In the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus’ story begins just like one of our modern American tales of “making it big.”

An unknown boy from a nowhere town has a big dream, so he risks it all to leave the security of home in search of something better. He meets some scrappy, endearing, and perhaps a little dopy, friends along the way, and when they get to the big city, Capernaum in this case, the kid gets his shot in the limelight, overcomes adversity, and triumphs to the amazement and admiration of all.

Then, at the height of his fame, our hero makes a foolish decision. He gets into a fight with his best friend, and the whole thing threatens to collapse.

In Mark 1:37, Peter tracks Jesus down, all alone and outside of town. He says to Jesus, “Everyone is looking for you! You’re the talk of the town! We’ve really got something going here! Come on back so we can set up shop and make this miracle business work for us! I’ve even got a guy working on a Jesus bobblehead. Here, let me show you the mock-up.”

But Jesus isn’t buying it, or selling, as it were. He replies, “Let’s go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” It looks like Jesus is wasting his opportunity.  As soon as he gets some brand recognition in Hollywood, he throws it all away to do community theater out in the sticks.

But is it really such a tragedy to use your God-given gifts in service to small communities?

Know Thy Neighbor

I don’t think so. There’s a widespread myth in our culture that bigger is better, and you’re better off starving in the city than surviving in the country. And I use the word “surviving” intentionally. Life in rural communities is hard.

Those who don’t inherit family land or businesses often struggle to find gainful employment. Services and entertainment in small communities are often hard to come by, and the definitions of growth and success are different in places with limited capital and small markets.

But in exchange for sacrifices in luxury and opportunity, I’ve found that small towns offer a truer form of community: People know their neighbors. (Whether they like them or not is an entirely different matter.)

We care for one another and are genuinely invested in one another’s well-being. The faith life of small communities benefits from this intimacy of knowledge among neighbors. It’s harder to keep secrets and easier to hold one another accountable.

The Christian fellowship that comes naturally in small churches must be intentionally sought in larger contexts. These and other gifts await those who are willing to set down roots and forego some metropolitan conveniences.

Where Community Comes Naturally

Too often though, the draw of the bright lights has proven disastrous to small towns. Visit any rural high school and utter the question, “How do you like living here?” and you’ll inevitably hear students respond that they can’t wait to “get out of this town.” Implicit in their response is the desire to move to the city.

Now, to be fair, the same response may be common in urban high schools, but I expect that few of those urban students want to move to little towns and stake their livelihoods on the price of wheat.

And that social dynamic has generally resulted in small communities being drained of all their best and brightest, with only those who lack the means to escape being left behind. Over the course of a few decades, this has resulted in deeper impoverishment and greater struggle in rural communities, which is further compounded by the fact that small towns pour so much of their community resources into young people with little return. Meanwhile, cities feed on the lives and dreams of these young people the same as they do on the commodities imported by the same rural communities.

I don’t mean to imply that small towns are any better or more virtuous than large cities. Both are inhabited by human people with all their faults and failures, but small towns carry an undeserved bad reputation in our society. Some days I wonder why my millennial peers—for all their talk of community, concern for sustainability and appreciation for minimalism—are unwilling to invest their lives in a place where these things come naturally and are simply a way of life.

Perhaps it’s because it’s hard to come home.

The Haven of Small Communities

When Jesus went back to his hometown in Mark 6, the people didn’t accept him, and their lack of faith even curbed his divine power. That’s not a ringing endorsement of small towns. But even so, in the verses that immediately follow Jesus’ rejection in Nazareth, he carries on “teaching from village to village” and sends out his disciples two by two into the small towns.

Perhaps more of Jesus’ modern disciples will join me in the haven of small communities where the hurry and excess of the city are less tempting and where community life is natural and necessary.

Chris McLain is the pastor of First Baptist Church in Crowell, Texas.

“I have called you friends.” (John 15:15)

Steve BeznerI recently wrote a post in which I explained why many pastors often appear to be antisocial. Lest you think that I am defending antisocial pastors, I wrote that post to explain the relational dynamics at play in the hearts of most pastors.

At the same time, pastors need healthy friendships. Here’s why:

Jesus modeled friendship.

Jesus told his disciples in John 15:15, “I have called you friends.” Jesus spent most of three years with twelve men. They walked the country teaching about the kingdom of God. They ate together, fished together and challenged the status quo together.

Out of those 12, Jesus appeared to be very close to three of them: Peter, James and John. He drew them aside to the Mount of Transfiguration. He pulled them aside for specific exhortations. John, the author of the Gospel of John, describes himself as “the disciple Jesus loved” (John 13:23). Clearly, each of these men thought of Jesus as a dear friend.

If Christians consider Jesus to be an example for every area of life, friendship must be included. If Jesus thought friends were worthy, so should pastors.

All friendships require risks.

As I mentioned in my other post, many pastors fear friendships within their churches because they fear those friendships being weaponized in some future intra-church conflict. While that certainly is possible, I find that most of my deepest pastoral worry never comes to pass. And, of course, Jesus told us not to worry.

Every friendship, and not just those for pastors, requires risk. Friends often betray one another, not just pastors. Yet friends are a gift.

Proverbs 18:24 seems to acknowledge the risk while extolling the virtue of finding that lifelong friend: “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Will many companions turn their backs on you? Yes, the writer says, many will. But there is one who will be like a family member—one who will hold you in the toughest of times. That friendship is worth the risk.

Not all friendships are required to be within your church.

One of the greatest gifts I have found in my city are other pastors. I meet with them regularly for lunch. We encourage one another, pray for one another and bear one another’s burdens. They understand my occupational hazards, and they are able to give me wise counsel. There is little risk of our friendship affecting either of our churches. It has been a gift.

My wife and I also have  become good friends with another couple active in another church. Our sons played seven-on-seven football together, and we have hosted them in our home and vice versa. It’s a great relationship grounded in shared faith yet without any of my irrational fears coming into play.

Friendship is essential to biblical community.

The New Testament is replete with commands for us to take care of one another. We are told to love one another, serve one another, bear one another’s burdens, pray for one another, etc. You cannot do those things apart from one key component: other people.

You can’t understand the intercessory actions of Jesus on your behalf if you are not modeling intercessory behavior that is commanded in the Scriptures. And you can’t model those behaviors if you are isolated.

I have been part of a group of people in our church that regularly meets in a home to study Scripture, pray together, share a meal and grow in Christ. I wouldn’t trade those people for anything. They teach me how to live out the call to be the church. They are my friends, and they are teaching me about biblical community in a powerful way.

Your church has incredible people.

I suppose your church may be the exception. Maybe it is absolutely terrible. But I doubt it.

Speaking from experience, every church where I have served has been filled with great people. We have been blessed by their generosity and kindness. Have the relational waters been challenging to navigate at times? Certainly. Yet we have made friends in our churches, and we have been grateful to have them.

Pastor, you need friends—and you need to have some of them within your church.

Steve Bezner is senior pastor of Houston Northwest Church.

It’s a beautiful, brand-new summer morning, and I’m in my office making final preparations for this weekend’s services. This is nothing new. I can often be found here as Sunday approaches.

Jason DuntonOne of my worship pastor mentors once encouraged me to prepare for Sunday mornings exactly as a preacher does. Diligently weighing every word that is sung and said. Purposefully coordinating every element of the service to point to Jesus. Constantly cultivating a heart and mind that are primed for surrender to the Spirit’s leading. This is a rhythm I have worked really hard to develop over the last eight years of full-time ministry, and this morning is no different.

So here I sit with my Bible open, the latest Housefires album on in the background and cinnamon dolce coffee in my favorite mug. (Don’t judge me. It’s delicious.) But something is different this morning. Something is off. I’m distracted. I’m unmotivated. My eyes wander up to my two degrees hanging on the wall from Dallas Baptist University (Go Patriots!), and I begin to think back to my two graduations.

Moving on

I think about the joy I experienced on both of those days as I celebrated with friends and family. The overwhelming pride at the great accomplishment of graduating from college and graduate school. The social, emotional and spiritual growth I experienced during those seasons. But those seasons are long over. In a few weeks, my cousin Bailey will be graduating from Texas A&M University, and I could not be more excited for her. She has worked incredibly hard to claim this accomplishment and is nearing the finish line of this chapter of her life. She will move on. She will leave that season behind.

This is the essence of graduating: you move on. Bigger and better things await you. Onward and upward is not the only path, but it is the desired path forward.

“A prayer of true humility”

Many of my times with the Lord recently have been spent in the Old Testament, and lately I have been camped out in 1 Chronicles. At the end of the book, we encounter an old King David diligently making preparations for gathering all of the materials for the construction of God’s dwelling place on earth, the temple.

The actual construction of the temple would belong to his son, Solomon, but, nevertheless, David was tireless in his efforts to gather the materials and make the necessary provisions for building a house worthy of the presence of the Most High God. This was a massive undertaking and an incredibly daunting task.

David could have responded to the completion of this project in many different ways. He could have proudly beat his chest, boasting in his managerial skills, crediting his charismatic personality or his tireless work ethic, but that’s not the reaction we see from David. Instead, he stands up in the midst of the gathered assembly of Israel and once again models a prayer of true humility.

He offered this prayer in verses 14 through 16 of Chapter 29 when he said: “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow and there is no abiding. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own.”

Moving on from the grace of God?

Upon reading this, I found myself overwhelmed with a single thought: We can never graduate from the grace of God. And David displays a beautiful posture for us that unashamedly shouts this truth.

Every achievement, every trophy on the mantle, every victory we ever enjoy was authored by him and meant to produce worship of him.

Who gives us our very breath, our intellect, our gifts and our personalities? Is it not the Lord?

Who gives inspiration through creation, strength to our bodies and dreams and zeal for greater things? Is it not the Lord?

Who initiates, accomplishes and sustains salvation and sanctification for the Christ-follower? Is it not the Lord?

We should move on to bigger and better things in life. We should reach higher, work harder and walk farther than we have ever been. We were never meant to stay where we are. That’s the beauty of growing up, maturing and spiritual sanctification. But we must fight, we must pray, we must struggle to never move on from the truth that God is the author and the perfecter (Hebrews 12:2) and that all the glory for everything we accomplish belongs to him.

“All his own”

Our church is currently experiencing something fairly uncommon in our modern American culture—growth. We are seeing people from all backgrounds giving their lives to the Lord. From children to senior adults, we are seeing an outpouring of the Spirit of the Lord and the liberty that always accompanies it. It would be so easy to attribute this to great leadership, great music, great preaching or great facilities. What a tragedy that would be.

I pray that we never graduate from the grace of God. That our prayer would mirror that of David. That as we build, as we accomplish, as we succeed, we never move on from the truth that “all abundance comes from his hand and is all his own.”

Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

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.

Sometimes, God’s blessing leaves us with a limp.

Zac Harrel

I am referring, of course, to the account of Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32:22-32. Jacob wrestles with God and will not let God go until a blessing is given. Then, for the rest of his life, he walks with a limp from a touch of God on his hip socket. His limp is a reminder of this moment of wrestling, of this moment of struggle and ultimately of this blessing.

In our current church culture, we don’t have a concept for this kind of story. God’s blessing has been reduced to health and wealth. Too many see God as a holy ATM and his blessing as a way to make our lives more comfortable.

This shallow understanding of God’s blessing causes us to see moments of struggle not as blessings but as moments where God’s blessing has been removed. Nothing could be further from the truth. In our struggles, in our wrestling with faith, we find God’s blessing.

In moments that leave us with a limp, we know we have met God and experienced his blessing.

Limp-inducing experiences

The last five years have been filled with limp-inducing experiences for my family. My wife survived thyroid cancer. We experienced a miscarriage. I lost my mother, an aunt and my grandmother. My wife lost both of her grandfathers. Family members have been diagnosed with cancer.

It seems when we begin to see the light after a season of darkness, we enter another valley.

Of all of these, the one I limp with most today is the death of my mom. She passed away two months before our daughter was born. My mom had been buying gifts for her granddaughter the moment she heard the news of our pregnancy. I don’t know of anyone who was so excited for the arrival of a new child—except maybe Sarah and Abraham.

Then, suddenly, one October night, she was gone. In the next two months, we had baby showers and celebrations of this blessing from God, but this blessing came with a limp. I wrestled with God through that season. I don’t understand the plan or purpose of God in that loss, at that particular moment, but I trust God because I know he is there, and I know he loves me.

Face to face with God

What amazes me about this story in Genesis 32 is God meets Jacob face to face. He wrestles Jacob face to face, and he blesses Jacob personally. We see God’s power in the fact he touches Jacob’s hip socket and leaves him with this limp. Just a touch, and Jacob never is the same.

Yet God allows Jacob to struggle with him. What this reminds me of is the truth that God did not abandon me in my loss. God was there personally in my struggle and wrestling amidst my grief and doubt.

I often think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when I come to Genesis 32. Jesus also wrestled with God. He cried out for the cup to pass from him, yet he prayed with faith, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

Jesus went to the cross and rose from the grave, and it is this truth that gives me hope in the midst of the chaos of this world. It is this hope that reminds me God is there and God loves me, even when I don’t understand everything.

Hope of the gospel

The hope of the gospel helps me take the next step of faith, even when I walk with a limp in this broken world. The blessing of the gospel is present in every valley of life. Every moment of our lives, we can look to the Cross and to the Resurrection and know the presence, love and blessing of God.

The limp of grief I walk with now points my heart back to those moments of wrestling with God and reminds me of his blessings in the midst of great loss.

So, I want to encourage you. No matter what you are walking through today, God’s blessing is more than your health and your wealth. God’s blessing truly is found in the moments of struggle, in our moments of wrestling with him. God’s blessing is found in the moments when all you can do is hold on to him.

We may walk with a limp, but we are blessed.

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

Good schools are essential to a just society. Along with safe roads, clean water, public safety and adequate health care, they constitute God’s common good.

Charles Foster Johnson

Education is one of the Texas Legislature’s most important duties—a duty to almost 5.5 million Texas schoolchildren.

While it is hard for decent, conservative Texans to believe, a coordinated, well-funded assault on our community and neighborhood schools, schoolteachers and schoolchildren was launched in the 85th session of the Texas Legislature earlier this year.

Let’s be clear about who suffers this attack—our fellow church members, spouses, neighbors and family members. Our brothers and sisters in Christ.

The assault occurred on multiple fronts:

Inadequate funding

A brief two decades ago, public education comprised more than 70 percent of the Texas state budget. Now, it has dropped to 38 percent and is going down steadily. Texas ranks in the bottom third in the nation in per-pupil funding. After $5.4 billion was cut in the budget crisis of 2011, only $3.4 billion was restored in 2013 when we were flush again.

Most educators agree the state is several billion dollars behind in “making suitable provision” for public education, as the Texas Constitution requires. Rising property taxes, which we are led to believe go to our schools, are being used to pay for other budget items.

What did the Texas Senate, under the leadership of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, do about making up the gap in their proposed budget? Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch.

The Senate’s original 2017 budget line item for public education was $0. After the Texas House budget, under the leadership of Speaker Joe Straus, proposed a structural funding reform of $1.8 billion for public education, Lt. Gov. Patrick’s Senate finally came back with $500 million—but only if the House accepted its private-school voucher bill. The meager concession constituted a bribe from the Senate, and the House refused to take it.

So, this is what it has come to? A Senate that cynically tosses a tip to almost 90 percent of Texas children who attend public schools, but only if we agree to underwrite the private education of a few affluent children through vouchers.

Private school vouchers

Cloaked in the deceptive language of “school choice,” “education savings grants” and “tuition tax credits,” vouchers divert already-strapped public education funds to support private schools. They are:

• Unconstitutional. First, they take money away from our “system of public free schools,” as the Texas Constitution explicitly calls for in Article 7, Section 1. Second, they subsidize religious schools, thus “respecting the establishment of religion,” as the First Amendment of the United States Constitution clearly prohibits.

• Unsuccessful. There is no data to show voucher schools produce an educational outcome for our children superior to traditional public schools. In fact, in Florida, Michigan and Washington, D.C., the results show voucher programs underperformed the public schools.

• Unrighteous. There is something morally unacceptable about taking money out of the public trust of education for all our children, including our poorest kids, and sending that money to augment the education of children affluent enough to attend private schools. As Marv Knox said recently in his editorial, it is “Robin Hood in reverse,” taking from the poor and giving to the rich.

Vouchers never are enough to cover the cost of a high-quality private school, much less pay for transportation, uniforms, meals and numerous other out-of-pocket expenses incurred at the private school. No, they are only enough to subsidize the costs of families already able to pay for the lion’s share of that private school tuition.

Patrick said vouchers were his No. 1 priority this legislative session. So, the Senate sent to the House of Representatives several voucher proposals. They all failed the House by sizeable margins.

One might wonder why so many of our senators support voucher policies so harmful to our children and the dedicated professionals who teach them. There are 31 senators in Texas government, while there are 150 representatives. House members are more closely connected to our communities. They see firsthand the great job our teachers are doing—and doing on a financial shoestring. On the other hand, senators are further removed from our neighborhoods, more disconnected from our schoolteachers who work long hours at low pay to instruct and mentor our kids. Senators are more susceptible to the legislative manipulation and moneyed outside interests that do not have our children’s best interests at heart.

Payroll deduction ban

If these two legislative assaults weren’t enough, there is one more—the proposed payroll deduction ban. For decades, teachers have been allowed to have their professional association dues automatically deducted from their paychecks. This is a small convenience offered those who serve our public good—police and firefighters as well as teachers. It comes at no expense to taxpayers. They are not “union dues.” No, it is a simple option accorded those who advance God’s common good on behalf of all of us. It is a small way of saying, “Thank you.”

But now, the Texas Senate wishes to eliminate this privilege. Senators passed a bill disallowing automatic, recurring deduction of association dues. But get this: They targeted only teachers—not police and firefighters. It is a jab directed explicitly at our teachers. Instead of finding ways to praise teachers and affirm them for their public service, the Senate devised a petty way to punish and demean them instead. Thankfully, it did not get the time of day in the House.

Now we are watching a special legislative session called by Gov. Greg Abbott. While he has ordered the legislature to fix school funding, he inexplicably also has charged them to revisit the misguided policy of vouchers and the ridiculous payroll deduction ban. It is not a comfortable position for us as pastors and faith leaders, but we are compelled to confront our governor and lieutenant governor about these bad and dangerous ideas. We have a responsibility before our Lord to “do justice” and “love our neighbor,” as God’s word clearly commands.

The 2,000 faith leaders in Pastors for Texas Children are deeply grateful for the historic pro-public education stand of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and its Christian Life Commission, from which we were birthed four years ago. Solid, Bible-believing, conservative Texas Baptists love and support their schools. They know our schools are no more perfect than our churches, but also know millions of children are loved and cared for in our schools every day.

We are in a crisis of God’s common good in Texas. God’s people need to stand up, speak out and support quality, fully funded public education for all God’s children.

If you are a faith leader in your congregation—pastor, staff minister or volunteer of any kind—join us by becoming part of our witness. Simply take a moment to sign up on our website by clicking here. There is no fee or any dues. You are not required to be a preacher or a pastor or an ordained minister—only a follower of Christ who sees the goodness of God in Texas teachers and wants to do everything you can to support them.

Charles Foster Johnson is pastor of Bread Fellowship in Fort Worth and executive director of Pastors for Texas Children.

This last week was one of the most exciting of my life: My first book was introduced to the world.

Jake Raabe

I co-wrote a book with my two closest friends in the world. We’re all in seminary together, we hang out almost every evening, and we differ staunchly on a few key theological issues. I’m an Arminian, my friend Gerhard is a Calvinist, and my friend Tylor is an Open Theist.

Naturally, we’ve had some lively discussions about the way God relates to the world. Somehow, we’ve managed to stay friends through it all, and we decided to share our conversations with the world.

No one’s mind was changed in the process of writing the book, but we did come to understand and appreciate one another better. As my Baptist history professor used to say, you can’t disagree with a person until you’ve actually heard what he or she is saying.

Theology is important, and disagreement is inevitable. The Baptist denomination got its start in part because of the conviction that Christians should be able to have honest disagreements with one another and still worship together. I think we as Christians—especially Christians living in such a polarized age—get disagreement wrong in two ways.

Dogmatic thinking

First, we become dogmatic in our way of thinking, convinced our position is the only possible one a “real” Christian would believe.

Our position on an issue—divine providence, same-sex-marriage, the Trump administration’s latest policy—is so obvious to us that a person who doesn’t think the same way must not be thinking at all. This is a human impulse, but it’s a deeply, deeply prideful one. As another one of my professors used to say, the Bible is authoritative; your opinion is not.

When we make our opinion on God the end-all/be-all, we encroach on God’s authority. God exercises God’s authority over the church through Scripture, not through our interpretations of Scripture.

When we disallow and discourage dissent—whether that’s the Calvinist not feeling comfortable speaking up in a Bible study, or the person who believes the Scripture restricts marriage to heterosexual couples is shamed for that belief in more progressive circles—we give ourselves an authority that belongs only to Christ.

We can have convictions, and we can hold them strongly. What we cannot do, however, is believe ourselves to be infallible. Christ rules the church through Scripture, not our interpretation of Scripture. When we disallow differing interpretations, we disallow God from correcting us.

Downplaying disagreement

There’s another mistake we make when dealing with disagreements that’s just as bad, and that’s trying to downplay them or pretend they aren’t really there. This, more so than dogmatically arguing our position, is the default method our culture uses to deal with disagreement.

We try, in the name of diversity, either to restrict what beliefs people can hold or water down our beliefs to a bare-minimum with no particularities that anyone can agree to. In the name of diversity, we accidentally squelch it.

John Wesley preached a sermon on this very issue in 1750. “Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike?” he asked. Wesley was writing at the tail-end of the Protestant Reformation and realized Europe and the New World now had to find a way for Catholics, Lutherans, Puritans, Baptists, Methodists, Anglicans and so on to coexist peacefully.

Wesley didn’t think the way forward was to make everybody conform to one set of beliefs. He also didn’t think what was best for the world was for all of these religious groups to blend their theologies into a bare-minimum nobody would object to. This, for Wesley, wasn’t diversity at all, but well-intentioned tyranny.

Instead, real diversity and tolerance only existed when individuals could “not halt between two opinions, nor vainly endeavor to blend them into one.” In other words, Wesley believed diversity was a beneficial thing, but only inasmuch as individuals can actually hold differing positions.

Unity in diversity

We wrote our book hoping it would show people what true diversity looks like—real differences treated with real respect through careful listening and charitable responding.

In John 17, Christ prayed that all believers would be one, just as he is with the Father. He did not pray that we would all think the same things and have the same opinions. My prayer for the church in this hyper-partisan culture is that we could be a community of true diversity—not of socially mandated opinions, not of watered-down beliefs without substance, but an honest-to-God, one-of-a-kind community of unified diversity.

Jake Raabe is a student at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, Texas and a writer. Follow him on his Facebook page.

During the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s annual general assembly a few weeks ago, Baptist Women in Ministry hosted a worship service and two workshops.

Meredith Stone

As people entered BWIM’s worship service, they received a pin. The pin was purple, and in white lettering, it said, “6.5%.” People began asking each other: “What does this mean? What is 6.5 percent?”

When BWIM Executive Director Pam Durso welcomed everyone to worship, she explained the meaning of the pin with words she also published in a blog posted the following week.

“Six point five percent is the percentage of Cooperative Baptist churches that are led by women pastors,” Dr. Durso said. “That percentage has been steadily increasing in the past 10 years—there is much to celebrate! But there is more work to be done. … We need everyone’s voice, everyone’s support as we work to move 6.5 percent to 10 percent and then to 20 percent and beyond.”

Numbers & perspectives

At the worship service, everyone was encouraged to wear the pin during CBF’s general assembly as a means to start conversations about women in ministry among CBF churches. The conversations varied from hope for continued growth, to disappointment the percentage wasn’t higher.

One male pastor even said to me, “I’m embarrassed to wear this pin that brags about my 93.5 percent.”

Among congregations affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, our percentage of women pastors is much lower—around 0.5 percent.

For some, this number is not a problem. They do not want to see women pastoring churches. Others are disappointed the number isn’t larger and hope the percentage can increase. They might even feel uncomfortable bragging about being in the 99.5 percent.

So, for those congregations that support women in ministry in BGCT churches and are feeling the tension of disappointment and hope, I would like to offer a few suggestions specifically to your search committees. While I hope pastor-search committees will consider these ideas, I offer the following encouragements to all search committees that might be considering women and men side by side for positions such as youth ministers, children’s ministers, associate pastors, education/discipleship ministers, etc.

Think the same

First, think about women candidates the same way you think about male candidates.

What I mean is if an issue isn’t something you would ask or worry about with a male candidate, then you shouldn’t ask or worry about it with a female candidate.

For example, if you don’t worry that a man’s handsome appearance would be too distracting for the female members of the congregation, then you shouldn’t worry that a woman is too attractive and would present a temptation for male congregants.

If you wouldn’t ask a male candidate if he is planning on starting or expanding his family during his ministry at your church, then you shouldn’t ask a female candidate that question.

If you don’t worry about a man’s ability to minister to both men and women in your congregation, then don’t worry if a woman can effectively serve congregants of the opposite sex.

Think differently

Second, think about women candidates differently than you think about male candidates.

Women are not afforded the same opportunities as men in church ministry, so women’s resumés look different. Committees would do well not to discard a woman’s resumé simply because she doesn’t have the requisite number of years of church ministry experience. Instead, committees should consider how a woman’s experiences translate into the skills and development required in the position for which she is applying.

For example, if a woman has been a teacher, her skills in teaching, curriculum development and interacting with students, parents and administration will translate well into children’s, youth or education ministry. If a woman has run a nonprofit, she has learned leadership—pastoral vision, relating to a board—working with deacons, and how to manage a budget—stewardship.

Discern presentation

Another way in which committees need to think differently about women candidates is in discerning how women may present themselves. Men who appear confident and self-assured often are revered and considered excellent leaders, while confident women often are called vulgar names and considered overly aggressive.

So, the women who committees interview might not say things the same way men say them. While a man might feel more comfortable saying, “I am called to be your pastor, so you should hire me,” a woman instead might say, “I feel as though God is leading me toward this type of ministry, and I hope you’ll consider me.”

Although the pieces of advice I mention here may seem to contradict each other, both are related to the way culture has taught us to perceive women.

By considering these things, we would hope, search committees will not let culture influence how God’s creation is judged, but instead they might be able to view 100 percent of people as created in the image of God.

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.

Editor’s note: To visit the Baptist Women in Ministry website, click here. To read Baptist Women in Ministry’s “State of Women in Baptist Life” report, click here.

I spent gobs of time sitting in airports recently. If you can believe it, I made it through a security line at Atlanta Hartsfield within 15 minutes. I think that’s a new record for me.

James Hassell

Trying to kill time in an airport can be taxing, so I decided to peruse a noticeably thin copy of The Wall Street Journal. The headlines were what you would expect in just about any newspaper today. Nearly every story had to do with money, sex and/or power.

Then I noticed an incredible, half-page advertisement sponsored by an economic development organization called Enterprise Florida. The headline of the ad read: “The Future of Everything: Erasing the Line Between Human and Machine.” An especially thought-provoking line from the ad says, “The future of the mind, from mental health to cognition, is a fusion of mind and machine.”

I hope such an ad would get your theological mind spinning as it did mine. Are we really moving toward a time when the future of business and daily life consists of the fusion between people and machines? And if so, what does this mean for the church?

I don’t know about you, but I really have no interest in becoming a cyborg pastor, although the thought is a rather unique one to consider. It seems with all of our technological progress, many still seek eternal life without Jesus Christ. Permanent and perfect transformation comes through Christ and Christ alone.

Let’s be reminded of the Apostle Paul’s great admonishment to us in Romans 12: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

It also may be of great interest to know fine ethical minds among Texas Baptists already are considering this nearly front-page contemporary issue. Jeph Holloway, professor at East Texas Baptist University, presented some highly valuable lectures regarding this topic at the annual T.B. Maston Christian Ethics Lectures at Logsdon Seminary. To see the lectures on YouTube, click here.

Please take a few moments to think deeply about the rise of man-machine, for this issue is one that will impact us and our churches significantly in the next decade.

James Hassell is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in San Angelo, Texas.

This is my third post in a series focused on the findings from my doctoral research at Dallas Baptist University on revitalization in seven previously declining, established Baptist General Convention of Texas-related churches.

Ross Shelton

The fourth finding showed each of the seven churches positioned itself so that its contemporary worship service or services became the primary focus in terms of musical selection, musical accompaniment, time of service, and how they “branded” themselves to the community.

For clarity sake, here are the definitions I used:

• Contemporary worship style: “A corporate worship service that primarily sang newer songs and used a band as musical accompaniment. The service was also defined by a more relaxed dress style.”

• Traditional worship style: “A corporate worship service that primarily sang hymns and used a piano and an organ as musical accompaniment. The service was also defined by a more formal style of dress.”

For most of the churches, the shift from focusing on a traditional worship style to a contemporary worship style was an important part of their revitalization. All of their contemporary services were growing. The churches did not present themselves to their community as a traditional church in terms of their musical/corporate worship style and methodology. As one pastor said about their brand shift, “The Southern Baptist church today is modern music.”

Traditional worship

Four out of the seven churches maintained a traditional worship at an earlier hour on Sunday morning. The primary purpose for keeping the traditional worship service was to maintain unity and relieve some of the frustration at attempts to provide a service blended with both styles.

It is important to note the focus on maintaining unity was essential for the pastors. They did not view the traditional service as a way “to throw a bone” to people. They wanted to do each of their services well and knew having such a service was important to the people who went to that service.

One pastor noted the people were relieved to have a service that could be uniquely traditional. While the traditional services were not necessarily growing, they served an important role in maintaining unity within the revitalized, established Baptist churches I researched.

Blended worship

Only one church was close to embracing a blended worship service, which combined both styles in one worship service. Nevertheless, for this church, the services were heavily slanted to contemporary worship.

Most everyone, especially the pastors, were critical of attempts to do a blended worship service. I was told by one pastor concerning a blended worship service or, as he called it, “multi-generational worship”: “Multi-generational worship is a farce. Multi-generation worship means you’re not gonna upset the old people. You don’t have children in the adult choir. You don’t have teenagers reading Scripture. You don’t have the youth minister preaching it. It’s not multi-generational. It’s, it’s, it’s ‘We ain’t gonna change.’”

While this was the most critical assessment of a blended worship style, it did represent an overall consensus that blended worship seems to make few happy and is more about not confronting/deferring needed changes.

Conflict and change

If you are a part of an established Baptist church, you know how much conflict is generated by discussions and proposed changes around worship styles.

In my 13-plus years as a pastor, the issue that has generated the most complaints and anxiety from church members has been associated with frustrations about musical accompaniment and selection. In other words, I know from personal experience and have the scars to prove that this is a topic that touches on deeply felt understandings/concepts about worship.

Three ideas

In light of my research and my personal experience, I’d like to propose the following:

• If churches aren’t already, they are going to need to be clear about their identity in terms of corporate worship/musical style. Churches also will need to understand there are potential positive and negative consequences to these decisions in terms of their “branding” within the community.

• One of the questions I’m still struggling with is whether there is something unique with contemporary worship styles that touches on Baptist churches in all locations—rural, urban, etc.—or whether the growth associated with a contemporary worship style is more about meeting the expectations of people in growing, suburban communities. That is, how important is the external factor of where these churches were located in relationship to the expectations of the majority of the people located in these growing, suburban communities?

• This conclusion doesn’t mean worship styling was the cause for the decline or the growth. It does mean worship style selections are part of a process associated with either decline or growth.

Ross Shelton is pastor of First Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas.

• To see his first Texas Baptist Voices column, “Keys to church revitalization, Part I,” click here.

• To see his second Texas Baptist Voices column, “Keys to church revitalization, Part II,” click here.

I love living at the start of the Internet age. I don’t think we tend to appreciate how world-changing and culture-shaping the Internet is, or how recent its development is. We’re living in a time that’s not unlike the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. Human communication has been completely revolutionized, seemingly overnight.

Jake Raabe

I have no doubt the beginning of the 21st century will be remembered as one of the most important moments in human history for this reason. What a time to be alive!

As amazing as the Internet is, it unfortunately also tends not to bring out the best in people. The Internet, and social media in particular, can pose a real spiritual danger if we do not use it wisely and interact with it with our Christian convictions in mind.

We have the ability to speak to people we’ve never met and likely never will meet face-to-face, and we often use that ability poorly. If someone voices a left-leaning opinion on healthcare issues, we call them a “leftist” or “Marxist” and ignore what they’re saying. If someone voices a traditional view on marriage and sexuality, we call them “bigot” or “on the wrong side of history” and move on in a feeling of superiority.

Clouding discussions

Online, insults and partisan statements too often cloud important discussions.

Would we do these things face-to-face? If I were talking to someone and they told me they supported a single-payer healthcare option, I can’t imagine calling him a “Marxist” and walking away. I was raised better than that!

Why is it OK for me to do this on the Internet, then? The World Wide Web seems to bring out less than our best in everyone, Christians included. There’s a spiritual danger to the way we treat one another online, one that goes even further than rudeness and lack of civility.

The real spiritual danger of the Internet age is that it can encourage that oldest and greatest of sins—pride. When we dismiss and belittle the opinions of others without listening to them or considering their actual merits, we imply our own opinions are so obviously correct that no other ideas merit consideration. This amount of self-certainty is not allowed to Christians, who are called to humility and awareness of our fallibility.

More than rude

When we reject someone’s views by belittling them, we’re doing more than being rude: we’re rejecting the Bible’s admonition to “be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” and we’re rejecting the idea we need to listen to others because we ourselves could be wrong.

It’s easy to toss out a random insult or degradation on an article we disagree with or a Facebook status we don’t like. But doing that has bigger implications than we realize. Calling someone a “leftist” or a “fundamentalist” implies our side always is correct, and we can reject any idea from someone who doesn’t think the same as us.

It essentially is claiming we are perfect. A perfect person is cannot be taught, cannot learn, cannot grow. Mistakenly claiming we or our group is perfect cuts us off from the opportunity for these things.

Called to challenge

A person who doesn’t think they need improvement or correction is a person who isn’t following God.

The church is called to be a challenge to the world, showing it a better way to live under Christ’s leadership. Our current culture is hyper-partisan and encourages us to reject anybody who doesn’t think or act like us.

The church should be an alternative to that, teaching the world how to have productive, mature conversations and to disagree with grace and consideration. We don’t all have to agree, but we do have to work together respectfully as members of Christ’s body.

Be careful what you type; the spiritual danger of Internet outrage is real.

Jake Raabe is a student at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, Texas and a writer. Follow him on his Facebook page.

What should be Christians’ attitude and action toward their rulers? The most common answer given to that question is likely going to be based on passages from the Apostle Paul’s letters (Romans 13:1-7, Titus 3:1-2), which talk directly about rulers and governing authorities and command believers to be in subjection. This biblical counsel is presented as a general rule or principle.

Patrick Adair

There are other possible Biblical answers to the question, however. Richard Hays, in The Moral Vision of the New Testament identifies four ways in which Scripture guides our moral thought and action:

• Rules—direct commands

• Principles—a more general framework for making decisions, such as “Do unto others ….”

• Paradigms—positive or negative examples

• Creating a “symbolic world”—a worldview that that helps us see who we are as humans and who God is

If we apply these categories to the question of Christian attitude and action toward government and rulers, we discover a range of possibilities.

Rules and principles

1. “Be in subjection”—Romans 13:1-5, Titus 3:1-2

Both the letters to the Romans and Titus instruct believers to be subject—obedient—to government. Paul includes commentary in the passage in Romans that describes human government as instituted by God to punish evil. It is important to note Paul here assumes the government in question—the Roman Empire, in his case—generally acts to reward good and punish evil.

2. Pay taxes—Mark 12:13-17, Romans 13:6-7

Both Jesus and Paul affirm paying taxes. Additionally, in Romans 13, believers are instructed to give custom and honor to those to whom they are due.

3. Pray—1 Timothy 2:1-2

Timothy is instructed, and it is implied, he should instruct others, to pray for rulers, specifically for the sake of peace.

Paradigms or examples

1. Denouncement—In the Old Testament, the examples of figures stepping up to denounce immoral behavior and injustice in government are nearly too many to name. Calling out rulers on their sin or on their apathy toward the poor—especially orphans, widows and immigrants—is practically at the top of the job description for a prophet. The prophets Samuel, Nathan, Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, among others, all did this.

In the New Testament, John the Baptist condemned the sin of Herod Antipas, son of Herod “the Great” (Matthew 14:3-4). Paul implicitly condemns the Roman Empire in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, quoting the boasts of the emperors who claimed to bring peace and safety. His description of the “man of lawlessness” in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 may be a reference to the Emperor Caligula, who planned to place a statue of himself in the Jewish temple. Paul’s general principle of following the law does not contradict his ability to critique the idolatry of empire.

Most interestingly, Jesus denounces Herod Antipas as well. Warned by the Pharisees—in an attempt to scare him into silence—that Herod Antipas planned to kill him, Jesus responded, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons today and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach my goal’” (Luke 13:31-32). This was not a compliment. It was, at the least, a critique of Herod’s character and a comparison of their power in which Herod came up short.

2. Defiance—In the Old Testament, the Hebrew midwives disobeyed Pharaoh’s command to kill male Hebrew babies. Moses kept returning to the court of Pharaoh to seek the release of the Hebrew slaves each time he was expelled. Rahab hid the Hebrew spies. Jonathan defied his father Saul’s foolish order. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego defied the idolatrous orders of kings. And Esther defied custom and thereby risked her life to save her people.

In the New Testament, Jesus’ statement on paying taxes also contains a limit to what can be offered a ruler. “Give to God what is God’s” means there are claims no human ruler has the right to make on a person. Jesus refuses to answer the Sanhedrin, Herod Antipas and Pilate at his various trials. Peter and John explicitly refuse to stop speaking in Jesus’ name (Acts 4:18-20). Each time Paul proclaimed “Jesus is Lord” or named Jesus as Lord was a defiance of the Roman custom of honoring Caesar as Lord. It even was printed on their money, “Caesar is Lord.” Again, Paul’s general counsel to obey the law does not contradict his ability to mark out some practices as idolatrous.

3. Violence—The issue of violence in the pursuit of justice in the Old Testament is too large a topic to treat here. In the New Testament, though, there is exactly one example of violence used against authorities, and it is a negative one. Peter’s clumsy sword swipe—nobody tries to cut off someone’s ear in a sword fight; he was aiming for his neck—at the high priests’ servant at Jesus’ arrest results in Jesus telling Peter to put away his sword and his healing of the servant (Luke 22:20-21, John 18:10-11).

Even in Revelation, a vision filled with violent imagery, it is noteworthy that the righteous never are called to take up arms. Although they repeatedly are challenged to “overcome,” their conquest lies in being faithful to follow the Lamb by holding to the truth and being willing to give up their lives rather than worship anyone else (Revelation 12:11).

Worldview

At the worldview level, the Bible is clear God is sovereign in history, and the resurrected Christ is the only true Lord of the world. The people of God are commanded to proclaim the gospel, to be salt and light, faithful to follow Christ’s example in loving God and their neighbor and speaking the truth.

The world as a whole does not recognize Christ’s Lordship, and so it is to be expected it will put in place rulers who are immoral, laws that are unjust or idolatrous, and customs not appropriate for the believer to follow. There will be Herods and Herodians who follow them until every knee bows and every tongue confesses Christ’s lordship.

The following is one attempt at a short summary of the range of biblical witness on a believer’s attitude and action toward rulers: Christians’ responsibility to government and rulers is to subject themselves to the authorities, provided that the law is for good and not for evil. This requires knowing the difference between good and evil! Christians are to pay their taxes. Christians are to pray that rulers would be instruments of peace. It is not a biblical mandate to denounce evil and immorality in government and in rulers or defy unjust law, but the Bible is filled with examples of such.

These examples are by no means exhaustive. Denunciation and defiance are not to be undertaken for the believer’s own sake or for any opposing party’s sake, but for God’s sake and the sake of the truth. The Christian is not to resort to violence. And the Christian must be ready to pay the consequences for any and all such behavior. Note how many of the examples were persecuted for their actions.

One final word on denouncing rulers: Those most interested in propping up a ruler will insist the only proper Christian response is the simplest. “Follow the rule! Honor those in authority and be subject. Simple.” We often prefer simple answers to complex questions. But, for grim humor, try to imagine the Herodians quoting something like Romans 13:1-5 to Jesus after he called Herod Antipas a fox. “Now, now, Jesus! Herod is your king. He may not be perfect, but we should try to support him instead of criticize him.” Not all rulers are equal.

We often prefer the simplicity of straightforward rules. If we find ourselves longing for such a thing in these days, I recommend 2 Timothy 3:1-5: “Realize this, that in the last days, difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of religion, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these.”

Patrick Adair is pastor of Central Baptist Church in Marshall, Texas.

It’s a glorious and beautiful day in Glorieta, N.M., where I’m attending Centrifuge along with the youth from my church. Before camp started, I had the “brilliant” idea to take the youth camping and backpacking nearby. We had a stupendous time, but I may have worn them out before camp even started!

Jonathan SmithTwelve youth accepted the hiking challenge. A strategic number? Of course! We even gave each disciple a nickname for one of the original Twelve.

Just before the hike started, I sat down with James, Peter, Nathaniel and the other disciples to discuss Jesus’s original call to many of the original Twelve. It was a simple teaching by Jesus: “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” As we headed up the mountain, we repeated the phrase many times, broken down into three parts.

Come, follow me

Jesus’s call to be a disciple was based on the ancient Near Eastern practice of apprenticeship. The invitation to follow Jesus was a practice found all over the ancient world. Apprenticeship was considered formal education. Interestingly enough, those 12 men already had been in an apprenticeship as fishermen, tax collectors and religious leaders. Jesus called them out of what was familiar and into a new path of life.

Notice Jesus called them into a rich relationship. By all appearances, Jesus and the Twelve were together most every day. They literally followed him so they could hear his teachings, observe his ministry practices and be equipped for their ministries.

Not limited to a classroom, Jesus called them into a relationship. Jesus’ style of disciple-making was every day, not just Sunday—well, Saturday for them actually. They cooked together, ate together, prayed together, traveled together, learned together, mourned together and experienced success together. As many have pointed out, they did so in “one accord”—because evidently, Jesus preferred Hondas. The discipleship of Jesus is personal, portable and practical.

“Come, follow me” and hear my teachings, see how I interact, observe my miracles, serve the least, learn about Old Testament interpretation, pick up exactly 12 baskets full of leftovers, “because one day soon, you will be doing the same, including asking others to follow you as you make disciples of the world.”

Let me ask you: Does “come, follow me” resemble the pathway of discipleship in your own life? Who are you following—and not just on Sunday? Who are you traveling with along the arduous path of being a disciple of Jesus? Who is there to pick you up? Is someone nearby to point out the cliff? And equally important, who are you leading to deeper “wells” rather than puny gods? To whom are you saying, “Come, follow me?”

And I will make you

Far too many church leaders have made discipleship about learning only. While the basic idea of a disciple is a learner, we’ve forgotten the reason Jesus had disciples to begin with—the furthering and completion of his mission. Jesus does the making! His life and ministry serve as the template for every disciple.

Many of you won’t like this next sentence, so know that I write it with a smile—an excellent practice when one is preaching hard truth: “If you aren’t being made into a minister and missionary, you are not a disciple of Jesus.”

Yes, bold! We have settled for making church disciples instead of making Jesus disciples. Church disciples sit and soak. Jesus disciples sit, soak and serve. They are “made” and equipped by pastors, teachers, evangelists and apostles because the fields are perpetually white unto harvest. Disciples of Jesus follow the practices of Jesus and the original Twelve. Novel idea.

For the last year, every 10 days, I sit with three men in their twenties and bare my soul, heart, sin, weaknesses and triumphs. We laugh, cry, pray, eat, fish, encourage and study together. When we finally finish our season of life together, we are going hiking for three nights. It’s been one of the most fruitful practices of my 26 years of ministry.

But with great intentionality, I’m preparing these men to turn around and lead a similar group on their own. Within the next 18 months, 12 more healthy disciples will be made through this simple process. What if all of those disciples made disciples? Within a matter of three years, hundreds of healthy disciple-making leaders could be born because of one disciple maker.

I’m certain if Jesus had Twitter in his incarnation, his handle would have been @Simply_Make_Disciples.

Let me ask you: Who is preparing you for ministry, evangelism and making disciples of others? Are you a pew-sitter, or are you following Jesus up the mountainside? Is there anything cheap about your personal discipleship? Who could you invite into your life for disciple making?

Fishers of men

Disciple making—think about the ultra-small group mentioned above—has always been the evangelism plan of Jesus. He trained the Twelve for ministry, and you are reading this article because of their ministry. He didn’t make them fishers of information. He didn’t make them fishers of church consumerism. He didn’t make them fishers of committees. Jesus took everyday, ordinary, simple people like you and me and made them into world changers, fishers of many men.

And if you will let him, he will make you into one who fishes for him.

I’m not much of a fisherman, but I have a new friend who is an incredible bass fisherman. He keeps an arsenal of over 100 lures at all times. I watched him catch a bass on eight casts in a row just a few weeks ago. Oh, that we would allow God to make us such successful fisherman. Perhaps, if we would follow Jesus’ practice of disciple making, our churches would baptize every week.

Are you fishing for more Bible knowledge or the transformation of others? Do you have a proverbial arsenal of ways to present the gospel? Do you know the names of your neighbors?

A healthy church

The church I pastor had $1.06 in the bank 11 years ago. By God’s grace and his gospel, our church campus is now for sale, and we are relocating to accommodate growth. I’m often asked by pastors, “How has this revitalization happened?” That’s a long discussion, but let me share the one main idea. How do you make a dying church healthy again? Programs? Culture? Friendliness? Parking lot greeters? Maybe. But the secret sauce is much more simple: Want a healthy church? Make healthy disciples.

“Come, follow me. And I will make you. Fishers of men.”

Jonathan L. Smith is the lead pastor of First Baptist Church in La Grange, a revitalized congregation. He is pursuing a doctoral degree in church health and growth from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Follow Jonathan on Facebook.