sides
That bumper sticker made me laugh this past weekend. A pastor friend of mine in Colorado told me that the anomousity level towards Focus on the Family (headquartered in Colorado Springs) has hit an all-time high this past year because of their relationship with the President.
He told me that there is such distaste with how he’s handled the war, the environment, and election reform that many folks are throwing the baby out with the bath water. Dobson still has great insight but the organization is so married to the Republican Party, they are losing their voice.
That got me thinking. By marrying up with a political party, they’ve lost their prophetic voice - the ability to call the culture on the carpet.
Pastors (churches) can be in grave danger of this. More than just politics - socially and economically is what I’m talking about. I think of my city - Little Rock. A couple of weeks ago the mayor sent a letter out to every church in the city calling on them to pray for our city as it is breaking apart. Violence, poverty, homelessness, and racism.
He called for us to pray.
I think we are going to have to do a lot more than that.
Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour in our city. It’s also the most socio-economic polarizing hour of the week.
Our children’s pastor wanted to do a VBS with an inner city church - read poor and black. Of course the wheels coming off the wagon at Grace derailed the idea but I wonder if we could have pulled it off? Would we have struggled getting volunteers? Would our parents have a hard time leaving their kids downtown for VBS? Would the normal west Little Rock VBS-hopping shuffle of moms in mini-vans followed us to downtown?
I don’t know, I’m just curious. The answers could be yes just as easy as no to those questions. But I don’t think VBS is going to be enough either.
More partnerships like it - student ministries, women ministries, men ministries? Possibly. Student ministries would be hard to do. Here’s why - money. How many students can afford a $400 summer camp, $100 retreat, and the like? Would churches and student pastors have the guts to punt anything that was a financial stumbling block? Let’s face it - the way most student ministries are run, it automatically eliminates the lower 2/3rds of the economic class structure.
But the loss of prophetic voice is intimately tied to money. By listening and cozying up to big givers, by showering them with thank you notes, access to leadership decisions makes us impotent in leading. We start worrying about the bottom line instead of the other bottom line - where is God leading?
I remember a buddy of mine trying to get me to join this “it’s not Amway” company. With my “extensive” student ministry contacts, I could be financially independent. That was his goal - so that he didn’t have to rely on a church for a salary. The church could use that salary for ministry in other places. Can’t really fault him for his heart.
But I couldn’t do it. I saw too big of a temptation for failure for me.
I’m a pastor, not a businessman. It’s a good thing for me not to be self-sufficient. Makes sure I’m walking by faith.
More than that - I don’t want there to ever be any confusion when I talk to someone as to my motive. I want them to follow Jesus and figure out what He wants. I don’t want them thinking I’m telling them something because I want them to keep buying detergent from me. Or that I’m so dependent on them that I’ve become a “yes” man and lost my perspective of God.
I exist to serve them, not the other way around. I’m here for their benefit, they aren’t here for mine.
When you marrying up, that gets blurred. And when that gets blurred, we can lose our prophetic voice.
Tags: Focus on the Family, pastoral leadership, prophetic voice
14 responses so far ↓
1 Renee // Jul 13, 2006 at 3:48 pm
Quick Grant……3rd paragraph from the bottom…did you mean “someone’s ass” or “as to”? HAHAHA Fix it quick before the typo Nazi sees it……….
2 Jerry // Jul 13, 2006 at 6:58 pm
Politics is a messy world and when you enter it bearing the banner of Jesus it makes both your representation of Jesus and the politics you support even messier.
“My kingdom is not of this world. If it were my servants would fight” - Jesus
3 Mike R // Jul 13, 2006 at 8:55 pm
Man, that was like 5 posts in one.
Topic 1:
I’m starting to get a bad taste in my mouth over Focus On the Family, and I am at least on the same side of the political and ideological fence as they are. I just don’t like the approach. Posted about it here.
The bottom line is politics is not the answer and is ultimately quite weak. Does it matter what a political stance on abortion is if a woman’s heart is changed and decides to carry her baby to term?
Topic 2:
Segregated churches… why do we have them? Is it wrong? Who’s fault is it? Is anyone really at “fault”?
That is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now. I may need to blog about it.
4 Grant // Jul 13, 2006 at 10:22 pm
Why can’t I type a single post correctly?
5 wayne // Jul 14, 2006 at 6:36 am
Grant — it’s called “proof-reading” I thought you liberal artsy fartsy types knew about that kinda stuff
6 Mike S // Jul 14, 2006 at 7:48 am
The problem with marrying to a political party is you can’t just marry a particular issue, you marry their entire platform. It’s like when you get married and find out later that you don’t just marry your spouse, but somehow also marry their entire family - experience boys & girls, experience.
But we are nation based on a political system. While it has its faults, it’s the best one anyone in history has come up with. Our responsibility is to participate or don’t complain.
It is messy when politics and religion gets mixed up - check out New Testament: Jesus & Paul’s experiences with church folk who were also political leaders.
Don’t know if there’s a clean answer to this. Maybe it’s just something we live with and pray about. Hhhmmmmm. . .
7 kris // Jul 14, 2006 at 9:00 am
glad you’re thinking and writing about this stuff …
8 Catbird // Jul 17, 2006 at 7:04 pm
Dangit! I missed one!
-the typo Nazi
9 The Catbird Seat » My New Nickname // Jul 17, 2006 at 7:34 pm
[...] I’ve officially been deemed “the typo Nazi” by Renee on The G Sides, my friend Grant’s blog. [...]
10 Rowland // Jul 17, 2006 at 10:39 pm
We’ve been talking here in San Jose alot about the church in Ephesus (Rev. 2:1). They were obviously doing alot of things right, as mentioned by John, but they were at risk of losing their “lampstand” (light, blessing, power of the spirit?) because they forgot the most basic thing….their first love…Jesus. You wonder if so many churches are just spinning their wheels doing all the programs and even praying so hard for “the Spirit to come down”, but it never happens because they forget the basics….the poor, the destitute, the lost. Makes me think we just need to return to the basics of preaching the Gospel, Worshipping, feeding the poor, visiting prisons, etc…
11 Heg // Jul 17, 2006 at 11:39 pm
I think it not so much that Focus on the Family is “marrying” to a political party, but that each political parties are becoming polar opposites. It seems that the basic values that America were founded upon used to be the common basis for both political parties, the difference was in how to achieve those goals. Now it appears there is not much common in anything.
It seems to me our country is in such a cultural crisis because there are few people stepping up to the plate to speak out about political issues. If some of these issues are not brought to the forefront with Christians and action is not taken our ability to openly evangelize in the future will be jeapardized, not to mention that Truth will continue to be suppressed.
There has actually been a separate political action group, housed at Focus on the Family, which is addressing these issues because they saw the critical need for people to be informed about political issues.
I think by taking a stand on these political issues James Dobson (who receives no salary from Focus on the Family, nor does he take any of the profit recieved from his books sold through Focus on the Family) is calling the culture on the carpet.
12 Mike R // Jul 20, 2006 at 9:56 am
Rowland’s comment got me to thinking about worship.
Wrote down some of my thoughts in my blog. Worship
13 Mike R // Jul 20, 2006 at 9:57 am
Rowland’s comment got me to thinking about worship.
Wrote down some of my thoughts in my blog. Worship
14 Rod // Nov 28, 2006 at 1:48 am
I can understand some Christians being frustrated with Christian organizations being involved in politics. However, we must remember that practically speaking, our right to freely workship Jesus Christ only exists so long as our laws say we can. You are not able to freely worship Jesus Christ in many countries because their laws do not support it. Likewise, politics is not going to bring revival and should never be used to force our religion onto others. As Christians, I do believe that we have a duty to speak out against those immoral practices (abortion, gay marriage, etc) that will have significant consequences on our country and our ability to receive God’s blessigs. Deuteronomy says that in order for our children and our childrens children to live well, we must maintain God’s statutes and commandments. We have been blessed to live in a country where we have the liberty and freedom to tell folks about Jesus Christ and to speak out against immoral behavior without being thrown in jail or executed. To not speak out when God has given us this opportunity is, in my opinion, something that God will hold us accountable for.
Lastly, many Christians have been involved in the Republican Party because of this parties support for the lives of unborn children and support of marriage between one man and one woman. The Democratic Party has consistently supported abortion and gay marriage rights. If the Democatic Party supported Biblical values and the Republican Party supported abortion, I would leave the Republican Party today and join the Democratic Party.
God Bless!
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