Monthly Archives: October 2012

Holidays

The Evilest of Days

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At the end of October comes a day so horrible and unthinkably evil that it is only spoken of in whispers by fundamentalists. Some go so far as to completely misconstrue the purpose and history behind this day and to claim that they have not been nor will ever be any part of it. I’m speaking, of course, of the celebration of Reformation Day.

Fundamentalists have mixed feelings about the Reformation in general. On the one hand they do dearly love church splits and anything that makes the Pope angry. On the other hand, the Reformation is what gave us Lutherans. Fundies tend to somewhat admire Martin Luther (they do dearly love a rebel as long as the rebellion isn’t against them) apart from his propensity for beer, rough language, and public consubstatiation. They do not, however, have much love in general for anybody who can claim Luther as their spiritual ancestor.

My recommendation for tonight is that you visit your local fundamentalist Harvest Festival (which is coincidentally planned to fall on the same night as that other holiday) dressed as one of the Reformers and reciting the text of Martin Luther’s challenge to “sin boldly.” Find the pastor and suggest that everybody pause to observe the Eucharist. Loudly ask where the beer is and suggest that it might be a good idea to hold baptisms in it. As far as fundamentalists are concerned it will be one of the scariest things they’ve ever experienced.

Ecclesia semper reformanda. Fundamentalists assure me that the best translation of this is “Tracts are better than candy apples.” Make of this what you will.

Church Services

Disaster Relief

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Disaster strikes. People are hurting. People may be sick, hungry or thirsty. They may be displaced from their homes needing a place to sleep or someone to tell them if their loved ones are safe.

When we look down at this scene what would we see Jesus doing amidst the chaos and heartbreak? Can you see him standing at a shelter handing out food and blankets? Easily. In your mind’s eye is he healing the sick and comforting the frightened? Of course. Can you picture him opening the church doors and welcoming in people who need shelter? Without a doubt.

But can you even in your darkest imaginings think of him standing off to one side sermonizing about how it is these people or their parents who have sinned and brought this calamity to pass? Can you see him so completely paranoid of giving a “social gospel” that he is completely unprepared to offer anything in the way of help but moralistic platitudes? Can we in our wildest dreams imagine a self-righteous Christ waggling his finger in the faces of the homeless and hurting and telling them that what they really need is a heavenly home later instead of compassion right now. The mind boggles.

I do not believe that many who claim to be the best behaved Christians have ever really met Christ. Or if they did once meet him they must have found him intolerable to their higher sensibilities.

If you’d like to help with disaster relief, the folks at World Vision are there helping. You can learn more here.

Outreach

SFL Flashback: Teen Missions Trips

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This post was originally featured on SFL on Mar 5, 2009

From the missions journal of John Q. Goodwin, youth group president of the Come Out From Among Them Baptist Church of Loco, Oklahoma.

Preface: I have decided to keep a journal of our summer missions trip to Mexico. Jim Elliot kept a journal so it seems like a good idea for me to keep one too. Perhaps it will be useful to other who are going on teen missions trips with their own (hopefully Independent Baptist) churches.

Day 1: We have arrived in Mexico and are all very excited by the presence of so many sinners around us that we can witness to. I suppose there were plenty of sinners back in Oklahoma too but these sinners speak Spanish which makes them a lot more interesting. Also, we have located a McDonalds so we will not starve while we are here. The people at our hotel speak English which makes it a lot easier when we need to order room service and such.

Day 2: Spent the day with the missionary passing out gospel tracts and street preaching. Brother Benjamin, our youth pastor gave a great message this morning on the supremacy of the King James Version text, although I’m not sure many of the people really understood. Even Carlos, our interpreter seemed a bit confused during the part about Koine Greek. I can only hope that God uses these messages to really impress upon the hearts of people the importance of using the right Bible.

Day 3: I believe God is calling me to marry this girl Maria Sanchez whom I met at a the local church service yesterday. I cannot talk to her because she does not speak any English but she seems very godly and is also very good looking which makes it even easier to know this is God’s choice for me. I will attempt to learn some Spanish so that I can ask if she believes in courtship.

Day 4: Another rousing sermon today by Brother Benjamin, this time on sin. His hard preaching about cable television, internet porn, and gluttony should have a lot of folks here under conviction. You could tell how much people were responding by the way they kept shrugging and saying “internet?” over and over again. They obviously had never heard about the dangers of the world web of wickedness preached so clearly. It’s a good thing that we were here to stand in the gap.

Day 5: Today we took a rest from our labors and went sight seeing and shopping for souvenirs. Then we had a picnic on the beach where we shared testimonies about how this time in Mexico has changed our lives. Also, God has revealed to me that marrying Maria is not His will for me after all. Since we are going home tomorrow, I consider that God has shut that door. Instead I am going to marry Chastity Winkler, a girl in my own youth group. I plan to have my father talk to to her father once we get home.

Day 6: We’re on the bus and in a few minutes we’ll be back in the United States. Missions work is very rewarding but tiring as well and my sunburn from the beach trip yesterday itches a lot. It’s been a great trip and we have a lot of pictures to show the church and we can report over seven-hundred decisions for Christ being made. It could have been more but nobody in our group actually speaks Spanish. The missionary we were visiting seemed really happy that we came, at least he smiled a lot as he waved goodbye to us. I can’t wait to go back next year.