastors and leaders across our state, and keeping a pace that prohibited regular exercise, saw me balloon to nearly 260 pounds and finding 46” pants to be a tight fit. I was breathless after fifty paces, having trouble sleeping at night, and experiencing significant back pain.

Donna convinced me we needed a life change if I hoped to see any grand kids someday. We got serious about lifestyle, diet, and exercise. Within a brief three months, I had lost so much weight that people across the state wondered if I had become gravely ill or something. Eventually, I weighed just below 197 pounds and was nearly ready to wear 34” pants for the first time since college! I stayed fit until … well, about August 2006.

So, here I am, eighteen months later, and beginning to experience the same health hazards I thought I had conquered once and for all. This week, at the wise and loving insistence of my wife, I have taken up once more the challenge to better health. I wonder to myself, “Can I get this right this time?” I also remember five keys I discovered three years ago related not only to healthy physical life, but also to productive spiritual growth. These are the reason I have brought you on this personal testimonial thus far (as well as an invitation for my church to hold their pastor accountable).

1. We need to see the problem. If we do not own or admit there is a problem, we are not likely to change. Until we are dissatisfied with the status quo, we do not even desire to change. Einstein has been credited with the witticism: “Insanity is to keep doing what you have always done and expecting different results.” Put another way, if we keep doing what we have been doing, we will keep getting what we have been getting. If I want to be healthier and more productive, then I must address and alter the behaviors that have made me unhealthy. If we want to grow closer to God’s design for us, then we need to change our life patterns to produce that end.

2. We need to set a plan. My fitness plan involves adjusting my schedule, my diet, and my routine. I have to rid myself of some things and add some new. What’s your plan for growth in Christ this year? This week?

3. We need stay on principles. A friend commenting on diet plans told me a few years ago, “Any plan will work if you work the plan.” That is only as true as the foundation you build upon. I don’t think a plan like “eat only Snickers bars” will work. But if I have a passion to work a plan that is built on solid, reliable, time-tested principles, then that plan may work if I work it. God has given us clear instructions about how we can grow in Christ. Our plan must cleave to His direction, His life principles – prayer, Bible study, Love God, love one another, love our neighbor, etc.

4. We need the support of partners. When I set out to lose weight several years ago, a number of colleagues from whom I expected support actually discouraged me, even made fun of my attempts. I had a strong network of friends and family, however, who believed in the principles, the plan, and me. They were my partners. They cheered me on when I was tired and ready to quit. They guarded my practices and my portions. They loved me enough to hold me accountable, and they celebrated each milestone with me as well. Sounds a lot like what I understand the biblical concept of body life to be. Who are the 3-10 friends with whom you are growing closer to Jesus right now?

5. We need to settle on perseverance. This is not the first time, and probably will not be the last, that I have had to make significant changes to my life if I am going to be everything I hope to be for God’s glory. In each new season of life adjustment, I have had to determine early on that I was in this to the end – through good days and bad days. This struggle will not disappear in this lifetime. I must decide to choose the road to health for the rest of my life. In the same way, we must resolve always to know Jesus Christ more intimately and to make Him known more intentionally.

To the ends of the earth until the end of time!

Pastor Rob