We’ll be having a time of celebration with worship, a devotional and then all the pancakes you can eat. Tickets will be $5.00/family or $2.00 each. We will then enjoy a joint worship celebration at 10:30 a.m.

Come and join with as we celebrate this great Resurrection Day! And bring your friends, let’s pack the auditorium this year!

Missions is why God sent His son, it’s why He gives us a chance to be a disciple. It’s God’s plan to bring people into a relationship with Him that glorifies His Name. What an exciting place to be! With our technology and wealth, there is nothing preventing the Church from reaching every single unreached tribe on this planet. Now that gets me excited because Matthew 24:14 says that once we do this, Christ will return! As you can tell, I’m pretty passionate about reaching the world with the Gospel. But I’d rather tell you all about it in person. So if you’re interested, let’s get together for a cup of coffee. Let’s get excited about what God is doing and what He will continue to do as we get involved. Imagine how this could expand the borders of our community of grace here at Philpott!

Like most, my faith was full of confusion. I was born into an Anglican society; I took up the doctrine and philosophy of the Anglican Church. As I matured, I found something missing in my spiritual growth; I researched different teachings and found nothing to fill my personal needs. I gave up on church.

The spirit lay dormant in me.

Most parents want some form of organized religion for their children, so when our sons came along it was Hi Ho Hi Ho and off to church we go. For a few years this sufficed to fill the ache, but eventually the boredom and lack of motivation once more stepped in.

A few years ago, my wife, Lia, was involved in an Alpha program; her Catholic upbringing and her belief in a higher deity had never left her. She got so much out of the program that she encouraged me to find an Alpha program to help my own searching.

Somehow, I was guided to Philpott. A very warm and encouraging group helped me to find my way. One day Walter Dickson asked me if I had found my faith in Jesus Christ yet, I answered, “I don’t know” I was searching for that elusive sign.

I am a long distance runner. When I run I have a long time to reflect. I like to look at my life and try to put things into perspective. My regular day tends to be too busy for reflection, but when I run, I am alone, or so I thought.

One day much like today, snow covered, sunny but cold, a little voice in my head brought Jesus to my thoughts. No matter what goes on in our daily lives someone is guiding us, someone is holding our hand, someone is watching over us. I felt it all that day on that run, that day I accepted Jesus Christ as my saviour.

The support of people like Walter and others at Philpott— and especially my wife, Lia, has helped me to see.

I look forward to this wonderful journey. God Bless.

During my student years I had the privilege of meeting and talking with many students and adults who were motivated and involved in world missions. Philpott church members were highly involved in these activities too. In 1985 I made a commitment to cross cultural barriers to share the gospel, and to be a missions mobilizer in my student group and my church. In 1986 I went to the Philippines for a short term mission trip. After graduating from Mac in 1987, and teacher’s college in 1988, I accepted a music teaching position in Sudbury.

My wife Brenda was born in Hamilton, the youngest in a family of eight children. She came to Christ in 1984 through the witness of her family, and began attending Philpott in 1986 after her baptism. She taught Sunday School during that time. Brenda began her music studies at Mohawk College, majoring in the clarinet, and graduated from Laurentian University in 1992 with a B.A in music. She completed the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course in 1996 and has remained encouraged and challenged with regard to global missions and prayer. Major highlights for her have been our trip to Nepal in 1998 on behalf of the Adopt a People committee, and a trip to Brooklyn for the largest prayer meeting she has ever attended.

Not surprisingly, I met Brenda at Philpott during a music concert. After a long distance engagement between Sudbury and Hamilton, we were married on a very hot summer day in 1990. We helped all our guests enjoy the heat of the day by having them pose for a group photo on the front steps of the church.

Since moving back to Hamilton in 1992, Brenda and I have been involved in various aspects of the ministry at Philpott, such as nursery, children’s church, hospitality and DVBS. We are continually challenged by the godly example of many faithful members of Philpott church, missionaries, and by the great opportunities for faith and prayer that stand before us. Currently we work on the adopt-a-people committee, the contemporary service worship team and as small group leaders. Our three beautiful children are Olivia, 9; Ian, 7; and Elinor, 3.

It is great to have Thelma’s presence in the church office. Please feel free to contact her with any questions of the ministry you might have and remember to wish her and her family well on this achievement.

After the service, I went out with some friends for coffee and pie and we discussed the message. Several different people talked about how God had led them in different ways.

It was about ten o’clock when I started driving home. Sitting in my car, I just began to pray, “God… If you still speak to people speak to me. I will listen. I will do my best to obey.”

But again, the thought, ‘buy a gallon of milk.’ I thought about Samuel and how he didn’t recognize the voice of God, and how little Samuel ran to Eli. “Okay, God, in case that is you, I will buy the milk.” It didn’t seem like too hard a test of obedience. I could always use the milk.

I stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward home.

As I passed Seventh Street, I again felt the urge, “Turn down that street.” This is crazy I thought and drove on past the intersection. Again, I felt that I should turn down Seventh Street. At the next intersection, I turned back and headed down Seventh. Half jokingly, I said out loud, “Okay, God, I will.” I drove several blocks, when suddenly, I felt like I should stop. I pulled over to the curb and looked around.

I was in a semi-commercial area of town. It wasn’t the best but it wasn’t the worst of neighborhoods either. The businesses were closed and most of the houses looked dark like the people were already in bed. Again, I sensed something, “Go and give the milk to the people in the house across the street.” I looked at the house. It was dark and it looked like the people were either gone or we were already asleep. I started to open the car door and then sat back in the seat. “Lord, this is insane. Those people are asleep and if I wake them up, we are going to be mad and I will look stupid.” Again, I felt like I should go and give the milk. Finally, I opened the car door. “Okay God, if this is you, I will go to their door and I will give them the milk. If you want me to look like a crazy person, okay. I want to be obedient. I guess that will count for something but if they don’t answer right away, I am out of here.

I walked across the street and rang the bell. I could hear some noise inside. A man’s voice yelled out, “Who is it? What do you want?” Then the door opened before I could get away. The man was standing there in his jeans and t-shirt. He looked like he just got out of bed. He had a strange look on his face and he didn’t seem too happy to have some stranger standing on his doorstep. “What is it?”

I thrust out the gallon of milk. “Here I brought this to you.”

The man took the milk and rushed down a hallway, speaking loudly in Spanish. Then from down the hall came a woman carrying the milk toward the kitchen. The man was following her holding a baby. The baby was crying. The man had tears streaming down his face. The man began speaking and half-crying, “We were just praying. We had some big bills this month and we ran out of money. We didn’t have any milk for our baby. I was just praying and asking God to show me how to get some milk.” His wife in the kitchen yelled out, “I asked him to send an Angel with some. Are you an Angel?”

I reached into my wallet and pulled out all the money I had with me and put it in the man’s hand. I turned and walked back toward my car and the tears were streaming down my face. Now I knew for certain that God still answers prayers.

I will provide links to them here - hopefully in a somewhat organized fashion.

Peacemaking
The Harvest of Justice is Sown in Peace (U.S.Catholic Bishops) Nov ‘93
http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/harvest.htm

On the gospel of peace and becoming a peace church (Mennonite)
http://Peace.mennolink.org/articles/jrtheolo.html

Pope John XXIII Encyclical on Universal Peace
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_xxiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_j-xxiii_enc_11041963_pacem_en.html

Pope John - Paul II - Celebration of World Day of Peace 1/1/2003 www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/peace/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_20021217_xxxvi-world-day-for-peace_en.html

A retired Air Force Pilot/ United Catholic Church Bishop
Making War: A Christian Perspective ( An excellent outline on this subject)
http://www.rmbowman.com/catholic/war.htm

Misc.
Can A Christian Be a Pacifist
http://www.spiritualitytoday.org/spir2day/863821murphy.html

Churches divided on just war
http://www.anglicanjournal.com/127/03/world01.html

Mennonite Thought:

A Christian Declaration on Peace, War & Military Service
http://www.bluffton.edu/~mastg/GCpeace.htm
The "Just War" Tradition: Is It Credible
http://www.nd.edu/~theo/jhy/writings/justwar/credible.htm

The Jewishness of Early Christian Pacifism
http://www.nd.edu/~theo/jhy/writings/history/ecpacifism.htm

Afghanistan
A Just Cause, Not A Just War
http://www.progressive.org/0901/zinn1101.html

Christian Ethicists: Afghan War Is Just
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/003/19.23.html

Iraq
Catholic Theologian Argues for War
http://www.americancatholic.org/news/justwar/Iraq/argumentfor.asp

Christian Theory of Just War: Iraq & Kosovo
http://www.iraqwar.org/justwar.htm

A Just War
http://www.americanvalues.org/html/1b___elshtain.html

An Episcopalian
A super power must be a super servant
http://www.faithlinks.org/viewarticle.asp?ID=557

A Baptist
A Just War
http://www.faithlinks.org/viewarticle.asp?ID=591

Just War Theory & US Airstrikes on Iraq (1996)
http://law.gonzaga.edu/borders/documents/deforres.htm


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Apr 01, 2003, 14:38 [top/staff_editorials]
Baby Time

03-04 By Lane Fusilier

I saw my first robin today, on our front lawn. That alerted me that the sparrows now here will be nesting under our eaves soon. Nests predict eggs and eggs hatch. In just a few weeks, I will be awakened by hungry, chirping hatchlings every morning at 5:15. I do enjoy my sleep and I dread its loss!

The only sparrows nesting on our property find my bedroom window every spring. I will probably be a little grumpy until those hatchlings grow up and fly away. Those little birds are a pain. Sparrows, however, bring much benefit to our neighbourhood. They eat little things that would pester us all summer long if the sparrows weren’t around. I am willing to endure the racket of the hatchlings, as long as I remember the benefit of the grown birds. New life is good.

It’s sort of the way new life impacts a church. New babies in the nursery can be a bother. Dirty diapers, loud and sleepy crying. Scrunched up faces that only a mother could love. But love them we do! We have learned that crabby babies have great potential. They have their better moments, but more than that, they are becoming people. Regardless of their temperament, they will become people God loves. We will learn to love them, too, and to delight in their distinctiveness and their giftedness. They will serve with us later in kingdom causes, they will pass on the inheritance of a walk with God that we are passing on to them. New life is good.

Adjusting to new believers is more difficult still. Oh sure, I suppose we could lead individuals to faith in Christ and then put them in a holding tank, waiting until they mature spiritually, before we invited them into the congregation. Sort of a pre-membership Purgatory, where their lifestyle could be cleaned up and they wouldn’t be a distraction to our pursuit of personal holiness. Of course, we can find no mention of Purgatory in the Scriptures, as much sense as it might make. Rather, the New Testament is chock full of descriptions about how to include new believers: don’t show favoritism, love them as I [Jesus] loved you, treat them as a mother [Paul] would a newborn, bear their burdens, etc. In a sense, spiritual babies make more of a mess than physical ones. Infants have little power to act, adult newborns can be dangerous! They can get confused about marriage, money and lots of other things. Remembering, though, that we all came to faith in the past, and someone else had to be there for us, to change our ‘spiritual diapers,’ should give us pause now. Considering that each new believer has terrific kingdom potential and God-stamped intrinsic value, our patience can grow into anticipation of the ways God might use each one to transform a family, or a neighborhood, or a company, even our community, through a life lived out in view of eternity. New life is good!

Makes me want to see many more of them; I can catch up on my sleep some other time…

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Apr 01, 2003, 14:38 [top/staff_editorials]
What Did Willow Have To Say?

03-04 By Matt Collins

Last month I took a group of our Adult and Student Leadership team members with me to the Willow Creek Student Ministries Conference. The outcome has been unbelievable.

We came away with a number of fresh and exciting ideas. This has really challenged us to look at our ministry and determine not only what the next level is, but how we could get there.

To begin with, our student leaders began to understand what it means to be a student leader. It’s more than just simply brainstorming event ideas and helping to set up. But rather this is an opportunity for them to spiritually lead, challenge and encourage their peers. They came away with new ideas and concepts that we will be evaluating as a team to see how the principles we’ve been taught can be applied here at home.

As for the adult leaders, it to was a time of learning and refreshing. Often in ministry it can be very draining; the atmosphere at the conference provided a chance for us to renew our passion and get "refueled."

From our time there, we have taken the opportunity to re-evaluate our vision and direction as a ministry. It has challenged us to put more focus and time into developing our Youth Church and really provide a place for the students to call their own. Our time away has provided us with a number of excellent tools to help us as we look to build into the lives of our students.

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Apr 01, 2003, 14:38 [top/staff_editorials]
Pail or Flame?

03-04 Reflections on Conference Going, Christian and otherwise.

By Bryan Wylie

You’d think that, after 33 years in an educational institution that placed "professional development" near the top of its priority list, I would have had my fill of conferences. Actually, I managed mostly to avoid the "conference circuit" during those many years, having been put off by excessive and largely irrelevant (or, at best, self-serving) paper handouts, time-consuming "schmoozing", and publishing companies who were "flogging" their latest trendy texts.

Perhaps this "conference deprivation" has been the reason for my attending 6 conferences in the last year, 3 in the month of March alone. I have to admit that I went to a couple of them in a highly skeptical frame of mind, wondering how the "Christian" version of a conference would measure up to some pretty glitzy secular ones that are currently being offered.

And so it was with a considerable amount of anticipation that I got out of Wayne’s van in the Bramalea Baptist Church parking lot to attend the Willow Creek Small Groups Conference on March 21-22. What I first mistook for "slickness" turned out to be genuineness, as we made our way through the ranks of Bramalea "official greeters", a church obviously picked for its wonderful facility and its exceptionally high standard of hosting that was evident during literally every minute of the conference. By the second day, I was involved in a covert game of "can I find at least one greeter to whom I could actually speak to first or ask a question BEFORE their offer to help?" (I did actually find one man late the final afternoon that, in the middle of his yawn, was not able to beat me to the punch!)

The name "Willow Creek" has held for me a certain fascination since I first heard it only a few years ago, representing as it does the mega-church organization that it is. Let me begin by saying that it lived up to its reputation in every way, from the opening overheads announcing the countdown until the conference started, to the vast display of user-friendly resources, to the intricate system of varied breakout sessions, to the unmatchable team of passionate and committed Christians.

"Small groups" is their specialty; they wrote the book on it (and it’s called The Guide to Leading Life-Changing Small Groups). How timely this conference was for us who are involved in small groups ministry here at Philpott, with such diverse and intriguing seminars as "Intentionally Shepherding People Toward Spiritual Maturity", "Identifying Your Role and Responsibility as the Small Group Pastor", and "Leading Life-Changing Discussion. It will take some time to sort out all the principles and ideas that pertain to our development and growth in this ministry but I would like to mention 2 specific things that impressed me the most.

The name "Willow Creek" also represents the epitome of "success with small groups". One of the things we tend to forget, as we struggle in introducing a new church system, is that the transition is inevitably slow and usually fraught with error. How refreshing to hear the WC innovators airing their "organizational dirty linen" and sharing with us their "7 deadly sins of small group ministry". How especially encouraging it was for them to actually express joy in hearing that most of the churches in attendance, which have begun the small groups ministry, have, in fact, committed ALL the "sins"! What a chance for growth!

The other thing that impressed me was their unhesitating generosity in sharing their materials. Handouts tended to be at a premium because of the high quality of the content and their willingness to e-mail further tools has already proved genuine with the receipt of "promised goods" within a week of the conference. Ask us about the "goldmine" of materials that we brought back with us, especially if you were interested and unable to attend this conference.

We are in the process of considering attending another small groups conference, this time in Columbus, Ohio, in early August, featuring Howard Hendricks and Gene Getz, 2 forces to be reckoned with in the Christian leadership world. The cost of this 3-day conference? A whopping $50 ($25 for students, 20% discount for 5 or more!). We are indeed blessed to be living in area where the experts are so easily within reach. Ask for details.

Dave Treat, one of the leaders whom I heard speak, said that too much of conference going and training these days consists of "filling the pail" instead of "rekindling the flame". Is it not possible to have it both ways? What’s so wrong with "a burning bucket"?!

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Apr 01, 2003, 14:38 [top/contributions]
Everybody Hates Us

03-04 Michael Spencer notes that evangelical Christians are almost universally disliked. Are there good reasons?

I don’t really know why someone thought it was necessary to do a poll to see just who were the most disliked groups in society, but the results are in. While serial killers and IRS agents still rank the highest, hot on their heels are evangelical Christians. Not Christians in general. Not Roman Catholics. Not all Christians— but evangelical Christians.

" Do we really have the abundant life down at the church, ready to be dispensed in a five week class? "

If you’re like me, you have three reactions to this news. First, you tend to blame the media. Almost every portrayal of an evangelical Christian on television or in movies makes us look like the worst version of every stereotype we fear. Of course, one cannot expect the mainstream media to take up the cause of rescuing the evangelical public image, and these days virtually every group has a list of complaints with various kinds of media portrayals. There is more to the public perception of Bible believers than a media vendetta.

The second reaction is what we tend to say to one another to reassure ourselves that we are really OK after all. “It’s the Gospel,” we say to one another. Evangelicals are identified with a message that no one wants to hear, and so they are disliked. If you don’t believe it, watch what happens when an evangelical leader appears on a talk show. It’s like raw meat to hungry lions, no matter if the evangelical in question is rude or wonderful. (I have seen some of the nicest evangelicals torn limb from limb in these settings, including liberals who gave away the store.)

I would never argue with the basic premise of this observation. I have seen its truth too many times. They crucified Jesus. Enough said. But as true as this is, it is too simplistic to explain the increasing level of general despising of evangelicals in our society. It explains one thing, but it does not explain many other things. It actually may tend to blind us to our own behaviors. Like the residents of Jerusalem who were convinced their city could not fall because the temple was there, evangelicals may explain this dislike as reaction to the Gospel and then be blind to those things— in addition to the Gospel— that create legitimate animosity.

The third reaction is the guilty knowledge that evangelicals really are, very often, easy to dislike for many obvious reasons. Many evangelicals know exactly what the survey is registering, because they feel the same way themselves. We’ve all observed, in others and in ourselves, distinctively evangelical vices, hypocrisies and failures. We hoped that our good points would make up for these problems, but that was another self-deception.

It is easy to say that people’s dislike of Christians is the dislike of the Christian message, but that simply doesn’t hold up in the real world. It may be true of the Christian you don’t know, but the Christians you do know have it in their power to either make it easy or difficult for you to dislike them. For example, the Christian in your car pool may believe what others refuse to believe, but his life provides a powerful antidote to any prejudice against him. Thousands of missionaries have been opposed for simply being Christians. But hundreds of thousands have lived lives that adorned the Gospel with attractive, winsome and loving behavior. A past president of our school was revered by Muslims during and after six years of Peace Corps service in Iran, years where he talked about the Gospel to Muslims every day and saw many trust Christ. The fact that the Gospel has penetrated into many hostile environments is evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit, but it is also evidence that one way the Spirit works is by making Christians a display of the fruits of love, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control.

We are loathed, caricatured, avoided and disliked because we often deserve it. There. I said it and I’m glad I did.

Here’s my list of why evangelicals are among the most disliked persons in America:

1. Christians endorse a high standard of conduct for others and then largely excuse themselves from a serious pursuit of such a life. Jesus is the most admired person in history, but evangelicals are far more likely to devise ways for Jesus to be like us than for us to be like Jesus.

If it hasn’t struck you lately that you do the very thing you condemn others for doing (Romans 2:1), urge others to do what you don’t do or excuse in yourself what you require in others, then you probably don’t get this article at all.

Did it irritate you when your dad said, “Do as I say, not as I do.”? Then you get the picture.

2. Evangelical Christian piety in America is mostly public. Whether it’s our entertainment-saturated “worship” services, our celebrity cults or our mad obsession with worldly success, we love for others to see “what God is doing in our lives.” Of course, Jesus had plenty to say about this, and the essence of it is that when your piety is public, then there is almost certainly a lack of serious, life-transforming, private obedience and discipleship.

I have lately been strongly convicted by J.C. Ryle’s little book, A Call To Prayer. Ryle makes a devastating case for the obvious absence of the discipline of private prayer among Christians. What would Ryle say today? Does our public manner grow out of a true inward experience of private prayer? You see what I am talking about. If it’s public, we do it well. If it’s private discipleship, we probably don’t do it at all.

3. Many evangelicals relate to others with an obvious— or thinly disguised— hidden agenda. In other words, those who work with us or go to school with us feel that we are always “up to” something. You mean, they know we want to convert them? Apparently. Ever been yelled at for saying, “I’ll pray for you?” Maybe there was a reason.

You know that feeling you get when a telemarketer interrupts your dinner? I get that feeling sometime when my Pentecostal/Charismatic friends are trying to persuade me into their camp. It’s not that I don’t know they are good, decent, law-abiding people who like me. I just want them to quit treating me as a target or a project and start treating me as a person who is free to be myself and different from them.

This same feeling is prevalent among those who dislike evangelical Christians. They are annoyed and sometimes angered that we are following some divine directive to get them to abandon their life choices and take up ours. They want to be loved as they are, not for what they might become if our plan succeeds.

Evangelicals have done a lot of good work on how to present the Gospel, but much of that work has operated on initial premises that are irritating and offensive. I have taken my share of evangelism courses, and there is a great blind spot on how to be an evangelist without being annoying and pushy. We somehow think that the Holy Spirit takes care of that aspect of evangelism! Thank God for men like Francis Schaeffer and Jerram Barrs who have done much to model evangelism that majors on maintaining the utmost respect toward those we evangelize.

4. We seem consumed with establishing that we are somehow “better” than other people, when the opposite is very often true. Many evangelicals are bizarrely shallow and legalistic about minute matters. We are frequently psychologically unsound, psychiatrically tormented, filled with bitterness and anger, torn apart by conflicts and, frankly, unpleasant to have around.

I have an atheistic acquaintance who never misses an opportunity to post a news story about a morally compromised minister. Is he just being mean? No, he is pointing out the obvious mess that is the inner life and outward behavior of many evangelicals, truths we like to avoid or explain as “attacks of the enemy.” Our families are broken, our marriages fail and our children are remarkably worldly and messed up. Yet, we boldly tell the world that we have the answer for all their ills! How many churches proclaim that a sojourn with them will fix that marriage and those kids? Do we really have the abundant life down at the church, ready to be dispensed in a five week class?

We are not as healthy and happy as we portray ourselves. The realities of broken marriages among the Christian celebrity set underlines the inability of evangelicals to face up to their own brokenness. Was there some reason that Sandi Patti and Amy Grant were supposed to be immune from failed marriages? Why did their divorces make them pariahs in evangelicalism? The fact is that most evangelicals are in deep denial about what depravity and sinfulness really means. The world may have similar denial problems, but I don’t think they can approach us for the spiritual veneer. The crowd at the local tavern may have issues, but they frequently beat Christians by miles in the realistic humanity department. Maybe they should pity us, but the fact is that, as the situation becomes more obvious, they don’t like us.

5. We talk about God in ways that are too familiar and make people uncomfortable. Evangelicals constantly talk about a “personal relationship” with God. Many evangelicals talk as if God is talking to them and leading them by the hand through life in a way only the initiated can understand. Christian testimonies may give a God-honoring window into the realities of Christian experience, or they may sound like a psychological ploy to promote self importance.

Evangelicals have yet to come to grips with their tendency to make God into a commodity. The world is far more savvy about how God is “used” to achieve personal or group ends than most evangelicals admit. Evangelicals may deny that they have made God into a political, financial, or cultural commodity, but the world knows better. How does an unbeliever hear the use of Jesus to endorse automobiles, political positions, or products?

In my ministry, I have observed how difficult it is to evangelize Buddhists. One of the reasons is that the Buddhist assumes that if you are serious about your religious experience, you will become a monk! When he sees American Christians talking about a relationship with God, yet does not see a corresponding impact upon the whole of life, he assumes that this religion is simply an expression of culture or group values. Now we may critique such a response as not understanding certain basic facts about the Gospel, but we also have to acknowledge the truth observed! Rather than being people who are deeply changed, we are people who tend to use God to change others or our world to suit ourselves.

6. Evangelicals are too slow to separate themselves from what is wrong. Because ours is a moral religion, and we frequently advertise our certainty in moral matters, it seems bizarrely hypocritical when that moral sense is applied so inconsistently.

I note that my evangelical friends are particularly resistant to this matter, but the current Trent Lott affair makes the point plainly. Lott says that he now repudiates any allegiance to segregation or the symbols of segregation. Suddenly, he sees the good sense in a number of things he has opposed. But bizarrely, Lott stands behind his evangelical Christianity as the explanation for his sudden conversion to racial sensitivity.

Watching this spectacle, there are many reactions, but what interests me is how Lott’s Christianity only seems to apply now that he is being dangled over political hell. Where was all this moral sense in the 1960s? Where was it 10 years ago? Why does it appear that Lott is using his religion at his convenience? It’s not my place to judge what is going on between Lott and his God, but his apparent pragmatism in these matters is familiar to many people observing evangelicals on a daily basis.

Most evangelicals are not the moral cutting edge of contemporary social issues. Despite the evangelical conscience on issues like abortion, it is clear to many that we no longer have the cutting-edge moral sense of a Martin Luther King Jr. or a William Wilberforce. Evangelicals are largely annoyed at people who tell them to do the right thing if it doesn’t enhance their resumes, their wallets, their families or their emotions.

What is odd about this is that many of those who dislike evangelicals have the idea that we want to impose our morality upon an entire culture. Fear-mongering liberals often talk about the Bush administration as populated by fundamentalist Christian Taliban poised to bring about a Christian theocracy. I wonder if they have noticed that President Bush— an evangelical right down to his boots— is practicing religious tolerance over the loud objections of evangelical leaders like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.

7. We take ourselves far too seriously, and come off as opposed to normal life. Is it such a big deal that Christians are offended at so many things others consider funny? I’ll admit it is a small thing, but it is one of the reasons ordinary people don’t like us.

I read an incident written by a preacher on a forum I monitor. He told about taking his youth group on an outing, when the students began singing a popular country song about a guy who leaves his wife to pursue his fishing hobby. It’s a hilarious song. But this fellow’s reaction was predictable. He asked them to not sing a song about a marriage that breaks up and to instead sing something that honored God. I routinely hear students ridiculing a fellow teacher who labels much of what students find funny as “of the devil.”

These incidents show something that evangelicals need to admit. We are frequently unable to see humor, absurdity, and the honest reasons for humans to laugh at themselves. What very normal, very healthy people find laughable, we find threatening and often tag with the ridiculous label “of the devil.”

The message here isn’t just that we are humorless or puritanical. The message is that being human or being real is somehow evil. This is one place I can feel exactly what the unbelievers are talking about. When I see Christians trying to rob young people of the right to be normal, ordinary, and human, it angers me. I feel threatened. It’s hard to like people who seem to say that God, Jesus, and Scripture are the enemies of laughter, sex, growing up, and ordinary pleasures. Some Christians sometimes seem to say that everything pleasurable is demonic or to be avoided to show what a good Christian you are. Isn’t it odd that unbelievers are so much more aware of the plain teaching of scripture than we are?

I am sure there is much more to say, but I have ridden this horse far enough. Certainly, unregenerate persons are at enmity with God by nature. And, without a doubt, Christians represent a message that is far from welcome. Christians doing the right thing risk being labeled enemies of society. Much persecution is cruel and evil. But that’s not the point. Christians are disliked for many reasons that have nothing to do with the Gospel, and everything to do with the kind of people we are in the relationships God has given us. The message of salvation won’t earn a standing ovation, but people who believe that message are not given a pass to rejoice when all men hate you— for any reason, including reasons that are totally our own fault.

No doubt someone will write me and say that, to the extent people like us, we have denied the Gospel. Therefore, being despised and hated is proof that you are on the right track. And there is a certain amount of truth to that observation in some situations in which Christians may find themselves. But that is an explanation for how we are treated, not directions on how to make sure we are rejected and hated by most people for reasons having nothing to do with the message of the cross. I hate to say it, but I’ve learned that when a preacher tells me he was fired from his church for “taking a stand for God,” it usually means he was just a jerk.

The Scriptures tell us that the early Christians were both persecuted and thought well of for their good lives and good works. What was possible then is still possible now. I’ve seen it and I hope I see more of it— in my life.

Michael Spencer is a campus minister, teacher, pastor and writer living in Eastern Kentucky. You can read more of his attempts to sort things out at The Internet Monk.

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Apr 01, 2003, 14:38 [top/staff_editorials]
Invitation to Spring

03-04 By Jason Silver
Spring time is upon us, and with it the sights, sounds and smells of rebirth. Life is restored to the wet, hungry earth; the sun smiles down upon us and all is well.

I wonder if spring holds the same affection for those in southern climes? After inches of ice and feet of snow, the warm rays of spring are like virtual gold to us here in Canada. When the frigid months are bitter, we are even more enthusiastic in welcoming spring. We eagerly await the new life we see in nature every year.

How appropriate that Easter comes with spring. As buds bloom and life creeps back, we see a reflection of spiritual renewal in the world around us. Winter is over, and death has lost the battle.

Many of our non-churched friends are experiencing a never-ending winter. They may not even realize that spring is just around the corner. They know the sun brings life; but they do not realize that the Son brings Life.

Take the opportunity which Easter provides to invite your neighbors to church. Easter Sunday is the most attended service of the year. Many people are prepared to visit a church and would appreciate an invitation. Especially if your friends came with you to our Valentine’s Party, this next invitation may be quite easy to make.

You needn’t have an amazing gift of evangelism like Vladimir Bortsov. Ask God to show you which friend to invite, and then just use one of the invitations in your program/bulletin and hand it to a friend with a smile. Offer to pick them up, or to go out for lunch together after the service. Let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

Let the new life which has become so important to you spill out into the lives of those you love

Blessings!

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