Miss Maudie Atkinson in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

I grew up in Alabama, the heart of Dixie. I was raised in church and met Christ as an eleven year old church kid. I have lived all but three years of my life south of the Mason Dixon line.

I am grateful for so much of my heritage. I learned early to love the Bible. When the Conservative Resurgence started in my college days I knew where I stood—I never got over Sunday school! I believe the Word and would stand on it.

I love the passion for souls to be saved I witnessed in evangelistic meetings, the lessons learned in VBS, the basic morality I sought to live. I loved the good natured, everyday kind of friendliness I saw among Southern people, or at least among many.

But now I am a man who has spent his life investing in the gospel and its spread. And while I am grateful for so much of my heritage, the reality is that so much of my Christianity as I have grown has forced me to move away from what I would call Southern Religion.

Southern Religion means well. It talks a lot of Jesus. It sings about Him with passion. It values the institutions associated with His movement.  But in too many ways it has also missed the point. And today it often gets in the way of the gospel. Let me be clear: Southern Religion today is part of a greater problem of cultural Christianity that has been too prevalent in the past and in other places. But I am a product of Southern Religion to some extent, so that is what I want to address here. I am not picking on Southerners–I am one!  But I am highlighting what I believe to be a serious issue facing the church today.

Today Mike McDaniel posted an article at J.D. Greear’s site  http://www.jdgreear.com/?d2fc6260 demonstrating the fact that in the South, the church is in decline. I would submit one of the reasons for this is the growing population in the South has become unimpressed at best and intolerant at worst of Southern Religion. Gospel-centered, evangelistic churches are in fact growing in the South, some quite rapidly. I am a member of a church that started 13 years ago and had about 1800 last week. But churches steeped in Southern Religion are dying, and fast. That is only going to accelerate.

What is Southern Religion?  Let me offer a few characteristics. I would be interested in your observations as well.

Southern religion sees Christianity as an INSTITUTION. Far too much emphasis is put on what happens in a church building during services to the neglect of how life is lived in the culture.  The quote above from Harper Lee’s novel illustrates this.  This kind of mindset creates a DNA that says as long as things are going well in the building—we preach hard, sing with passion, and dress just right—then all is well in Christianity.  That affects our evangelism. We love to see people get saved in our meetings. But 90% of us (at least) do not raise our children to do as little as try to reach our own neighbors for Christ. I am weary of the stories of Church people denying the gospel between the time they leave church services and return home by the way they stiff the servers in restaurants, for example.  The church is both an institution AND a movement, and there should be no disconnect between believers’ actions in a building and in the culture.

Southern Religion sees Christianity from a MINIMALIST view.  It defines a “great” Christian by the big 3: Show up in church, be a steward and give, and serve in the church. No matter that you are a racist, or cheat on your taxes, or practice shady deals in your business, just be active at the church house. Such a minimalist approach creates a “good guys vs bad guys” mentality with the bad guys being those who disagree, not with essential doctrine, but with your preferences. I lost count of how many times someone in the South told me they are sure Southern Gospel will be sung in heaven around the throne. With all due respect to my friends who love SG, music in heaven will be much better.  When we start deciding from our preferences what matters most, the gospel gets pushed to the periphery. And that is exactly what has happened. We are reaping a lot of what we have sown.

This minimalist view relates to theology and morality. Your views on eschatology and the prohibition of alcohol had better line up. By the way, mine do, but I do not think either is quite as important as the Atonement. “I don’t smoke, drink, cuss, or chew, or run around with girls that do.” Make no mistake: the Scripture is clear in its call to holiness. But when Southern Religionists get passionate about alcohol but remain silent about racism, or get more vocal about their SEC football team than the good news found in Christ, even lost people see the disconnect.

It also affects how we teach our children the Bible. We teach the stories of the Bible—Moses and the Exodus, Daniel and the Lions Den, etc—and show moral lessons. We do not teach the great narrative of the Bible with the mission of God at its center. We tend not to teach a compelling vision of giving one’s life for the mission of God to the nations. Instead we raise children to be in a church culture and to learn bits and pieces of morality from Bible stories. They do not get a big picture understanding of life, reality, and how the gospel relates to it all. So they have been leaving homes for years and have created a whole new category of people who want nothing of Christianity—the dechurched.  These former Southern Religionists see Christianity through the lenses of Southern Religion, and they sometimes are the most hostile to the gospel.

Southern Religion has a failed view of RELATING TO CULTURE. It takes an extreme separatist/sectarian bent.  Do not go to movies, for example.  Do not listen to sec’lar music. Such an approach has caused Southern Religion to create the most elaborate subculture in history. There is now Christian soap, jewelry, and mints. As long as it has “Christian” on the label and is found in approved Christian venues, it is okay. Can I make the observation that there is some awful theology in some “Christian” songs. And a lot of emotion with no gospel content that goes under the banner of good preaching. I have even seen a Moses action figure and a lego with the Trinity. So let me get this: let’s stay separate from the world and create our own little heaven with our own toys and other junk.  Meanwhile that evil old world can go to hell.

Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh. But I have seen enough Christian surface religion to last for 5 lifetimes. And I have been a co-conspirator at times. We have a lot to strip away to get to the Word of God and to be able to proclaim the Gospel of God.  As I argue in my book Radically Unchurched, we are called to INVADE the culture with the gospel.

I know not every person in every church in the South is like this. Far from it. I constantly meet passionate, gospel-sharing believers in my travels. But I also see the impact of Southern religion.

Let me close with another quote from Harper Lee’s novel: ‘Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’   Miss Maudie Atkinson

Maybe we can learn from a Mockingbird. Let us be about the gospel, and let us spurn the pull to settle for religion.

Note: AdvanceTC is hosting a conference to deal with the issues facing the church in the South. I highly encourage you to come to this event. Speakers include Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, Johnny Hunt, David Platt, Tullian Tchividjian, Matt Carter.  It will be held in Raleigh April 26-27. Register at www.advancethechurch.com

Any objective look at the current Southern Baptist Convention would make an optimistic car salesman buy a bicycle. We are in decline, not reaching people well, not impacting the nations as we could. It seems the one thing we are good at is sniping at each other like middle school boys. But the interim report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force has me just about giddy.

I admit readily my prejudice for this group. I know many on it. I know them to be people of great integrity with a love for the gospel, who are open to learn and show wisdom in their judgments, and who are theologically capable to look carefully at needed changes for our time.

So I like many waited with baited breath for the report. I had no idea what they would issue. I knew it was not an easy assignment, for they had to be bold enough to offer courageous changes, but not so far ahead they might fail to build a consensus needed in Orlando.

This report is bold. And sensible. And wise. And spiritual.  And structural.  It well exceeded my already high expectations.

I am extremely excited to be a Southern Baptist today.

Three larger issues stand out in this outstanding report. First, one can see a genuine hunger for the hand of God on the entire process. From the call to prayer to the focus on repentance, such a call is always good.  Related to that, the call to be in biblical unity, or to be more like I Corinthians 13 than I Corinthians 3, must be heard. As someone said this week: if we reject one another the world will reject our gospel.

Next, the focus on the local church, from the mission statement forward, is clear. If you can imagine the entire SBC being picked up and tilted from national entities and centralization toward local churches and decentralization, you get the idea.  If the 20^th century was the century of parachurch ministries and denominational expansion, the 21^st century is already shaping up to be the century of the local church. This encourages me greatly. After all, the local church was, is, and will be God’s plan.

Third, the gospel and its propagation moved to the front and center of the discussion. From the statistical information to the suggestion reorganization, the Great Commission has been placed squarely in the middle of the table.

It is time for neo-Calvinists and Baptist distincitive-ists, older leaders and younger, church planters and church revitalizers, denominational servants and local church servants, rural and urban, generationally Baptist and recent converts,  seminary profs and state convention execs, to come together for the gospel.

I love the mission statement the Task Force adopted. Calling Southern Baptists “to rally towards a clear and compelling missional vision and begin to conduct ourselves with core values that will create a new and healthy culture within the Southern Baptist Convention,”  the “missional vision” is “as a convention of churches, … to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations.”   Clear, unambiguous, and tied directly to Christ’s Great Commission.

The Task Force demonstrated an understanding that the methodological center no longer holds for the SBC, arguing instead we should rally around the mission statement and eight core values: Christ-likeness, Truth, Unity, Relationships, Trust, Future, Local Church and Kingdom.

My thoughts on some of the recommendations in this interim report:

–On the recommendation that the North American Mission Board “prioritize efforts to plant churches in North America and to reach our nation’s cities and clarify its role to lead and accomplish efforts to reach North America with the Gospel.” The North American Mission Board needs to be “reinvented and released” by implementing a direct strategy for planting churches in North America “with a priority to reach metropolitan areas and under-served people groups,” Floyd said.

If you know me or have followed this blog you know how much I have insisted on a greater focus on reaching the cities of America. I could not have been more glad to see this.

– It calls for NAMB to decentralize operations into seven regions and recommends releasing the entity from “cooperative agreements” with state conventions over the course of four years to free up money for national strategy.

I have been a Home Missionary, commissioned with Michelle in 1989, after which we served in Indiana and witnessed the inordinate absence of resources there compared to Southern states. I have been involved in all sorts of committees and in other roles with HMB then NAMB ever since. I think we all know that NAMB as it is currently is broken and needs fundamental change, even starting over. I did not favor putting NAMB into the IMB. We need a missions focus for the US and NA.  But things must change. Decentralizing, moving closer to the field, makes great sense to me.

If you are not aware of the intricacies of the cooperative agreements between state conventions and NAMB, let me just say that when I first began to deal with them as a state worker in Indiana 20 years ago I scratched my head then.  It is time for a new system, so I am grateful for the recognition of this.

– Requesting Southern Baptists “entrust to the International Mission Board the ministry to reach the unreached and under-served people groups without regard to any geographic limitations.” “Globalization has flattened the world,” Floyd said. “While years ago a people group was located within a specific geographical location, this is no longer reality. Reality today is that these people groups are located all over the world, including the United States…. Most of the 586 people groups that do not speak English in the United States have [IMB] strategy coordinators working overseas with the same groups. With geographical limitations removed, a new synergy can be created in international missions.” Floyd added: “We believe that with this bold and needed change, we are positioning our convention of churches for a major evangelistic harvest, a discipleship revolution and an unprecedented, exponential explosion in church planting.”

Again, I am so glad to see the task force recognize the obvious fact that the US is an international mission field. We are the fourth largest lost nation on earth. We need to think like missionaries, and the IMB can help.

– Reaffirming the Cooperative Program “as our central means of supporting Great Commission ministries” and establishing a broader category of “Great Commission Giving” to celebrate all the financial support –- CP giving and designated giving — local congregations provide for Southern Baptist missions. “We are reaffirming [CP] as our central means of supporting the Great Commission ministries of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Floyd said, saying the task force calls upon every church “to work diligently at giving more through the Cooperative Program.” At the same time, however, “we also believe our local associations, state conventions and national entities should celebrate whatever amount a church gives through the Cooperative Program. In the spirit of one of our desired core values, which is unity, we need to work together in love for the sake of the Gospel.”

The use of the term “Great Commission Giving” for all giving—CP and undesignated—may seem like a minor nomenclatural adjustment. But this is HUGE, and is the boldest statement of recognition of the local church’s right to determine how it gives.  This also a shift from “do this because you are supposed to” to “do this because you are part of a movement” in motivation.  Enough of the 10% buttons, whether by moderates in the 80s or institutionalists in the 21^st century. Those of us who serve the churches should serve them in such a way that they would want to give more because they see the Great Commission being fulfilled. Be about the gospel. Be reaching people. And people will give.

– Raising the percentage of Cooperative Program funds received by the International Mission Board in the 2011-2012 budget year to 51 percent and funding the increase in part with monies previously allocated to the SBC Executive Committee for Cooperative Program promotion and stewardship education. The proposal would reduce the SBC Operating Budget allocation of 3.40 percent by 1 percentage point, or roughly $2 million, and add it to the IMB’s budget, currently at nearly $320 million.

This may seem little more than cosmetic. But giving over 50% to reach the nations is a good step and represents the reality that we must do more.

There are other issues that will be raised. And there will be more than a little criticism no doubt. Some may wonder why no name change? I would argue a name change, to remove “Southern,” is in fact only cosmetic unless we change our culture and our structure to demonstrate we are serious about reaching our nation and the nations.  I am for a name change. But there are bigger fish to fry. And I think Ronnie Floyd and the Task Force have proven themselves to be pretty good fishermen so far.

In his book Tribes, Seth Godin decribes the two reasons factories became so vital:

The first is pretty obvious: factories are efficient. Starting a factory and filling it with factory workers is a good way to make a profit.

By ‘factory,’ I don’t necessarily mean a place with heavy machinery, greasy floors, and a din. I mean any organization that cranks out a product or a service, does it with measurable output, and tries to reduce cost as it goes. I mean any job where your boss tells you what to do and how to do it.”

The second reason we have factories has nothing to do with efficiency and a lot to do with human nature. Part of us wants stability. We want the absence of responsibility that a factory job can give us. The idea of‘I’m doing what you told me to’ is very compelling, especially if the alternative is foraging for food or begging on the streets.”

This is not all bad. For many, working in factories has been a noble profession. But two things have changed. First, factories employ less people today thus creating the need for more intentional workers in the work force. Second, the mindset of the factory, where life is set up into neat categories—work time, home time, vacation time, overtime, etc—has crept into churches. The idea of Christianity as an advancing movement became lost in the security of weekly services. The institutionalism of the world of the factory became the mindset in many churches, with age graded Sunday school, set times for services, standardized worship orders, hymnals, and rituals. As time passed, less risk was expected, less pondering of theological truths, to the point that even one’s spiritual life could be determined and utilized by virtue of spiritual gift inventories and classes designed to create disciples.

Discipleship increasingly focused on information transfer rather than life transformation. The gospel continued to be preached, but became ever more bottled up in attractional events while helpful and often effective tended to create the unintended consequence of focusing all the work for the Lord in the factory…I mean, the church. Or at least the church building. The “edifice complex,” referring to the increased focus on church buildings and the activity in them more than living the gospel in society, has grown with the increasing institutionalism of the church today. We too often measure a successful Christian by what they do in a church building (and how often). This matters. We should be gathering together as the people of God. But we should be measuring the sending capacity of our churches more than the seating capacity of our buildings. That is the stuff of movements.

The factory mindset was simply another way the church of the Lord Jesus shifted from being a movement to be advanced to an institution to be maintained. We witness this in the past: Constantine’s influence to institutionalize the church with the state led to a dark period (hence the term Dark Ages) where the movement of advancing the gospel continued not through the established church but through marginal expressions outside the “mainstream.” Later, John Wesley and friends would see a movement birthed out of the ritualized and routinized Anglican church. Wesley had himself as a young Anglican priest in training that he did not know whether a person could be converted outside a church building. But after being forced out of the established church and her buildings, Wesley let a movement that spread rapidly at first via preaching in the fields to any who would join that growing movement.

So whether the established Anglican communion of the 18th century or the church-as-factory model of today, movements have a way of challenging such a staus quo. After all, as Godin points out, no one today aspires to be a factory worker as a child. Instead, he insists people are looking for  those “ who challenge the status quo, who get out in front of their tribes, who create movements.”

Leaders of gospel-centered movements understand the difference between timeless truth and the application of truth in changing culture. They see the difference between a biblical precept and personal preference. Peter clearly proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah to Jews in Acts 4:8-13. Paul proclaimed Jesus as the unknown God sought by philosophers at Mars Hill in Acts 17. Same message, different application. In the same way, leaders of gospel-centered movements today make much of an unchanging message while understanding well the culture in which we live. After all,

-A C major chord is the same whether on itunes, on a CD, or on the piano in your living room;

-We use language to communicate, whether via a keyboard and the internet or face to face, or whether in English or Chinese;

-We all have some sense of right and wrong regardless of religious heritage.

For believers, recognizing the need to change does not mean we have to change the message. Heresies are born out of the desire to innovate without this awareness. Cults have been born which in the name of religious fervor actually hindered the gospel. But for the gospel to advance, it must be lived and taught in a manner that those in a given culture can see it in its wonder.

What place does the gospel have in your life? Do you awaken daily with the thought that you get to advance a movement of God through the gospel, or does that thought cross your mind at all? What might you do today that would help you to focus more on the gospel?

Note: this article was taken from my free ebook ADVANCE: Gospel-Centered Movements Change the World and is available for free at alvinreid.com/ebooks.

To get a big-picture idea of how the gospel affects all of life see

Alvin Reid, Evangelism Handbook: Biblical, Spiritual, Intentional, Missional. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2009.

We need to change. That sentiment has been obvious to just about every SBCer I have met in the past few years. Just a few reasons:

–We are flatlined in Baptists for 60 years while the US population has doubled

–We baptized 140,000 teens in 1972 and only 75,000 in recent years

–We are far too underrepresented in the great cities of America

–We have been more focused on what we do in our church buildings than what our churches are doing for the gospel in the communities around us.

–We are the wealthiest nation on earth and the wealthiest Christian denomination, but we are cutting back on sending missionaries which is tragic. Just read this

I could go on. But that is not the purpose of this article. Most I know respond to the need for change with excitement at the possibilities of what we could become if the gospel becomes again at the heart of all we do.  A few respond by digging in their heels and defending the status quo, which in my opinion is nothing to “quo” about.

I know I need to change. The call for a  Great Commission Resurgence has been personal to me. I need to be more focused on sharing Christ and am making changes in that area. I need to rethink how my family spends money, and we gave more to our church and to missions last year than ever in our lives as a family. Churches need to assess carefully how we live and how we spend. So do state conventions, and so do our national agencies.  We have been blessed by remarkable prosperity for a generation, and that blessing has caused us not to be focused on how to live when resources are far less available. You know, like right now. But more austere times demand more focused goals for stewardship of our time, our talents, and our treasure, in whatever realm we serve.

One of the things we must do as well in times of dramatic change is to remember things we do well. We can add change without subtracting those things God is blessing.  I see things in my beloved SBC that bring me great hope. Things like:

-A remarkable shift in desire to see churches planted. When I was in seminary church planting simply was not a priority among students. I cannot remember a single friend who aspired to be a church planter. Now there is a revolution in church planting.

-A growing awareness of the lostness of the world. Anyone can easily access information online now to see how lost our planet is. Now not only do seminarians hear in class about the need to reach the nations; laypeople in our churches can google it. Many are. And many wonder why we are not more urgent to reach them.

-A growing shift from an institutional posture and attractional evangelistic approach driven by methods to a missional posture recognizing that the US also is desperately in need of the gospel.   And that simply opening our church doors a few times a week is not going to reach most of the US.

I also want to give kudos to some state conventions in the SBC I see doing some great work. I travel a lot and speak at events in many of them. I think I was in 14 state conventions last year. I am sure the following will miss some wonderful efforts being led by some of our state conventions. But here are a few examples I have seen, all of which give me hope. There are leaders at every level in SBC life who get the need to change. So while we must change, and I think dramatically in some ways, I am also grateful for those who are already seeing this.

Several state conventions recognize the need to engage younger leaders and are doing so with great effort.  Examples:

–SC Baptist Convention: I am speaking at their upstate evangelism conference which has a focus on younger leaders led by David Platt,  Jay Hardwick, and me.

–Similarly, The Georgia Baptist Convention is offering a Cutting Edge Conference with a similar focus. JD Greear and I along with others are leading that emphasis.

–The Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma has an annual Missional Ministry Conference that is like none other I have seen in the SBC. Bob Mayfield, who leads this, gets things better than a lot I meet. This year I will be there with JD Greear and Ed Stetzer.

–I was recently at the Arkansas Baptist State Evangelism Conference where evangelism leader Sonny Tucker had the focus on reaching the next generation. He gets that we have more teens in the US this year than ever in history, and he wants to reach as many in Arkansas as possible. I spoke on reaching the coming generation (one message is up on my website now).

I could also speak of others in a variety of ways, including the stewardship models of the Southern Baptists of Virginia and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Or of my own convention the BSCNC, which is seeking to be more great commission focused with every passing year. I have loved seeing a remarkable shift from distrust and little communication between SEBTS and the state convention to a much stronger relationship, and in many ways partnership for the gospel.

Again, these are just a few examples about which I am aware. I am sure there are more. We need to change. We need dramatic, gospel-centered, Christ-exalting, missionary-living change.  And many get that. I still believe the greatest days for Southern Baptists are in front of us. I am grateful for leaders in churches, states, and national entities that understand our need to be more focused on the gospel.

Michelle loves cats. And dogs. But she does not share my love for reptiles. However, her brother Mark, who died of leukemia when she was 14 and he was 12, was a huge reptile lover. I am glad she can tolerate them .  After we moved to NC in 1995 I discovered Raleigh has a major reptile show every year. So, I began to move from captive reptiles indigenous to the south to more exotic types.

From then until now I have had: anaconda, copperhead (named Fang), burmese python, carpet python, rock python, ball python, redtailed boa, and now my prize, an albino boa.  I also had a five foot monitor lizard for a while. Sadly most of these I had before facebook and have no pictures. One time I fed a snake in my office a bat caught in the library. It was pretty fun watching the last wing go down the pipe!

So now we have two snakes, the albino Maximus and Corny the corn snake in Hannah’s room. Why do I love snakes? Hard to say. But I love all of creation. I love studying animals. As a child I would sit for hours reading animal encyclopedias. I was a fauna nerd.  I would sit in my back yard and watch birds for hours, comparing them to pictures in my books. I suppose I was an animal planet natural long before cable TV.

But there is a practical reason I keep a snake in my office. Well, a couple. First, pansy students who are afraid of them need to learn courage, and so I am trying to help .  Okay that is not the real reason. Jesus called us to make disciples. He did NOT call us to make clones. When it comes to core doctrine, we should believe very similarly with one another. But in terms of lesser matters, and in particular external matters like clothes and such, we have freedom to exercise a lot of diversity. For too long I have observed Southern religion that expects outward conformity in every thing from clothing tastes to musical interests. We should be alike in our character, demonstrating the humility and forbearance of Christ, and in our conviction about God’s Word and His gospel.

So I keep a snake because I can. I do not expect my students to keep a snake or to like them for that matter. Liking snakes should not be a test of fellowship . Be who you are. Enjoy your life. Understand some things matter greatly, like the deity of Jesus and the atonement of Christ and other fundamental doctrines. But if you like a Harley, ride on. If you enjoy knitting, knit yourself out. And if you like snakes, fill your garage freezer with frozen rats like I do and enjoy the scaly side of God’s Creation.

And while you are at it, enjoy some of my pictures with animals I love. Many of these belong to Dan Breeding, a brother in Christ who is an exotic animal expert.

Gila Monster--a venomous lizard

Gibbon, smallest of apes

King Cobra in Thailand

Playing with Tigers

Rattlesnake-see the fangs and my joy

Dan Breeding with a huge python and me

I love to connect and reconnect with friends. Social networking online is great. But it is much better when it serves as a venue for helping to connect with friends offline. Therefore I am listing a few key dates below of places I will be this spring. I am not listing every single event, but those in key areas where I have many friends whom I would so love to see if possible. I am too lazy to do a Facebook event for all of them. Okay I only do Facebook events for high school and college friends, lol.  But if you are in the areas below at any of the dates given, I hope to see you!

February 22-23: South Carolina Evangelism Conference. Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church, Moore, SC.  I speak both Monday morning and Tuesday morning.  Other speakers include David Platt, Jay Hardwick, and Frank Page. I am especially glad to be ministering with the worship team from North Greenville University.

March 1-2: Georgia Baptist Evangelism “Cutting Edge” Conference. Central Baptist Church, Warner Robbins, GA. I am speaking on Tuesday with J.D. Greear to a younger leaders track.

March 5-6: The Nexus Project, Summit Church, RDU. This conference hosted by Summit and Clayton King Ministries is for middle and high school students. Speakers include Clayton King, JD Greear, Jason Gaston, and yours truly.

March 17: Long Hollow Baptist Church, Nashville, TN area. I am speaking to all students that Wednesday night. I do not get to Nashville too often so I am going to be there most of Wednesday and a lot of Thursday.

March 25-26: Missional Ministers Meeting with the Oklahoma Baptist Convention in Norman. This is my second year to be at this gathering, one of the best I have seen across the SBC.  This year JD Greear joins me (yes, he is following me around it seems).

March 27: Apologetics Conference, Village Baptist Church, Fayetteville, NC. This annual conference is outstanding, with speakers like Alex McFarland. I will be dealing specifically with issues related to youth.

March 29-30: Academic Lecture, Charleston Southern University. I do not get to Charleston often either, so I hope to see friends there!

April 6-7: Drummond Lectures, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, MO. I have a ton of friends in Missouri so please mark your calendar and come!

May 10: Back in Missouri for a Baptist21 event at the great First Baptist Church of Arnold.  Host pastor Kenny Qualls, known for mentoring younger pastors, Darrin Patrick and I will be speaking along with others. This is rescheduled from March 22.

May 19-20: Moody Bible Institute, Chicago. I am speaking at their annual Pastors Conference and would truly like to catch up with friends there.

Okay, so I do not go to all these places just to hang out with friends. But I like to do that as well!  So let me know if you will be at any of these.  I have the spiritual gift of hanging out and would love to exercise it.

During the rise of Christianity in the early centuries believers made an indelible impression in their time in at least two obvious ways. The first: persecution. We read in the Acts and in the annals of church history how courageous men and women withstood horrific trials for the glory of God.  The noble response of Christians to persecution impressed more than a few unbelievers regarding the love of Christians for their Christ and thus the wonder of the gospel.

Take for instance Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. This second-century church father stood before the crowd in the arena. The proconsul ordered the elderly saint to recant his faith in Christ. Polycarp replied, “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?”

When threatened with wild beasts, Polycarp remained undaunted. When threatened with fire, he answered: “Thou threatenest me with fire which burneth for an hour, and after a little is extinguished, but art ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment.”

Polycarp was sentenced to be burned at the stake. But the fire didn’t burn him. Finally, he was pierced with a dagger. He was praised not only for his courage but because his death was consistent with the gospel of Christ. While terrorists today may cause harm to others in the name of their religion, Christians endured affliction for the gospel.

But another way the early church called attention to the reality of Christ came from the response of His followers in the face of massive plagues that hit the Empire. During the reign of Marcus Aurelius beginning about AD 165, a plague devastated the Empire, striking massive numbers from the poorest slave to Aurelius himself. Another came around AD 251 with similar effects.

In his Easter letter about AD 260, Dionysius wrote a tribute to the believers whose heroic efforts cost many of them their lives. Pagans tended to flee the cities during plagues, but Christians were more likely to stay and minister to those who suffered: “Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves,” Dionysius observed, adding, “Needless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy.”

Reading this from a comfortable home in the West it would take more than a stretch to think our light afflictions—offending someone, even the loss of a job for Christ—compares to the persecution we read about elsewhere.  But I wonder if we can share in the difficulty of the persecuted church by our willingness in the West to forsake comfort to minister to those in dire need.  Acts of profound compassion can make even a jaded culture like ours take notice of our Lord. Dyonisius would agree: “The best of our brothers lost their lives in this manner, a number of presbyters, deacons, and laymen winning high commendation so that death in this form, the result of great piety and strong faith, seems in every way the equal of martyrdom.”

I fear that sometimes we in the West can feel a bit of self pity that we do not suffer as believers do in places like Saudi Arabia and China.  Of course, too many of us relish our ease of life and pursue a prosperity gospel long on narcissism and short on sacrifice.  We have a hard time changing the world for the gospel when we value the materialism of a lost culture in the church; they see no difference in our lifestyles, so they are indifferent to our message. But if Dionysius is right, there is yet a way to be valiant for Christ in any culture: seek the marginalized, the disenfranchised, those no one cares about; then love them and touch them and be Christ to them. Consider the example of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army.  Each Christmas, there was a tradition in London: the churches sent out representatives to the streets to invite the poor to the celebration; thousands thronged there.  Anglicans would begin by announcing: “All of you who are Anglicans come with us.”  Catholics would join in: “All who are Catholics come with us.”  The Methodist, the Lutherans, and others would follow suit.  When all the invitations were made, many more people  milled about.  At that point, William Booth would shout to the people: “All of you who belong to no one come with me.”

But there may yet be another way in our time to demonstrate the radical nature of our faith and the mighty power of Christ in a culture not easily moved. I am referring to how believers respond in the West not to persecution, or even to the helpless, but to those times when we face personally face remarkable difficulty with a lasar beam focus on Jesus and His gospel.

Example: recently even secular media have seen the wonder of Christ in the physical suffering of pastor Matt Chandler.  Chandler, the 35 year old pastor of the Village Church, a growing congregation of over 6,000 weekly attenders in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is currently battling brain cancer. His weekly video updates to his congregation and his response to this ordeal have reached the attention of secular media as well as many within the body of Christ.  AP just released a story about his cancer and his response.  You can read it here :

What if believers facing personal tragedy responded in such a way that in the midst of the pain, Christ is exalted. Many do just that. Most are not well known pastors of large churches, but regular folks who simply love Jesus. But in a Western culture obsessed with consumerism, personal happiness, and the pursuit of OUR best life NOW, the eternal gospel would no doubt shine more brightly if more believers responded to every crisis, from economic to health related, by pointing others to the mission of God and the work of God in Christ for us. We might even magnify our witness if we were honest about the struggles we face in the midst of such difficulty.

So many people without Christ remained unmoved when we merely give them information. We must give them a demonstration of the power of God that causes them to hear our words. Remember what Paul said in I Thessalonians 1:5: “Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but in power, and the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction, as you saw how we lived among you.”  That is how the gospel caused the Thessalonians to say “Those that have turned the world upside down have come here” (see Acts 17).  As we stand for Christ in the face of personal calamity we too can demonstrate the gospel even while we speak of it to others.

The fight to keep the gospel in front of the perishing will not end until Christ returns. We must help people see the gospel as well as hear it. Michael Green wrote:

Unless there is a transformation of contemporary church life so that once again the task of evangelism is something which is seen as incumbent on every baptized Christian, and is backed up by a quality of living which outshines the best that unbelief can muster, we are unlikely to make much headway through techniques of evangelism. Men will not believe that Christians have good news to share until they find that bishops and bakers, university professors and housewives, bus drivers and street corner preachers are all alike keen to pass along, however different their methods may be. And then will continue to believe that the church is an introverted society composed of ‘respectable’ people and bent on its own preservation until they see in church groupings and individual Christians the caring, the joy, the fellowship, the self sacrifice, and the openness which mark the early church at its best.

We may find that our best efforts to reach the West for Christ come not in our strength of numbers, our impressive buildings, or our skills of communication, but when we find ourselves most helpless and most dependent not on ourselves, but the Lord of glory Who suffered for us.

If you like the book and think it would be helpful feel free to make it available. I look forward to your feedback. Blessings.
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The single most effective way for Christians to reach the US would be for 25% of them to move to two or three of the largest cities and stay there for three generations.  Tim Keller

So there was great joy in that city. Acts 8:8 (HCSB)

I have many people in this city. Acts 18:10 (HCSB)

But they now aspire to a better land: a heavenly one. . . . for He has prepared a city for them.Hebrews 11:16 (HCSB)

In 1974, Ralph Winter presented an address at the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization entitled “The Highest Priority: Cross-Cultural Evangelism.” Winter’s address led to a growing focus on the identification of unreached people groups around the world. As these groups became identified worldwide it became apparent most of them live in one large region in the East. In 1990, Luis Bush coined the term the 10/40 window, referring to the area in the eastern hemisphere between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator. Since then, the growing awareness of this region’s need for the gospel has had a profound effect the development of international mission strategy is developed. Of the 55 most unreached countries, 97% of their population lives in that window. Hardly a day goes by on our campus without mention of this designation. Much energy and urgency for the unsaved has been generated because of this focus.

The time has come for a western version of the 10/40 Window. Whereas the 10/40 Window refers to the area demanding the greatest cause for urgency, the window to which I refer holds as much promise as it manifests great need. I am referring to a revolutionary call to reach the great cities of the West, and of the world.

Arguably no one has championed the city as a place of promise and need as much as Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Read Keller’s resources and you may join me in a conviction that the time has never been more urgent to reach the cities.

Why the Cities?

1. Biblically, the gospel spread via the cities of the Roman world. Simply study the book of Acts to see the priority given to cities. Large cities influence the culture like never before in history.In The Rise of Christianity (p. 129), Stark argued: “Within a decade of the crucifixion of Jesus, the village culture of Palestine had been left far behind, and the Graeco-Roman city became the dominant environment of the Christian movement.” Keller observes that by AD 300, the urban areas of the Roman Empire were 90% Christian, but the countryside remained 90% pagan.

2. Strategically, commerce and culture flow through the cities. The flattening of the world has given large cities global ties and national influence. Now more than ever a teenager in rural NC decides everything from musical tastes to future plans based on urban America than from his local community. As a young adult I know in New York City recently observed, Everything that will happen in the U.S. happens first in New York. As the city goes, so goes the nation. Keller argues that large cities have as much or more power than states or nations today.

3. Globalization has caused large cities to be more similar than different around the world. In the past few years I have spent time in cities in several nations: Kiev, London, Paris, Florence, Rome, Chiang Mai, and Bangkok, among others. Add to that ventures to large cities in the US, and having lived in medium to large metropolitan areas from Birmingham and Raleigh-Durham to Indianapolis, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston, and a common theme is apparent. In most if not all of these cities I just named, one can go to a major shopping district and grab a quick meal at McDonald’s or a sit down meal at Hard Rock; grab a latte at Starbucks, and shop for Prada. I have done all the above except shop for Prada. I am not sure why anyone would shop for Prada, but apparently a lot of people do!

Major cities have more in common with each other from nation to nation than they do with rural areas in their own country. Pop culture, which changes little over space but rapidly over time, has increased in influence, while traditional culture, which changes slowly over time but varies greatly over space, has lessened in influence. We may reach Warsaw and Tokyo more by studying New York than by taking knowledge gained from village evangelism (overseas or in the US) to the cities.

4. Cities are changing.This past spring I spoke at a college in Dallas, Texas. On the flight home I sat next to a middle aged divorcee who had recently moved to the city-center in Dallas, the downtown area that had recently undergone a major revitalization, replete with loft apartments, and the ability to live a complete life never driving a car or traveling far from home. She loved her life. She epitomized what so many have found the city can be a place of greatness, where excellence in the arts and education is appreciated, where energy and life pulsate 24/7. Keller has observed the rise of the city-center as key to understanding the city: The center city, unlike the ‘inner city’ (where the poor live) or where the working-class live, is where there is a confluence of a) residences for professionals, b) major work and job centers, and c) major cultural institutions–all in close proximity. Keller notes who lives there, people who have immense influence live in these centers–young professionals, mostly single; creative professionals; corporate leaders; leaders in the arts and education; new immigrant families; Second generation Americans; students/academics; and the gay community.

Anglo evangelicals have been fascinated with the suburbs for decades, but must begin to see the importance of the city-centers. As a child I remember when a trip across Birmingham to the zoo seemed like a forever-long excursion. Then, Interstate 59 was built in the 1960s. Suddenly the zoo was closer! We trace the rise of the (mostly suburban) magachurch to the year 1970 due in no small part to the ease of travel afforded by the interstate. But today the suburban-inner city dichotomy I hear so many use to categorize the city must be changed. The city-center and its holistic life view has replaced the suburbs and the shopping mall as the locus of influence; and we must realize that city is not synonymous with inner city.

5. We are losing the cities. My young adult friend in NYC would argue we have already lost them. We must go after them with the aggression of pioneer missionaries in an unchurched land, for that is where we are. In 2000 the Census Bureau reported that 80% of the US lives in metropolitan areas. Yet anglo evangelicals in particular tend not to be there. Only 50% of Southern Baptist churches are in metro areas. Perhaps we could begin a serious conversation about whether the key to reaching the cities, the nation, and the world, might be to offer a vision to believers to move to the cities. In particular, what if we began a call to the Millennials (those roughly 25 and under) in the US who love Jesus and want to be part of something that matters to include in their career plans the idea of spending their lives in the great cities? I cannot help but believe that if 30% of Southern Baptists, for instance, shifted to the cities, and at the same time took a missional, passionate, evangelistic heart for those cities with them, things might be different in a generation.

We should continue to press for more and more to go to the nations. We cannot take away from the call to international missions. We may never catch up with the need. But need alone does not determine God’s call; if it did we should all start packing for China tomorrow. We must be driven by the Spirit, and captivated by a strategy that sees not only the need of the times, but the perspective of long term change as well. And in fact our focus, in addition to an urgent call to the nations, will have the serendipitous effect of reaching the nations as well, since those from virtually every tribe and tongue live in the great cities of the West. Perhaps it is time to think about a Western Window, playing off the 10/40 concept, which should still receive priority.

In Two Cities: Two Loves (pp.165ff.) James Boice surmised that if only ten percent of evangelicals in the US moved to our largest cities and lived biblical lives of love, truth, and service, the entire culture would be changed.

Reach the city, reach the nation.

No, reach the city, reach the NATIONS.