At the turn of this century, Western Christianity experienced a dramatic shift.

Some felt these tremors were simply stylistic alterations, the age-old quest of the church to present itself in a way that attracts a new generation of believers into its fold, (or that keeps them there.) Others felt what was happening represented a once-every-500-year-or-so transformation of Christianity, similar to the “East-West” split of the Church in the 11^th century or the Protestant Reformation in the 16^th and 17^th centuries.

On a more local, congregational level, the conversation around what became known as the “Emerging Church” movement sounded much like the conversations in the ’70s and ’80s about contemporary worship or, in the present day, about what to do with those pesky “millennials.”

Everyone had an opinion. Depending on who you asked, the Emerging Church signaled either the future of Christianity or the death of it.

Submerged into postmodernism?

My own church, University Baptist in Waco, was at the forefront of this movement. We read (and wrote) books, held conferences, invited speakers and preachers at the forefront of the conversation and were intentional about leaning into this exciting new way of living out our faith.

This time was characterized by several points of emphasis: deconstructing traditional ideas of authority and the interpretation of Scripture, and the rejection of the idea that there is a clear line of division between what is sacred and what is secular, which led to a journey of finding God’s fingerprints in music, art and literature as a part of our discipleship.

And, most notably, a flirtation with the philosophical ideas of postmodernism.

Drowned in relativism?

Many critics of the Emerging Church, and even some of its proponents, falsely conflated postmodernism with relativism, which meant they believed we were abandoning the truth of Jesus Christ for a belief that there is no Truth. (Philosophers take note: I am, at best, a novice in the language of philosophy and fully understand that you are probably rolling your eyes right now at my lack of nuance.)

But this was an incomplete understanding of our engagement with postmodernism. We never questioned the existence of “Absolute Truth,” but we did wonder out loud whether the tools any of us had (individually or collectively) at our disposal to ascertain what is and isn’t “True” were sufficient to determine what actually is.

For many of us, the result of this wondering was abandoning long-established doctrines and institutions that claimed ownership of “Truth” and, instead, embracing a multiplicity of voices, stories, sources and witnesses to better understand the Truth, which was found in a person, Jesus Christ. (Which, by the way, I found quintessentially Baptist.)

There’s an irony about what became of this postmodern controversy.

Or ‘still hovering, going where the Spirit leads’?

One of the things our jeering section often accused us of was creating a dangerous reality in which observable facts could be questioned and even dismissed in favor of personal narratives. Things that “felt true,” they reasoned, would hold precedent to us over things that were observably true.

Not all, but many, of these critics would, in 2016 and beyond, go on to support a man for president (reasoning he was “God’s choice”) who exploited this by presenting “alternative facts” and relying on actual fake news, all while dismissing real facts which were unfavorable to him as “fake.” Our jaws dropped at what we saw, and I imagine more than a few of us wondered if we had helped create this.

So, whatever happened to the Emerging Church?

From my limited vantage point, I have seen the movement bleed back into the larger institutional church, where it is affecting it in ways that are yet to be seen.

We often described ourselves (borrowing a metaphor from Brian McLaren’s “A New Kind of Christianity”) as people who believed truth hovered above the proverbial “liberal-conservative” spectrum line, refusing to be categorized by old labels. But if we are honest with ourselves, we’d have to admit that the gravity of the last decade has brought many of us down to particular places on that spectrum.

Some of us landed where we jumped off from—conservative evangelicalism—while, I believe, the vast majority, if we landed back on the line of orthodoxy at all, just became good old-fashioned liberals.

But there are others who are still hovering, going where the Spirit leads them. From time to time, we hear dispatches from the frontier. Someone has joined a monastery. Another group is meeting in a home or a bar, while still others are sitting silently in the pews of a thousand churches but gathering with each other to report their findings.

“The wind blows wherever it pleases … and so it is with anyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

Craig Nash grew up in Chandler, Texas, and is a graduate of East Texas Baptist University and Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. He has lived in Waco since 2000, where he works for Baylor and attends University Baptist Church. If he were any more Baptist, he would need a committee on committees to help him decide who will help him make major life decisions.

In English here.

Semanas atrás, escuchando una emisora cristiana local, uno de los locutores radiofónicos hacía una reflexión personal en la que quería incluir una crítica a cómo la tecnología ha entrado en nuestras vidas.

En vez de ayudarnos, la tecnología entorpece nuestra propia inteligencia y causa problemas que a la larga produce efectos negativos en nuestro modo de vivir.

El caso particular trataba de cómo los llamados “teléfonos inteligentes” han formado parte de nosotros, y muchos de nosotros dependemos de ellos.

Podemos olvidar el lunch, o una chaqueta en las casa, pero no nuestro celular. Pero si olvidamos el celular, nos damos la vuelta aunque nos cueste llegar tarde al trabajo.

Este caso se manifiesta también cuando llegamos a la iglesia, a donde se supone que toda nuestra atención debe ser puesta en alabar y dar gloria a Dios.

En la iglesia debemos de dedicar tiempo para recibir una enseñanza y con ello ayudarnos a poner en práctica una vida más acorde con la santidad que Dios nos reclama.

Esos teléfonos inteligentes forman ya parte de nuestra alabanza. Los celulares también han sustituido a nuestras biblias, pues ya estamos acostumbrados a esa “navaja suiza,” en la cual llevamos una herramienta que nos ayude en nuestro diario vivir.

El problema no son los teléfonos, sino el uso desmedido que le damos. Mucho más porque el problema es que nos están robando la atención.

¿Cuántas veces no ha sentido la tentación de ver que recibe una notificación y tomar el teléfono para ver de qué se trata? ¿O tener el deseo de conectarse a una red social para ver qué hay de nuevo?

Esta es un arma de doble filo que nos lleva a poder tener más contacto con nuestro alrededor y usarla para compartir las maravillas de Dios. Pero también un instrumento de tentación del enemigo que influye en nuestra atención, y nos lleva lejos de lo que sería actuar con inteligencia.

Estamos sustituyendo nuestra inteligencia para concedérsela a un aparato inteligente que nos puede hacer dependientes de él y, por lo tanto, dejar de prestar atención a lo que verdaderamente importa.

La inteligencia según la Palabra de Dios es apartarse del mal (Job 28:28). ¿Cómo vamos a apartarnos del mal si no estamos atentos a lo que Dios nos pide?

El Salmo 81:13-14 dice: “¡Oh, si me hubiera oído mi pueblo, si en mis caminos hubiera andado Israel! En un momento habría yo derribado a sus enemigos, Y vuelto mi mano contra sus adversarios.”

El enemigo sabe cómo hacer las cosas bien y distraer al pueblo de Dios. Toda falta de atención a lo que es la rectitud del camino, es dejar pasar por alto las instrucciones de Dios. Eso conlleva a salirse y perder la protección del altísimo, esa sombra que refleja su Misericordia y poder sobre nuestras vidas.

Seamos inteligentes, sometámonos a Dios y a su voluntad, resistamos en atención y cuidado a lo que nos hace estar firmes en la fe. Que no caigamos en la tentación, pero que seamos sabios en sus instrucciones, obteniendo victoria sobre nuestras vidas. Así el diablo no tendrá otra opción que huir (Santiago 4:7).

Francisco J. Morillo-Velarde Lozano es originario de España, donde fue líder de varias células por mas de diez años. Ahora el es el líder del grupo de hombres de Lake Pointe Church en Español, y colabora bajo Gilberto Santiago en el Seminario Teológico Bautista de la Asociación Bautista de Dallas.

In mid-2017, while traveling in Somalia to visit with a network of underground believers on behalf of the 21^st Century Wilberforce Initiative, I was profoundly impacted by the testimony of Iman. Several years ago – though he had never met a Christian or seen a Bible – Iman’s reading of the Quran led him to the conviction that God was revealing God’s love to humanity through the person of Jesus Christ.

When Iman shared this understanding with his family, they feared he had lost his mind and beat him in hopes of driving out the “demon of Christianity.” This pattern continued twice a year for the next six years, until after exhausting local options, the family took Iman to a specialist in Ethiopia who tied Iman’s hands and feet and tortured him in a locked room from Friday through Sunday. Throughout this ordeal, Iman prayed a specific request: would the Lord allow his hands and feet to be untied?

After a round of beating that Sunday, his prayer request was answered and he was unbound and left in that locked room. Late that Sunday evening, something that only could be described as miraculous happened as the door to the room swung open. Realizing no one else was present, Iman walked out to his freedom. Finding a nearby farm, he traded his watch for a ride to a refugee camp. Accepted as a refugee, Iman met his first Christians, received his first Bible and began the process of discipleship.

Today, several years later, Iman is pastoring two churches, one in Ethiopia and one in Somalia.

Reflecting on this experience, Iman described his journey in light of Psalm 126:3–5 as one who sowed in tears and reaped a harvest of joy. He continued:

“We need to accept and receive the crucifixion, and that what Jesus passed through, we also need to pass through. They kill your flesh, but they are not able to kill your soul. Do not be afraid of those who try to kill you. Your life does not belong to you. It belongs to the Lord. He said in his word – which always gives us hope – that I am with you to the uttermost ends of the world. Yes, we are persecuted. Yes, we do not have freedom. But we have the kingdom of God and that is enough for us.”

In our fast-paced, technology-driven, material-calling world, can we join with Iman in declaring in honesty and authenticity that the kingdom of God is enough for us? More than anything else, can the kingdom of God be our vision and passion? With some 1.5 billion people continuing to live in areas where they have less than a 50 percent chance of ever hearing the gospel, can we lean into the example of Iman and the calling of Scripture to faithfully share the hope of Jesus Christ wherever it may lead?

As I begin this journey with you as the general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, I am deeply honored and humbled. Together as we head into this New Year, my prayer is that no matter where we are today, we will once again affirm that the kingdom of God is enough for us.

Elijah Brown is the General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, a network of 235 member bodies in 125 countries. A native of Texas, he tweets @ElijahMBrown with additional information at bwanet.org.

This article first appeared on the Baptist World Alliance website.

Weakness is the way of the Christian life. In our might-makes-right world and in a culture where being loud is better than being true, we have an amazing opportunity to show the beauty of the gospel in our weakness.

A boast in ourselves

I am a pastor, so I run in a lot of pastor circles, have attended a ton of pastor’s meetings and conferences and have read a ton of pastoral ministry books and articles. Throughout my twelve years in vocational ministry, I have never once heard a pastor talk about his own weakness from the stage or in personal conversation with other ministers.

Most of the conversations between pastors become opportunities to couch our pride within a hollow boast of the Lord. We talk about numbers, about baptisms and about budgets. On the surface, this looks like we are giving glory to God, but underneath many times you can sense a desire for our own glory to be seen.

We are really boasting in ourselves.

Paul’s boast in the Lord

In reading through 2 Corinthians lately, I have been struck by what Paul chooses to use as fruit of his ministry to defend his faithfulness and show God’s glory. In chapters 11 and 12, as Paul takes the “false apostles” who have charged him with burdening and dividing the church to task, he talks about his own weakness as the defense of his authentic apostleship.

Paul doesn’t talk about how many churches he has planted. Paul doesn’t point to the number of people he has baptized. Paul doesn’t defend himself with the size of the offerings he has taken up to help needy churches.

Paul points to the moments of his greatest weakness to show God’s glory and strength at work in him.

In chapter 11, Paul boasts about the times he has “received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked.” And on he goes.

In chapter 12, Paul points us to the thorn in his flesh, which he has pleaded with God to be taken away three times. He could talk about the time he was taken into the presence of God. He could boast about all he has seen as the mighty works of the Spirit, but he doesn’t.

He boasts about a thorn in the flesh, a persistent suffering with which he has struggled over and over. He talks about his weakness because in his weakness the power and strength of God shine most clearly. In his weakness, the grace of God proves to be sufficient.

Paul boasts in the Lord, and the way he boasts in the Lord is by boasting in his weakness, in the moments where the sustaining grace of God is the only way he makes it through.

Much of our boasting is actually a way to boast about our own ability or dedication or gifting. We talk about our successes and try to tack God on at the end to cover our spiritual bases.

Paul talked about his lowest moments, not his highest, in the eyes of the world.

A call to weakness

Needless to say, there is not much room for this kind of boast in our modern church culture. Paul would not be invited to the conference stage or be asked to write a book on modern church leadership.

We try to hide our weakness when it is actually the way the Lord shows his glory and grace in our lives. We should boast in the Lord, which means we will boast in our weakness: “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

The Kingdom of God is led by the weak: “The first shall be last and the last shall be first” (Matthew 20:16). Jesus showed us the way of humility and sacrifice. Jesus showed us that earthly weakness is the way to spiritual power. Jesus left us an example to follow to show the world the glory of God.

We are called to serve, to sacrifice and to suffer in this world. We are called to be weak and to boast in our weakness.

Zac Harrel is pastor of First Baptist Church in Gustine, Texas.

En Español aqui.

A few weeks ago I was listening to a Christian show on the radio. The broadcaster was sharing a personal experience about technology and how it has taken hold of our lives.

Instead of helping us, technology can dull our intelligence and cause issues that could produce negative effects later on.

This particular story talked about how smartphones have become part of us and have made us dependent on them.

We could forget our lunch at home, or we could forget our jacket, but never our phone. If we left our phone at home, we would turn around to get it, even if that meant coming in late to work.

This also happens when we go to church, where our attention is supposed to be completely given to God in worship.

‘Our Swiss Army knives’

We are supposed to give our time so that we will learn and use those lessons to practice a life that fits the sainthood God expects of us.

But smartphones now are part of our worship of God. Our phones have substituted our Bibles since they are our “Swiss Army knives” in which we have different tools to help our daily lives.

The problem is not the phones themselves but the unlimited use we give them. The problem is worse when they rob us of our attention.

How many times have we not had the temptation of checking the notification we just got on our phones? Who does not wish to check out social media to see what is going on?

Phones are a double-edged sword because they can help us be more in touch with our surroundings, and we can use them to share the works of God in us. But they can also be instruments of temptation that the enemy can use. Smartphones can take away our attention, and they can take us far from what it would be to act with intelligence.

We substitute our own intelligence and give it away to a small device that takes our attention away from what really matters.

According to the Bible, to be intelligent is to get away from evil (Job 28:28). How are we going to get away from evil if we do not pay attention to what God is asking of us?

‘The enemy knows how to distract’

Psalm 81:13–14 says, “O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! Then I would quickly subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their foes.”

The enemy knows how to distract the people of God. Anytime we do not pay attention to what it is to walk in righteousness is to disobey the instructions God has given us. That makes us step away from the care God has for our lives.

May we be intelligent, and let us submit to God’s will. May we keep our attention and care in what makes us faithful to God. May we not fall into temptation, but instead be wise in what God has commanded. That way the devil will have no other option but to run away (James 4:7).

Francisco J. Morillo-Velarde Lozano is originally from Spain, where he led various cell groups for ten years. Now he is the men’s group leader at Lake Pointe Church en Español and collaborates under Gilberto Santiago in the Dallas Baptist Association program, Seminario Teologico Bautista.

One of the best episodes of “The Twilight Zone” centers around a group of giant aliens that have come to earth in an apparent effort to help humankind. Everyone is skeptical at first, but the aliens are convincing: the leader has been very nice and has been carting around a book titled “To Serve Man” everywhere he goes, which sounds pleasant enough.

Only, in true “Twilight Zone” fashion, it wasn’t pleasant at all.

The aliens were planning on eating the humans, and the book was a cookbook! The human leadership had sold themselves out to the impossible promise of having all the problems they faced fixed by the aliens.

I am not convinced that modern Christian conservatives are much different than those humans.

Voting for nationalism

Donald Trump offered to solve America’s problems by making it great again, and the majority of evangelical voters took him at his word — many with the hope he could offer in the battle for Christian values on the Supreme Court — and voted for him.

Many of these same supporters are now throwing their support behind once unthinkable candidates like Roy Moore. Despite Moore ultimately losing the race and receiving less white evangelical support than anticipated, the damage is done.

While “white evangelical” is an increasingly debated label, and despite a number of mainline Christians (most notably black women) voting for Moore’s Democrat opponent Doug Jones, it is clear that the allure of making America great again has proven to be too strong for a large portion of our country’s population.

Those individuals want to see America restored to its former glory, with its citizens given their rightful due as the free people of this Republic. While he has lost support in nearly every conceivable demographic, an overwhelming majority of white evangelicals still support Trump and his associates, including people like Roy Moore.

Is there anything America loves more than the idea of being American?

‘Our new national pastime’

Almost as soon as we finish taking our first step as infants, we are sold a golden dream that only the promised land of America can deliver.

We are told “prophetic stories of freedom,” as Chance the Rapper calls them. Stories about our freedom to grow up to be president. Our freedom to bear any kind of arms. Our freedom to say whatever we want to say, whenever we want to say it. Our freedom to do as we please.

We have been sold a golden dream that tells of an absolute freedom that only America can offer, and it is in that freedom that we find our greatness. It is a sense of freedom that is so outrageous, only the most nihilistic of individuals would think it possible to obtain.

John Steinbeck said it best when he said, “We speak of the American Way of Life as though it involved the ground rules for the governance of heaven.” It’s this thirst for freedom, for restored greatness, that has driven America into nationalism as our new national pastime.

When will it be enough?

‘We must demand more’

While the national discourse has been dominated by who is using what bathroom, who is marrying whom, and what Planned Parenthood is doing, nationalism has quietly crept in and infected the national consciousness. While we were so focused on ridding ourselves of one sin, we were making room for another.

Nationalism is a very real and present danger made all the worse by the administration’s tendency to co-opt Christian rhetoric in order to make the population feel comfortable with the state of things. Many have been so enchanted by this rhetoric that they freely admit the character of our elected officials no longer matters.

But you cannot trade one sin for another. All sins demand our repentance.

You cannot barter one for something deemed more acceptable by the collective. You can’t brush off racism, sexism or nationalism as a price worth paying. All of these sins have grave consequences; we have been warned that the wages of sin is death.

We have also been warned to remain ever vigilant and watchful for the one prowling around, seeking power at any cost to us. We must stand firm and resist the false hope promised by those seeking to compromise our moral values.

We must demand more of our leadership, yes. But ultimately, we must demand much more of each other. This is a call for reconciliation.

We must refuse to compromise our belief systems for the false assurances made by the aliens that promise they have come to serve man.

Smith Getterman lives in Waco, Texas, with his wife and two sons, where he is the director of sustainability at Baylor University. You can find him on Twitter @getterman or at sgetterman@gmail.com.

We know that polarization is the mark of our current social, political and religious environments. I don’t know if there has been another time where so many people are on opposite extremes of so many different issues — from health care to gun control, to climate change, to foreign policy and many more.

If you are a pastor, a ministry leader, a Sunday School teacher or a small group leader, I know one of your aspirations is to help those you lead think in a more Christlike way. But, additionally, one of our goals needs to be to help them know how to think.

Recently, I read Alan Jacobs’ latest book “How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds,” and I was struck by this realization: Part of what we are called to do as church leaders is not only to lead people to think well about Christ but simply to lead people to think well.

‘The repugnant cultural other’

Throughout the book, Jacobs reveals the forces that drive us to think the way we do. He talks about the force of thinking with others, the forces of attraction and repulsion, the force of grouping and the forces of metaphor and myth. These forces guide our thinking like the banks of a river guide the water.

And even if we do not need to change course, we must be aware that the water will only go where the riverbank allows.

The problem that Jacobs points out in his book (which is definitely worth the read) is that when we are faced with an idea that’s contrary to our thinking, although we may find that idea repulsive, instead of labeling only the idea repulsive, we label the one who holds the idea as repulsive — or what Jacobs borrows from Susan Harding and calls the “repugnant cultural other” (RCO).

Jacobs’ main goal in the book is to show that the “RCO” is indeed a human being and realize that we might, under different circumstances, hold the same view that we find repulsive.

Moving beyond us and them

In fact, we could say that one of the purposes of Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan was to show this very idea. The priest and the Levite may have been repulsed to the idea of violence, but when violence had a body, a face and a name, the victim of that violence repulsed them. Neither one of them realized that if they had been traveling the road an hour before, it could have been them naked, beaten and in desperate need of help.

This observation is so important for those of us in church leadership because part of our task (as leaders) is to help those under us move beyond the us-and-them narrative projected from the news media, social media and culture. This narrative drives our world because it’s the narrative we demand.

The first step to thinking well is to demand another narrative, and demanding another narrative means teaching another narrative, not the narrative of the RCO but a narrative of the “CRO” — “Christ Revealing Other.”

St. Therese of Lisieux famously said, “Everything is grace,” meaning, if we look we can find God in all aspects of life. We can find God even in “them,” whoever “them” may be. Our task as church leaders is to rediscover that truth within our lives and teach that to those whom we lead.

Three questions

In closing, I want to propose three questions that can help us begin to discover the CRO and begin to start thinking well.

First, can you identify the repugnant idea that has turned into the repugnant other?

Is it those who identify as LBGT? Is it those who hold to Democratic or Republican political ideas? Is it those from other religions?

In their book, “Good Faith,” David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons report that almost nine out of 10 evangelicals would find it “very” or “somewhat” difficult to have a conversation with a Muslim or a member of the LBGT community. I believe this is because we turned people with these beliefs into the RCO.

Second, can you find one place of commonality between what you believe and the belief you find repugnant? Or, to look from a different angle, what are the conditions under which you might hold the same view?

If we can find places of actual or mental empathy, we humanize the RCO and can begin to see them as a CRO. That empathy starts when, in the words of Alan Jacobs, we “realize that in different circumstances you could be that person.”

Lastly, where is God’s work of grace? Where is Christ revealed?

Going back to Jesus’ story, the Samaritan understood that he could have been the beaten and helpless traveler. The Samaritan knew what it was like to be passed over and shunned, and therefore he was moved to compassion. Several times in the gospel, we read that Jesus was moved to compassion, and we discover Christ in the beaten traveler and the Samaritan.

Where can we find and begin teaching others to find the work of God’s grace in the lives of people — all people, even those with whom we disagree?

Church leader, I invite you to discover the “Christ Revealing Others” around you and begin thinking well, so in turn you can lead others to think beyond us and them.

Ryan Vanderland is Senior Pastor at First Baptist Church, Electra. He blogs regularly at ryanvanderland.wordpress.com.

On May 24, 1738, a young John Wesley was sitting in a Bible study reading the preface to Luther’s “Epistle to the Romans” when he “felt his heart strangely warmed.”

According to Wesley, “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins.” From then on, Wesley, along with his brother Charles and his friend George Whitefield, would preach tirelessly about the need to consciously commit oneself to Christ.

The heartfelt preaching of the Wesleys and Whitefield spawned the global movement we call “evangelicalism” today. Evangelicals are the spiritual heirs of the Wesleys and Whitefield, Protestants who believe that Christianity is not merely a set of facts to accept but a reality to be experienced and shared with others.

Taking a word

The word “evangelical” didn’t become a political term until the emergence of the religious right in the late 1970s. Currently, it receives special ire in the year since the election of Donald Trump. Media outlets have painted evangelicals as the group responsible for Trump’s surprise election, with estimates between 80 and 90 percent typically given for the percentage of evangelicals who voted for him.

By this supposed mass association with Trump, evangelicals have come to be identified by the media with all of the president’s questionable policies and moral shortcomings. Evangelicals are portrayed as hypocrites seeking to force their religion on others, in addition to charges of racism, sexism and homophobia.

In light of the negative connotation the word “evangelical” has gained in recent years, a number of religious leaders have called for dissatisfied evangelicals to “drop the label.” The idea is that the reputation of evangelicals is beyond repair and no longer able to be reclaimed and that those uncomfortable with this use of the word should distance themselves from it.

I disagree.

Problems in polling

Evangelicals have existed far longer than the Republican party. Evangelicals exist in a myriad of countries other than the United States. To use the word “evangelical” to mean, as Baylor historian Thomas Kidd has described its current usage, “whites who consider themselves religious and who vote Republican,” is to completely ignore evangelicalism’s historical and geographical reality.

Polls from mainstream news outlets (both left- and right-leaning) typically decide who is or is not an evangelical by asking people to self-identify, a wildly irresponsible methodology. When media constantly forwards the narrative that all evangelicals are Republicans, we shouldn’t be surprised that only Republicans identify as evangelical. These polls rarely examine the beliefs and practices of people claiming to be evangelicals.

Even more problematic, many polling groups assume that only white people can be evangelical; they assume African-Americans, Hispanics and other groups not to be evangelical because of their race. This is extremely unfortunate, as these minorities make up a substantial portion of contemporary evangelicalism, one that does not fit the contemporary narrative.

True evangelicalism

What do we find when we look at evangelicalism as primarily a theological and historical movement rather than a synonym for “Republican?” Recently, Lifeway Research issued an extremely insightful and well-designed survey examining that question.

Taking what historians and religious scholars typically believe to be the four key characteristics of evangelicalism — belief in personal conversion, evangelism, the atonement and the authority of Scripture — Lifeway first asked people if they considered themselves an evangelical and then asked them about their religious beliefs.

Of those who claimed to be “evangelical,” only 45 percent held these most basic historical evangelical beliefs.

Among people who actually held historical evangelical beliefs, only 58 percent were white, making evangelicals significantly more diverse than the general United States population. Likewise, conservatives made up only 65 percent of evangelicals — a majority, but not the overwhelming one the media portrays.

In short, the Lifeway survey demonstrates the massive degree to which popular media has misrepresented evangelicals by carelessly applying the term to people who don’t fit the historical description.

Don’t drop the label

Evangelicalism has been grossly misrepresented in national media, even by groups that normally do good, careful work. Should we drop the name “evangelical” because of this misuse?

Absolutely not.

To say that the contemporary American political situation has made the name unkeepable is to forget that evangelicals existed before Republicans and that evangelicals exist in countries other than the United States.

Even worse, to accept the media’s definition of evangelicals as “religious whites who vote Republican” tells our Black and Hispanic brothers and sisters that they aren’t part of a movement that, historically, they have been integral to.

We shouldn’t capitulate to the mainstream understanding of evangelicalism, not when it is so blatantly incorrect and misguided. We should let these entities know that they have misunderstood us and that we do not appreciate being misrepresented.

Most importantly, we should not drop the name “evangelical” if we fit what the name actually means. Evangelicalism is bigger than our current moment, and it will still be here when the current moment has passed.

Jake Raabe is a student at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, Texas. He is also a co-founder of Patristica Press, a Waco-based publishing house.

Can we discuss the end times for a moment?

President Donald J. Trump’s decision to move the United States embassy to Jerusalem, thereby recognizing Jerusalem as the capital, set off another firestorm of debate this past week. Some supported this decision based on political reasons only. Others supported this political decision on theological grounds.

My concern in this article is not for the political reasons surrounding the decision, of which there are many complex factors, but the theological presuppositions of those Christians who have been pushing for this decision.

Many Christians rejoiced over this decision because they believe that the United States recognizing Jerusalem as the capital (which legally happened in the mid-1990s) is a sign of prophecy which will lead to the end times. There are definitely other interpretations.

You may be like me and find yourself troubled that decisions seemingly endorsed by the Bible and other Christians could lead to more violence and bloodshed.

Dispensing with Dispensationalism

Please understand — there are many different ways in which good Christians understand the end times. If you were to put the three leading twentieth-century Christian leaders in a room (Billy Graham, Herschel Hobbs and George W. Truett), they would all see the end times differently. They would all agree Jesus will return — but they held a different perspective on exactly how that will happen.

Good Christians can interpret the end of times in different ways. Disagreeing with one another concerning the end times does not make one outside of Christian orthodoxy. Jesus said we will not know the day or hour of the end (Matthew 24:36), so I am immediately suspect of the biblical knowledge and motives of those who claim to be certain on matters Jesus says no one (not even the angels) are aware of.

The belief that somehow Jerusalem must be recognized as a part of the end times prophetic fulfillment is actually a rather new development. In the 1800s, J. M. Darby and C. I. Scofield were proponents of a new way of understanding the Bible known as dispensationalism. It’s called dispensationalism because it assumes that God acts in different ways and has different rules during different eras (dispensations).

According to Dispensationalists, we live in the sixth dispensation, and the rapture/anti-Christ talk is from the seventh dispensation. They believe that the Temple will be rebuilt and animal sacrifices will be resumed.

Dispensationalism places a human-made system onto the biblical text, which is always dangerous. Some dispensationalists act smarter than the original authors, as the Bible is treated like a secret timeline.

Keep in mind, many Christians for over 1,800 years did not believe dispensationalism or the necessity of a literal nation-state of Israel for Christ to return. Dispensationalism and its political implications are a very new development, driven more by current politics than by biblical theology and certainly has not been upheld by theologians throughout the history of the church.

‘Contrary to the teachings of Jesus’

My concern with dispensationalism is that it requires supporting policies and practices that are contrary to the teachings of Jesus — which include more fighting, more injustice and pitting sides against one another.

In fact, dispensational theology can feed on divisiveness. If we want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. Instead of being a fulfillment of biblical prophecy, where Jesus brings peace to the earth (Revelation 21:4), dispensationalism can become a self-fulfilling prophecy to massive conflict based on suspect theological assumptions.

Keep in mind John 3:16: God loves the whole world, and wants to bless America and France, Israel and Palestine (Don’t forget that there are Palestinian Christians, too!) Also, remember that Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36).

We can trust Jesus. He is coming back, and his kingdom, thankfully, is not a kingdom of this world.

Until then, may we share the Good News of God’s love that has been revealed in Christ Jesus and work toward peace for all.

John Whitten is lead pastor for the gathering at Pioneer Drive Baptist Church in Abilene.

I am going to use this place as my confessional booth for a moment.

I care deeply, too deeply, what other people think of me. I want people to think I am smart. I want people to think I have it all together. I want people to like me or, rather, to love me.

This natural tendency of my heart is continually calling and accusing and pushing me.

My need for approval in ministry

This need for approval is a part, though I don’t know if I am cognizant how big a part, of the reason I am in the ministry. It shouldn’t be a reason why I do what I do, but it is.

In pastoral ministry, we use the vocabulary of calling and vocation, and rightly so. To be faithful in the long-term of ministry, one must have a calling from God and sense a vocation to the work, but my guess is I am not alone in seeing many aspects of my ministry as ways to fill the need of approval from others.

Don’t get me wrong. I feel a call from God on my life, and pastoring this great church God has given me is definitely my vocation. He has called me and equipped me to love and lead his people.

I am in ministry first and foremost because of the call of God on my life, but there is also a big part of my heart that loves what I do because of the close relationship with others and the love I find in these relationships.

These relationships fill a need in my life that is mostly good and right. We are meant to know the love and encouragement of the church, but sometimes this need for approval shows itself in spiritually unhealthy ways.

It takes a special kind of person to get up week in and week out and claim to speak truthfully and authoritatively from God’s word. Pastoral ministry is filled with personal relationships, and, in those relationships, there are many opportunities to be patted on the back.

I don’t know all the reasons why my heart needs this approval or why these pats on the back seem to bring so much joy — there is much I could examine in my own heart — but they do.

Naturally, you can see how this can be a problem for one called to minister to the people of God where we are to help lead the church to repentance and transformation. Seeking the approval of man comes into direct conflict with rightly preaching the word of God.

So, I must continually check my motives and my heart and seek to be faithful to my calling and pleasing to God above seeking to be pleasing to man. This is my constant struggle.

But, the truth is that there is danger for all of us in seeking the approval of man to satisfy our souls because man cannot ultimately satisfy or approve of us. We need the approval and love of our Father in heaven, and, in the gospel, we find it.

God’s pleasure in us

The proclamation of the gospel that in Christ I am approved, I am loved and I am accepted, is the truth countering my unhealthy need for the love of others.

In my baptism, as in the baptism of Jesus, God looks down on me in Christ and proclaims, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased.” The approval of man I long for finds its ultimate fulfillment in the satisfaction of my heart in Christ. I am his and he is mine.

In Jesus, I am welcomed. In Christ, the Father is well-pleased with me. It is not based on anything I have done, unlike so much of the approval of man, but based solely on what Christ has done for me. The love of God is sure. I can rest in the pleasure the Father has with me in Christ.

It is out of this sure love I can minister most effectively. It is out of this sure pleasure and acceptance that I am made truly whole.

Maybe you are like me. Maybe you struggle with needing to know and hear the approval of others. For whatever reason this may be true, you can know this longing finds its fulfillment in Jesus.

The approval of man proves fickle. The approval of God, which is ours by our faith in Christ, proves faithful. Trust Jesus and hear the declaration of God over your life: “This is my son, this is my daughter, in whom I am well pleased.”

Quit seeking the approval of man because in Jesus you are loved and accepted by God. I remind myself of this truth every day.

This is my confession.

Zac Harrel is pastor of First Baptist Church in Gustine, Texas.

When I was in eighth grade, I asked my parents for something special for Christmas. At that time, I was a proud member of the Alamo Jr. High Band (Go Scouts!) and had a rapidly growing obsession with all things percussion, so when my parents asked me what I would like for Christmas that year, there was really only one answer: a drum set.

So, I submitted my official request and the wait began. I waited … and waited … and waited.

The Christmas season is so brutal when you’re a kid.

The days had to be twice as long in December, and they are full of tirelessly counting down the days until that day. Then, finally, the morning comes when you get to see if what you asked for, what you hoped for, is there waiting for you.

That year, our family was spending the Christmas holiday out of town with family in Central Texas, and when we gathered around and began exchanging and opening presents, my father stood up and held out a piece of paper for me.

Confused, but also incredibly excited, I eagerly took the piece of paper and my eyes devoured what I found printed on it.

‘A picture of a promise’

On the paper, there was a picture of a cherry-red, five-piece drum set and a handwritten note at the bottom that read, “Waiting for you at home, love you, Mom and Dad.” I was beside myself with excitement. I couldn’t believe it. I was getting a drum set!

Yes, it meant more waiting, but in my hands was a picture of a promise, and it was beautiful.

I remember spending most of the rest of our time there and the trip back home studying that picture. I would think about where I was going to put it in the house and consider all the different ways I could arrange the set.

I couldn’t stop thinking about how excited I was to tell my friends about it and have them over to my house to see it. Most importantly though, I spent that time thinking about how much I was going to love playing on it.

I honestly didn’t think I could be more excited about it, but, much to my delight, I discovered that upon arriving at home and sitting down at my new drum set, my enjoyment of this gift would increase tenfold. I remember playing for hours on end … until my parents threatened me to stop.

I’m just kidding, but they did make me move it to the attic to practice.

Yes, the picture had been wonderful, and the promise of the gift had been great, but it wasn’t until I sat down and started playing those drums that I experienced the deep joy of the gift.

A promise in a Person

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

Just try to imagine the unbridled excitement that the captivity-laden nation of Israel must have felt at these words from Isaiah. Imagine their joy as they held on to the beautiful word picture that God graciously gave them through his prophet: how they must have studied it, hoped in it and looked eagerly to the day when the picture would become a person.

And then it did.

One awfully mundane night, in an awfully mundane place, when the world was crying out in desperate need of saving, the fanfare of heaven came to finally bring forth the fulfillment of a long-awaited promise, and with one voice all of creation cried out an announcement of a royal birth.

The King of Kings, the Son of Man, the Word made flesh, had come.

And as he lay in a feeding trough, the song of the angels rose with a clarion chorus of “Behold the Savior!”

My prayer this Advent season is that we would join in that same angels’ song from long ago and lift our voices in unison to declare “Behold the Savior” to a dark and desperate world.

The light of Jesus continues to shine in the darkness, leading the longing to his presence, and the wonderful truth is this: the darkness will never overcome it.

Jason Dunton is the contemporary worship arts pastor at First Baptist Church in Bryan, Texas, where he lives and loves with his wife, Joanna, daughter, Penelope, and English bulldog, Grubby.

Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Garrison Keillor, Jeremy Piven, Louis C.K., Kevin Spacey, Jeffrey Tambor, John Conyers, Roy Moore, Al Franken, Harvey Weinstein and more.

Names seem to be added to the list daily.

As the #metoo movement has produced numerous allegations over the past several weeks, there are two questions that I have frequently heard in conversations about the matter.

Why now?

First, why now? Why did these women wait until now to make reports against these men? If it really happened, then why didn’t they report it immediately? Are these women just trying to get a place in the spotlight since this issue is hot right now?

The simplest answer to this question is that these women are coming forward right now because they finally think people will believe them.

Victims of sexual assault and harassment are often put through a long, painful investigation and judicial process in which they have to endure countless retellings of some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Then, at the end of the process, victims are often not believed, or they are even blamed for the violent and violating actions someone has taken against them — not to mention the tremendous shame and wrongly placed self-blame that accompanies sexual abuse.

Undoubtedly, there are millions more who still have not come forward for these very reasons.

Furthermore, in the cases of the high-profile men mentioned above, another factor plays into the hesitation, delay or nonexistent reporting of sexual misconduct. If the perpetrator is an integral part of an institution or industry that exerts power or influence of any kind, people know that, more often than not, power will act to protect itself. Institutions go to great lengths to protect their influence — whether financial or otherwise.

Before the past several weeks, could you have ever imagined a top-rated TV show or anticipated movie being canceled? Such instances only happened very rarely.

When reports like these have been made in the past, the most likely scenario was that the cases were “settled” with large amounts of money paid to the victims to minimize any scandal. Case in point: Bill O’Reilly, until recently.

Women are coming forward because, as Norah O’Donnell and Savannah Guthrie poignantly put it, this is a moment of reckoning.

This moment of reckoning is one in which not only are people becoming more aware of the prevalence of sexual misconduct in our society, but it is one in which the tides of power are hopefully changing.

The workplace, the home, the church and our world must become safe for women, and all people, if equality is ever going to be achieved in our society.

How can men feel safe?

The second question or concern I’ve heard is this: How can any man feel safe in his position when these stories are being believed at face value?

They speculate that anyone who is holding something against a man could just make an allegation of sexual misconduct and get the man fired. Because of this, many men are worried and are analyzing every interaction they’ve had over the course of their careers.

I can certainly have sympathy for this concern. Unfortunately, people can and do take advantage of situations like these to make false allegations. Proper investigation still needs to happen so that people are not unfairly penalized for something they did not do.

However, we must emphasize that victims of sexual abuse are always unfairly penalized emotionally, physically, professionally and in so many more ways for things that they did not do either.

A moment of reflection

So, I do think that all men, and people in positions of power, should take an inventory of their interactions. Moreover, such self-reflection should not just take place now but should become a regular practice so that great care is always taken not to objectify or take advantage of others.

Then, for those who take stock and become concerned that they may have said or done something that was inappropriate, I would encourage them to be the one to speak up first. Ask the person in question if they felt victimized by your behavior. And if the answer is affirmative (or even if it is not), then seek forgiveness, pursue reconciliation and become educated on how to transform your interactions.

Don’t let this be a moment when we just say that Matt Lauer and Harvey Weinstein should have known better.

Let this be a moment when we all examine the ways in which we interact with and think about the people around us.

Our fellow humans do not exist for our own self-amusement. Our fellow divine-image bearers exist so that, together with God, we might partner with each other in God’s work of redemption, grace and love in this world.

In this moment of reckoning, let us become a people who stand for respect, equality and partnership and who stand against objectification, oppression and entitlement.

Meredith Stone is director of ministry guidance and instructor of Christian ministry and Scripture at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. She is a member of the Baptist Standard Publishing board of directors.