Your Voice

The church was always built for ‘out there’

By Keelan Adams
Associate pastor, Flatline Church at Chisholm

As a pastor of God’s people, this empty sanctuary presses me to really reflect upon what the “ekklesia” truly is, what it does and what used to take place in this house week after week. Where are the hugs, greetings, laughter? Where are the saints who go to the altar to intercede for others? Where are the pastors of this sanctuary and what is their activity? Does the healing still happen at the altar like it used to after being immersed with sorrow and tears? Where are the saints who lift praises unto a God, singing our souls happy? Where are the evangelistic outreaches? Where, where, where has the church gone?

Is the church this building or is it actually the people who used to occupy this space and who have been filled with God’s Spirit?

The “ekklesia” must not be this temple because this place is lifeless. It must indeed be God’s people.

The church is not dead. The activity of God’s “ekklesia” is always to transfer beyond those four walls on Sunday. “Out there” is that for which we are built.

Pastors, we are to never allow the communities immediately surrounding the building to wonder why we are missing in action.

Let’s learn during this season to use our churches as a missions base to weekly affect and “touch” our immediate context with the love of Christ. Ask the Lord for wisdom to lead your people to hit the streets and have a burden for those who have yet to be reached. You, dear pastor, take the lead.

Secret is getting in the habit

In 1979, we called a new music minister to First Baptist Church, Fort Payne, who happened to be my age, and we became lifelong friends. He started a Sunday School class that became very popular and challenged all the class to begin a daily devotional if they didn’t already have one.

I was pretty lax at that time, trying to have a quiet time every evening but between job, marriage and a soon-to-be-born son it was hard. The teacher recommended Moody Bible Institute’s Today in the Word, and I signed up for the mailing.

I will be 72 in July, and I can count on the fingers of one hand the days I’ve missed opening my Bible and Today in the Word every morning since then. It has become such a habit that I automatically turn to it (online now) as soon as I pour my orange juice (and unfortunately take my pills now). It is short, but offers opportunities for more study if I have time and desire, and I guess that’s the secret to my devotion to my devotional — getting in the habit.

I have a weekly Bible study with men in the community from a variety of faiths (suspended temporarily) and study material for the class I now teach along with other readings from Scripture, but my early morning Bible reading is my anchor. I can’t imagine starting a day without it. Evening Bible reading is fine, but first thing in the morning before life gets in the way is better for me.

I recommend it.

Bill Mitchell
Fort Payne, Ala.

Our silence is deafening

Far too long, we as white Christians have not done all we should in support of our black brothers and sisters.

In all honesty, many of us have African-American friends, and we see them no differently than any of our other friends. Therefore, it is difficult for us to understand how they feel, but we need to wake up and take their cries of injustice seriously. Our silence is deafening to them.

It is a crucial time for the Church to mobilize in the power of the Holy Spirit, reaching across the ethnic lines to lift the suffering of our brothers and sisters. The Father has given us another opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others for the sake of the Kingdom.

As we join hands with our African-American brothers and sisters, we “stand under” and lift with them the cross of their suffering. In so doing, we expose the beauty of the gospel of Christ.

A unified Church from every tongue, tribe and nation is a glorious sight that Christ works through to burst forth and dispel the darkness in a lost and dying world. Let us extend our hands across racial lines and take a stand in both words and deeds. May God alone receive all the glory.

— Rob Jackson

Thomas Jefferson
U.S. president 1801–1809
Author of Declaration of Independence

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” —1776

“Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment … inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose.” —1786

“Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education & free discussion are the antidotes of both.” —1816

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“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

Sometimes we think we’ll become useful “someday” because we are challenged by the events in our world today. But the secret to making a difference is to do something now.

Think of some little change you can make in your routine or a small improvement you can try at home.

Tuck your preschooler in with prayer. Post a Bible verse on the refrigerator each week to memorize. Hug your family each day. Make one night a week a screen-free evening — no television, phones or computers.

Jot a note of encouragement to someone who is alone or ill. Send your church staff an email of appreciation. Thank those around you who are working on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic with a smile and a thumbs up. Seek out opportunities where you can make a difference in someone’s life.

David Jeremiah
Pastor and radio host

We must ask each pastor and each church to work even harder to love one another. The world needs to see all of us loving one another, sincerely and honestly. We may not be able to change the world, but we can make our communities safer places for all of the image-bearers of God.

Marshal Ausberry
SBC first vice president

Years ago, John Piper wrote a book to pastors titled “Brothers, We Are Not Professionals.” It reminded me that pastors have some responsibility for the crude, business-only-like way we are sometimes treated by deacons and personnel committees. When we pastors treat ministry like just another job, we cannot complain when we get treated like a hired hand.

Chris Crain, executive director
Birmingham Metro Association

All of the signs are here. We are in the last days of the rapture. I want all of our children to be caught up with us. Once they reach the age of accountability, if they have not accepted Christ at the time of the rapture, they will be left behind. Do you want this?

Kent Owen
Phil Campbell, Ala.

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From the Twitterverse

@jdgreear
Thankful that @SBCCP leadership stands united in the need for prayer, justice and action during these difficult days. #GeorgeFloyd

@MattMason3
A good news church says, “You’ve suffered this week and we have an unshakable hope to offer you. You’ve sinned this week and we have a gospel, a Savior with open arms.”

@revandyfrazier
Worship that costs nothing is worth nothing. Sacrifice and worship go hand-in-hand.

@AdamGreenway
“Why is it that for some people, there’s never enough time to do it right but always enough time to do it twice?” — Various I’m sure, but I’ll attribute to @RandyStinson #PointToPonder #Leadership

@PaulTripp
When you create something, you design it with a purpose in mind. The foundational question of life is, “Why did God make me?”

@MattSmethurst
Not sure there’s ever been a more humbling season. I pray all pastors and churches are humbled at the opportunity to reopen and regather.

@FollowRadical
“My prayer is that instead of a local church trying to create a brand, the church would become all that Jesus prayed for it to be so that all nations would be discipled for the glory of His name.” — Jeff Lewis

@tonymerida
Praying for pastors across America today. Never a better time in my lifetime to be a pastor. Conflicts are opportunities for growth and change and revival. America needs the church, a biblical church not a political church. Lead with courage and wisdom and grace today.

@brocraigc
“One sign you’ve encountered God is you walk with a limp, not a strut.”

@edstetzer
You can simultaneously speak out against systemic racism and about looting and violence. Evangelicals sometimes struggle with the former but demand the latter. Followers of Jesus can do both.