Spare Change

This Week's Lesson in John 13:35

Posted by Bryan

Rev. Chan Chandler, a Southern Baptist pastor in North Carolina, who told his church's Democrats they should either "repent or resign" has, himself, resigned.

And further lovely text bytes from this divided congregation...

As Chandler and his wife drove out of the church's parking lot followed by a police escort, about 40 of his supporters walked out as well, with many saying they were resigning their memberships.

"I'm not going to serve with the ungodly," an angry Misty Turner declared.

But Maxine Osborne, 70, and among those who stayed behind, had a different view of what had transpired.

"A lot of these young people had not been in the church more than a year," she said. The Chandlers "brought in a lot of young people, but they also brainwashed them."

Police escorts, accusations of ungodliness and brainwashing. Clear divisions demarcated by age.

There's a lot going on here, more even than what you can read in black and white (or whatever color your text & background).

Let's ask ourselves, "why is this little mountain church in the hills of North Carolina making news that hits an international wire service, with an unfortunate event that takes place a lot more often than we'd care to admit (in SBC and many other denominations' churches all across this great land)?

There's the easy, obvious, and correct reason that this example affirms the canard of GOP/Evangelical Christian conspiratorial cohabitaion & collaboration. The mainline press has found this one church with 405 members (I checked) led by a young, bold-but-some-might-say-brash pastor and made their internal conflict the poster child of the present political climate. With a single wide-but-some-might-say-liberal stroke, the AP has reduced the complexities of political thought, discourse, and opinion dividing 100 million Americans to a single church of 400 (and probably less than half of that are active members, if they're anything like a normal church) that has determined to make this a dividing, divisive issue.

Nevermind the fact that 99.95% of the remaining 43,000+ SBC churches have Democrats and Republicans worshipping together peaceably (although, fairly, most congregations would poll strongly Republican). One church's mistakes have allowed it to become a pawn in a carnal political battle, and the press has turned a spotlight upon the mess. This light of internal animosity takes the glory off the years of good work the church has done, distracted from the effectual preaching the pastor has offered, has reduced the very likely good and honorable church members to Pharisaic and judgmental caricatures, and has hampered the witness of the church for its true purpose of giving glory to God through the gospel of the Christ.

The lessons to be learned here are many, certainly more than the four I list here:

First, the church that fails to exhibit grace fails. There was enough lack of grace by all parties, to all parties. I cringe to think how long this church will be known as the one "where all the Democrats were run off and the Pastor quit."

Second, the world is no friend of the church. The church is supposed to be a refuge from the world...a sanctuary, if you will. When the church behaves no differently from the world, it is natural, normal, and to be expected for the world to draw attention to the failure of the church. That's what the world does. It's the world's nature. It points out ecclesiastical hypocrisy and carnal behavior, defying the unchurched to justify finding sanctuary in the church.

Third, it's only going to get worse. The more the world's message diverts from the church's, the more the world will go to the church to denounce it. May God's church be less willing than it currently appears to hinder its own message with contradictory actions.

Fourth...

John 13:35
"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

If you can't say something nice about someone with whom you share a pew, it's not enough to just remain silent (as though your silence is a blessing by virtue of not cursing). God says that the world is judging our ability to love them in the world by our demonstration of how we love others in the church.

Division distorts reality. These were folks who gathered together weekly in the presence of God. Yet, because of making the lesser thing a main thing, they became folks who gathered together weakly in the pretense of God. Egos inflated and self was promoted while the "other" was castigated. The world noticed and the enemy dances a jig.

May 11, 2005 1:55 PM