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  • Sow, Grow, and Harvest: How Churches Might be doing the Great Commission wrong (PART 3)

    Part 3 of 3: The Harvest I'll admit, since starting this series, I've been struggling with what specifically to write when it came to the Harvest. The reason is I had two equally apt concepts for what 'harvest' could mean in terms of the Great Commission, but all the things I could say about either of them could, as I mentioned in post one, take up an entire book. Heck, it could take up multiple volumes of books. I didn't want to get bogged down here as my objective is to give simple, concise, and very practical exhortations to churches and church leaders and Christians in general to follow the Great Commission in the way I believe Christ intended. Because of that, I'm leaving the second concept (Heaven) out of this discussion entirely and focusing more specifically on 'Harvest' as part of making disciples. A refresher on the Great Commission before we get started. 16  Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  18  Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  19  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  20  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 16-20 NIV) In the first post of this series, we discussed Sowing (evangelism). In Part 2, we talked about Growing (discipleship). So, what, within the context of this passage, could constitute the 'Harvest'? To ease into that, let me first tell you about a boss I used to have. I Must Decrease... I once worked for a medical examiner (I won't name names) who always exhorted his investigators to carry themselves like the smartest people at a given death scene. To him, we were more educated, more experienced, and more knowledgable than any police officer or detective in any of the law enforcement agencies we worked with. Commendable, right? It would have been, except for how he acted when those same police officers and detectives came to view autopsies. When they came to autopsies, these detectives, in his mind, better address all their questions directly to him. If they so much glanced at one of the investigators while asking a question, he would grow incensed. He would hurl sarcastic comments toward them. On a few occasions, he would openly berate them for addressing their questions of the wrong person. He'd instantly forget that he'd instructed his investigators to foster an air of expertise toward these officers, which would naturally encourage them to ask the investigators (lay persons who could speak the same language with them as opposed to strange esoteric medical jargon). But the doctor's (God bless him. I miss him despite all this) pride would invariably be hurt by what he perceived to be this slight...this insult. To this doctor, he was always the smartest person in any room and he wanted everyone to know it. Yes, while we were at scenes, his investigators certainly were to be the smartest people there. But if he was present, it should, in his mind, always be understood that he took the crown of smartest and brightest. With this illustration I just told you, can you guess what the 'Harvest' in the Great Commission is? Take a look specifically at the last part of verse 18: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." In this verse, we see that Jesus proclaims He has the ultimate authority over all creation. However, in Luke chapter 9, as Jesus prepares His twelve Apostles to go on their first solo missionary trip, He shares this same authority with them. Later, when He appears to the disciples after His resurrection, He seems to continue this trend of sharing His authority with them. In John 20, He says this: 21  Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22  And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23  If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (NIV) [Side Note: I do not believe this authority to forgive sins is given to ALL Christians. In truth, I don't think it was given to any Christians outside His Apostles. But I mention it for the following points.] So, what is the Harvest? Easy. First, we introduce Christ to others. Second, for those who believe, we are tasked with discipling. And finally, we are to raise these new Christians up in hopes that they will be even wiser, more faithful, and more mature than we are as we send them out into the world. John the Baptist proclaimed at the baptism of Christ, " He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30 NASB). Naturally, John didn't have the same authority as Jesus had, nor did he have the same authority that Jesus's disciples would be given, but he understood wholeheartedly that for the Kingdom to grow, the next generation of Christians need to be better, more full of the Holy Spirit, and more faithful than ourselves. In practical terms, what does this harvest look like? How does it work? We Reap What We Sow... In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I was fortunate enough to attend and serve at First Baptist Church of Middleburg in Middleburg, Florida. It was a good-sized church, but not huge. The pastor there was dynamic. His sermons were biblically sound, encouraging, and at the same time, often stepped on toes (I walked out more than a few times with sore feet!). As this pastor continued to minister, the church grew by leaps and bounds. The more people, the more needs that needed to be met while simultaneously providing more resources in which those needs could be ministered to. The pastor there recognized his greatest commodity within that congregation: the congregation itself. He intentionally began investing time and energy into specific people. He discipled them. He would match other people to disciple younger Christians as well. He placed specific individuals in highly specific roles throughout the church. This particular person, he felt, should be teaching this particular age group. This other person would do well serving in this ministry. And as the church grew, more and more people were finding very apt positions within its ministries and people (not just the church itself) began to grow. I'll admit, I didn't always agree with this pastor's decisions on everything, but he had truly been given a gift of discernment and a heart for discipleship that is rare in our world today. And his "hunches" regarding ministry placement paid off. Before he left FBC Middleburg to move to a different church back in the mid-2000s, I saw more people in the congregation surrender to full time Christian ministry than any other church I've ever been part of. I'm not entirely sure how many people went to seminary in my nearly ten year tenure there (including myself), but the numbers were staggering. See, this pastor understood that he needed to decrease in order for his congregation to increase. In order to have a thriving church, he knew the people that went there had to find their place. And that was a major priority throughout his ministry there. And by the way, I haven't even touched on the huge number of people who didn't surrender to vocational ministries, yet found a very specific calling as a lay minister within the community in some form or another. That, in my opinion, is the Harvest in relation to the Great Commission. Sowing the seeds. Growing the blooming plants. And sending the harvest into the world to feed people in physical, emotional, and spiritual need wherever they happen to be. That, my friends, is the end game in our earthly ministry. If two parents have a baby and do not nurture, protect, and raise it, are they really parents? No. In fact, most of us would call them monsters. If parents raise their children up to a certain point...to where they're able to walk, talk, read, and write and then abandon them to fend for themselves while still being far too immature to survive, are they any better? Most of us would say no to that as well. No, a parent is expected to raise their children to become completely independent of them. Most parents hope for their children to far surpass them in life, in fact. They hope their children have a much more prosperous and satifying life than they had had. So should spiritual parents be any different? Should those we lead to Christ or those we disciple be left out in the cold once they're baptised and have gone through a few Bible studies with you? As my favorite New Testament professor was always fond of saying in Koine Greek, " Me genoito !", which means (and is often seen in a bunch of Paul's writings, "May it never be!"). The whole point of discipleship is the Harvest. It's the sending our grown spiritual children out into the world to feed the nations. It's preparing them to be far better ministers than we ever were. It's praying for them constantly even after they've left the spiritual nest. In fact, even after the harvest, we should always be there for them. We should never stop discipling them. I'll close this post out by telling you to one of the most influential people in my life. His name is David Garrett (and his wonderfully warm, loving, and compassionate wife, Donnie) and he was my youth minister for my final year of high school (I moved to Florida my senior year, so I only got to have him as a youth minister for that single year). But this wonderful godly man is still very much in my life. He's my got-to guy when I'm in need of spiritual counsel or just plain old advice. He gave me my charge at my ordination to become an official minister. He still checks in on me frequently. I know he prays for me. He's watched me grow and mature over the years. He's encouraged me throughout my entire life, no matter how wild and twisty my ministries have gone. Rarely did he ever criticize my decisions, but instead did everything he could to guide me when I seemed to get lost. He still does that, even though I was harvested from his official care decades ago. You see, even though the harvest leaves the fields to go to market, the farmer still has a responsibility to see it gets their safely. The farmer still has the responsibility to see to it that it gets to where it's going. So, as we disciple our spiritual children...as we grow them, nurture them, and send them on their way to do the same with their own spiritual children, let's never forget (and this is where the metaphor loses traction, but that's okay) that our harvest will always be in our care. Until Kingdom comes, they are our responsibilities. Let's raise them up to surpass us in every way. Let's make sure our harvest is more fruitful and abundant than we ever dreamed of!

  • Sow, Grow, and Harvest: How Churches Might be doing the Great Commission wrong (PART 2)

    Part 2 of 3: Growing Revivals. They were a big deal when I was growing up in a Southern Baptist church. I could count on one happening at least once per year. If I was lucky, we'd have one 5-day revival in the summer and maybe a shorter two or three day one later in the fall. The church would hire an evangelist to come and for five nights out of the week, we'd have worship service with some mighty good, fiery preaching. We'd get excited. Many people would meander up to the front of the church near the altar during the invitation. For those who don't know what an "invitation" is, it's just a less fancy, Southern Baptist word for "altar call." It's the time when, if the Holy Spirit has moved you during the worship service, you're supposed to come up and talk to the preacher about it. If you feel like you need to get saved, that's the time to do it. If you want to "rededicate" your life (for Christians who have backslidden), you can do that too. If you just need to pray, you can kneel down at the stage steps and do that. Revivals were always very emotional times. The preacher's handkerchief would always be soaked from where he'd been dabbing the sweat from his forehead. Faces throughout the congregation would be streaked with tear stains. And everyone would be quietly reflecting on where they stood in relation to Christ. As a kid, I loved Revivals. They were big deals, and of course, an opportunity to get to spend every evening of a given week with my church friends. But when I reflect back on these big events, I'm left with a series burning question: Can a church "schedule" a real revival? Was it all just theatrics? Was the Holy Spirit really moving in the place or were emotions so overly charged by the sermon, that people felt compelled to act with or without God's nudging? And if they acted without God's nudging, could their decisions have been authentic? Truth is, no, a church cannot "schedule" a revival. Revivals are something only God can ordain. But for the purposes of this blog post, that's not the big problem here. The real problem is the nomenclature. The word "Revival" itself. Through most of the twentieth century, the American church (at least, the Southern Baptist denomination anyway) came to think of Revivals as big evangelistic campaigns. As I mentioned in the first part of this blog series, it was "Invite your friends and family to church and let the preacher win their souls" events. But let's think about that for a moment? Let's consider the word itself: Revival. First of all, I think it's important to know that as much as I researched Scripture, I could find no mention of the word in the Bible (at least within the context of what we're discussing here). Now that doesn't mean "revivals" are unbiblical. After all, the word "rapture" isn't used in the Bible either, and yet it clearly teaches such an event will transpire (although the point in time it will happen is open to interpretation). I suppose one might say that the day of Pentecost, as described in Acts 2:1-4, could be the very first reference to a revival as it has come to be known. I'd argue they'd be wrong about that and here's why... What does the word "revival" mean, exactly? Well, it means to "revive," right? That implies that something was once alive (animated, awake, active) but somehow now has grown dormant (dead, asleep, vegging), so we've got to wake it up again. I suppose you could technically say that an Unsaved person is spiritually dead and a Revival brings them to Life by being born again, but I don't think that's what the word, in a proper theological context means. Time and again, when we see examples of God-ordained revivals in history, it's always in relation to His Church. To His Bride. Yes, there have been spiritual awakenings historically (I'm thinking Charles Spurgeon and a Great Spiritual Awakening in 19th Century England) where thousands of people have come to know Christ in a miraculous way. But I've got a theory about Revivals. Just as I said in the previous post that churches are for Believers...for the saved...so too are revivals. Revivals...true revivals...are when a sleepy, almost dead church suddenly and inexplicably explodes with renewed life. It implies that a Christian has grown stale. Lukewarm. Even cold. And God moves in their lives (or in multiple lives within a geographic area) to warm them again. To light a fire under them. To bring their relationship with God even closer than it has been before. I think it's part of the sanctification process (the process in which Christians, over the span of their lives, are gradually being moulded into the image of Christ). You might be asking yourself, "What does any of this have to do with part two of your 'Sow, Grow, and Harvest' explanation of the mistakes the church is making in regards to the Great Commission?" To that, I say everything . You see, in the last post, I talked about our mandate to sow seeds. I talked about how we're not responsible for whether those seeds find fertile soil or not. That's God's responsibility, not ours. We're just supposed to toss out those seeds as we move along the field. Then, like any good farmer, we wait. We see what blooms. Then, it's our job to help nurture those blooming plants. It's our job to help grow those plants. And that, my friends, is probably the greatest failure of the modern American church today. We are so focused on "winning souls" (once again, I cringe to even type that phrase)...in having big old publicly visible revivals (Hey! Look what God is doing at our church? He's really moving! People are getting saved left and right!), we forget one crucial thing about the Great Commission. Jesus never said, "As you are going, evangelize and win souls..." No, he said, "As you go, make disciples." That's the goal, friends. Disciples. Not numbers. Not statistics. Not the highest attendance your church has ever seen in its history. We are called to make disciples. Now making disciples always starts with the same step: sowing. You can't have a disciple of Christ if they're not a believer in Christ. So, yes, evangelism is definitely a huge part of the Great Commission. But in my experience--from what I've seen of so many churches during my life time--once these souls come to know Christ, pastors/preachers/ministers/etc move on to the next big revival event they've got scheduled and the newborn babes in Christ are left out in the cold to fend for themselve and most likely, spiritually starve. A real world example of this? When I was in seminary, a required course we all had to take was F.A.I.T.H., at the time, the Southern Baptist Convention's premiere evangelistic strategy that was designed so regular folks could easily share the gospel (FYI, as someone specifically called to evangelism, I despised this approach as it sounded so much like a used car salesman pitching a clunker). But whether I liked it or not, I had to take the course. And part of that course was cold knocking on doors to offer the F.A.I.T.H. presentation to whoever would give us the time. One Saturday, my team visited about twenty or twenty-five houses. We presented the gospel to about eleven of these households. Not one of them prayed to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior, which was perfectly fine. We reported back to the seminary about these presentations. And to my knowledge, there was never any follow up with any of these visits by the seminary or any local churches. It was a numbers game. We were planting seeds to as many people as possible within the Wake Forest community and trusting God to take care of the rest. But this is where the church (not just the Southern Baptist Convention) is failing miserably. You see, the Great Commission has another mandate. Thankfully, Baptists tend not to forget this one, but afterwards...crickets. But the second part of the Great Commission, Jesus tells the Apostles to make disciples of all nations..." baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Matthew 28:19 (NASB). Baptism is the first step in making disciples. Billy Graham said that baptism is the "first sermon a Christian ever preaches." It's also a kind of covenant between the new Christian and the local church. A church that baptizes a new believer is saying, "We're committing to take you under our wing and raise you up as a mature believer...a mature disciple." Once again, Billy Graham understood this as well. He said, " I believe in it [believer's baptism] wholeheartedly. In our crusades we don’t baptize because we feel that this should be done by the local pastors—and that if I baptized, some people would say they had been baptized by me, and that would be putting the emphasis on the wrong person. To one who has received Christ, baptism is a necessary and meaningful experience. But, I must say with Paul: ‘Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel’.” Rev. Graham understood that a local pastor should baptize new believers so that they could shepherd and grow them personally. Within the Southern Baptist denomination, we've got the believer's baptism thing down pat (for the most part). It's everything afterwards I think we drop the ball on. It's the growing and nurturing of these young Christians that we are neglecting. And friends, before you turn to your pastor and blame him for anything, we should look in the mirror at that big plank in our eyes first. Yes, it is the pastor's specific job to disciple his flock. To nurture them. To grow them. To feed them from God's holy word. But just as evangelism is every Christian's mandated responsibility, the Great Commission command of "making disciples" speaks to all of us. Every single beleiver. We're not just supposed to sow those seeds. We're supposed to help grow the plants that take root and begin to blossom. We should take responsibility in these new believers the same way a parent takes care of their own child. We're to feed them. We're to watch over them. Keep them from putting their little hands on a hot stove when the need arises. Teach them to walk, then run. We're to take them and mentor them and help them on their way to having the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5). We shouldn't wait for our church to do it. We shouldn't wait for our pastor to do it or ask us to do it. We should look for the need and start discipling. It doesn't matter if you are the one specifically who led that person to Christ (there's no way Billy Graham could have possibly discipled everyone that came to Christ through his messages), find your spiritual orphan and invest in them. Pray for them. Teach them. And guess what! You don't have to do it alone. Get together with a few of your mature Christian friends and team up to disciple these people. The amazing thing is, the more you do this, the more people see you doing this. The more people seeing you doing this, the more people will disciple other new Christians in need. And before you know it, your church might just see a real revival going on like you've never seen before! Come back soon for Part 3: The Harvest! Oh, this is the most exciting one yet! You won't want to miss it.

  • Sow, Grow, and Harvest: How Churches Might be doing the Great Commission wrong (PART 1)

    Recent trends suggest that modern churches are dying. Can it be because of improper application of the Great Commission? PART 1 of 3: Sowing I have very fond memories of going to church when I was a child. Memories of my mom dressing me in my Sunday finest, hopping in the car, and going to the church my extended family attended as well. There are stories of me running up on stage while the music minister swung his hands to keep the church in tempo and I would mimick him to the chuckles and adoration of the congregation. And don't think the pastor got off easy either. Nosirree. When he got up to preach, I was often right there beside him, shouting my own 5-year-old rendition of 'Hellfire and Brimstone'. I loved going to church. It's the place I felt most at home. Such warm memories. I recall often sitting in the pew next to my mom or Grandmother, coloring in a coloring book or whatever they gave me to do so I wouldn't fidget (or run back up onto the stage) and would invariably be distracted from my coloring when an elderly deacon would poke his head through a door at the front of the sanctuary and fidget with the church's 'Attendance' board. I'd watch as he quietly did this, then I'd study the board intensely to see what it said. When I got to the point of understanding numbers and what the Attendance board was all about, I became even more fascinated. "Oooh, we're up from last Sunday," I'd think. "We went from 120 to 124 this week. That's great!" And so, the unofficial ritual would replay over and over throughout my life. Deacon pokes his head in. Adjusts the number cards in the slots on the board. And voila! I'd know how many people were in attendance at Sunday School and church. I'd even have a rough estimate of that week's tally of tithes and offerings...often as high as a few hundred dollars! (It was the 1970s and it was a very small church.) It wasn't until I was much older...and out of seminary...that I began to question this practice. Oh, don't get me wrong. Counting attendance isn't wrong by any stretch. Numbers are a good indicator of the effect a local church is having on their community. And it's a fair indicator of where a church's congregation is spiritually as well or how best a church can meet certain needs. But as I pondered the modern day church's obsession with attendance figures and what's often dubbed "High Attendance Sunday", I began to see a disturbing issue with the way the Great Commission has evolved within the American church over the course of the 20th Century. The Great Commission If you're not sure what the Great Commission is, you're either not a believer or you're not studying the Bible enough or you're going to the wrong church (seriously, if your pastor/minister isn't telling his congregation about this mandate to the followers of Christ, find another church). But let me give you a refresher. 16  Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18  Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 16-20 NIV) This account occurs after Christ's resurrection and just prior to His ascension to Heaven. He told his closest disciples to meet him in the mountains for His final instructions to them. Once they got there, they worshipped Him. A few had their doubts (the Bible doesn't tell us what those doubts were exactly, although there are indicators in other places...a topic for another discussion though). After things settled down, Jesus proceeded to commit these disciples to a specific purpose. First, He authorizes them. It's sort of like deputizing them, I guess. He gives them authority in both earth and heaven to carry out His mission for them. Now to me, this is a pretty big deal. Christ is basically giving the disciples the keys to the family car that will drive the world to the Kingdom of God. The disciples (soon to become the Apostles) had full authority to do what needed to be done (within God's will, of course) to advance the Kingdom. That's a pretty big superpower, right there, if you ask me. Next comes the mission. "Therefore go..." In Koine Greek, the phrase is best translated "As you go..." or "as you are going." The assumption, of course, is that Christ's disciples are going . Where are they going? Wherever God sends them. Whether to Russia on a mission trip (like I did back in 2006) or to the local grocery store. Christians are always going somewhere. So, "as we go..." To continue, Jesus says as you are going, "make disciples of all nations." So, as we go, we are to make disciples. We are to make disciples wherever we go. Sow, Grow, and Harvest I've identified three major aspects of what it means to 'make disciples' and have dubbed them "sow, grow, and harvest" to stick with the numerous farming analogies Jesus used throughout his ministries. The first part of making disciples is 'sowing'. Or, sowing seeds. Just casting out seeds along the field in hopes that some might take root. In other words, evangelism. Or sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. This first blog post of this series is focusing on sowing and how how the churches might (I say 'might' because I'm sure this isn't true for all of them) just be focusing on the wrong things when it comes to evangelism. Now, I'm going to pause right here and share my thoughts on the really big no-no I see the American church doing today in its focus on High Attendance Sundays and bringing our friends to church, etc. First of all, Jesus didn't say, "As you go, invite people to the Synagogue so your rabbi can share my Good News." No, the assumption of this imperative statement ("As you go, make disciples ...") is that every individual disciple will be going somewhere and as we go, every individual disciple is to make new disciples. This mandate isn't just for your pastor or minister. It's for you and me. It's for all of us as individual Christians. To pass the buck onto our ministerial staff is to shirk our responsibilities and the blessings that come with following Christ's commands. This might hurt some feelings here, but your local church is NOT Ground Zero for evangelism. As a matter of fact, corporate church services are not for the unsaved at all. We've got to get that out of our heads. We've got to stop designing our worship services, sermons, etc under some coolness umbrella to attract the unsaved. No more of this "come as you are" mentality. In fact, "come as you are" is contrary to biblical teachings of worship. We are to prepare ourselves. We are to be in the right frame of mind. We are to be focused on Christ. There are so many other things we need to do to prepare for corporate worship, yet it's a topic big enough for its own blog post(s). Point is, Church services are a time for believers to come and worship God in corporate unity while being discipled and fellowshipping at the same time. The Church (with a capital C) is every believer as a whole. The 'Bride of Christ'. The church (lower case C) is a gathering place for the Church, not the Unsaved. Sure, the Lost should be made to feel welcome if they come, but they won't quite understand it. They won't experience the moving of the Holy Spirit that only comes through corporate worship because the Holy Spirit does not indwell them as He does us. But they might pick up a thing or two and the way they're treated will have a huge impact on their openness to hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. But church services should not cater to them. It is first and foremost a place of worship and discipleship. So, what about the unsaved? How are they supposed to hear the gospel, if not at church? Did you not read that "...as you go..." part? You. Me. We. They. All of us. I've seen a few churches that have signs posted as you're exiting the building that read "You are now entering the Mission field." That is a hundred percent right. I can't speak to whether these churches practice this, but the spirit of those signs is absolutely correct. We, individually and in groups, are to share Christ wherever we're going. That means when we sit down to eat at a restuarant. When we're sitting at a traffic light. When we go to work. Wherever we are, that's our mission field. That's where God has sent us. And by the way, that 'traffic light' thing? No, you're most likely not going to be able to verbally share the gospel with someone sitting in your car (unless someone is in the car with you), but our testimony is nonverbal as well. How we behave ourselves while others are watching is just as important as the words we speak. That resturaunt you go to after church? How well do you treat your waitress? How demanding are you? How dour? How cheap or generous are you with their tips? Believes me, these waiters and waitresses know the Sunday church crowd when they see them. How you treat them will go a long way in forming or cemented their opinion about the Church with a capital C. Be mindful of that. The thing we need to understand is that the world is our mission field. It's our crop field. And as we meander through that field, we need to be tossing those seeds and seeing which one sticks, takes root, and begins to grow. Remember (and if you take anything away from this post, this is the point you should incorporate most in your life), it's our job to sow those seeds. It's not our job to make sure they find fertile soil. It's not our job to bring them to life. It's not our job to "win" souls. That phrase always bugged me. We're not the ones winning souls. That's solely God's job through the person of the Holy Spirit. Our job as believers who make disciples is merely to witness. To offer our testimony. To share with the world what Jesus has done for us. For them. How He's changed our lives for the better. How He's offered a way out of their enslavement to Sin and a way into God's loving arms. We're witnesses. Like in a court room. A witness's job isn't to convince the jury of anything. A witness's job is merely to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Then allow the Advocate (Christ) to convince the jury. Do you understand what that means? It takes the pressure totally off us! No need to fear. No need to be afraid you won't know what to say or you might mess up. All that is required of us is to share the good news of Jesus Christ to anyone who will listen! We don't have to convince them. We don't have to debate or argue with them. We share. We wait. And we watch to see what the Holy Spirit does. And if that seed takes root...if something begins to blossom from that little seed you sowed, then...then, we move on to the "grow" portion of the Great Commission. And that's where we'll pick up next week! I hope you'll come back and learn more about the Great Commission and how the church can fix those issues of the past. Be sure to tell your Christian friends about this post as well. Share it with your pastor, your Sunday School group, and anyone else you think might benefit from it. And while you're at it, check out the new and improved website! And as always, be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think about all this.

  • Think of the Children!!! A Call to Action...Or 'The Potential Death of a Writer's Career'!

    Anyone who's been following my writing career over the years (since 2008) knows I have four big characteristics beyond anything else. I've struggled from Day 1 to define my brand. My niche. My identity as a writer. I've talked about this quite often in blog posts past. Starting out as a paranormal thriller author. Dabbling in fantasy. Moving onto mysteries reluctantly (and discovering I loved it). But despite relatively settling on the whole mystery author vibe, I still have an esoteric set of interests that can often conflict with that branding. I struggle with series. I simply have too many interests. Too many ideas flowing through my imagination-rich noggin. Too little time to spend on developing series on books that either just didn't sell well or I've simply lost interest in (most of the time, it's loss of interest in the characters themselves as I tend to be heavily focused on character more than story in most of my books). Because of this, I'd rather move forward! I'd rather press on to the myriad of other tales I have stewing than 'waste time' on writing books that might not sell well given the track record of the previous one. But as I know intellectually (and have been told counteless times by other writers) many readers, for better or worse, won't even start a book unless they know there are several books already written in the series. I'll get back this in a bit. I love kids. I know it's weird for a grown man with no children of his own to say in these days and times, but I really do love kids. It's why I can't wait every year for Christmas and the chance to be Santa Claus for them during our county Christmas party. I love the light in their eyes when they see me. I love the huge smiles. The energetic jumping when I...in my Kringle regalia...walk into the room. The innocence completely unencumbered by the weight of cynicism or an effort to appear 'cool'. And while I don't have children of my own, I have a strong strong strong desire to to turn my writing endeavors toward them in hopes of delighting them and fostering their wondrous imaginations! And the fourth characteristic of me...not just as a writer, but as a person...and by far most important of all, is that I'm an unapologetic Christian. Worse for many people, I'm a conservative Christian. A Baptist even! Gasp! An ordained Baptist minister no less. A bonafide preacher at times! I know those things can be anathema to some, but it's reality. I'm an author with a strong conservative viewpoint in theology, economics, and social issues. Although I do try to keep politics of any kind out of my writing...whether for grownups or kids. But my faith DOES inform every aspect of my life in some way, therefore, I'm sure it influences my writing as well. In fact, while only one or two of my books could be classified as 'Christian fiction' or Christian nonfiction (in case of my book 'I Died Swallowing a Goldfish and Other Life Lessons from the Morgue'), almost all of them have a biblical worldview of things in some way or another. At the very least, I strive very hard in each book I write to ensure I do not write anything contrary to Scripture or what might be considered a 'false teaching'. WARNING: This is where my writing career is potentially tanked by what I'm about to say. Potential triggers are likely. I say all this as a preface to the main crux of what this post is about. I've struggled with sharing this with ya'll. It really is potentially deadly to my career as a writer because I'm going to ruffle quite a few feathers. But the cold hard truth of the matter is, God won't let me alone about this. I feel that this is a calling from God in the purest and clearest of ways. In fact, I've not felt so certain about anything as I am that God is calling me to do this. It's horrifying, but here goes. Put simply, I want to write more Middle Grade fiction (i.e. stories for kids typically aged 9-12 (or tweens), although usually fun for ANY age). Here's the quiet part shouted out for all to hear: the publishing world today--whether you want to admit it or not--is pushing an agenda on our kids. A left-leaning agenda. A 'woke' agenda, if you will. Being a fan of many middle grade books myself, I see this all the time, so you can't deny it. It's happening. Now, let's be clear: if you don't mind your kids, students (if you're teachers), nieces/nephews, grandkids, etc being exposed to certain elements of our society (i.e. the sexualization of children), that's up to you. I'm not here to judge your values. And I'm not necessarily trying to say there needs to be a complete counter-balance to the left-leaning shift in kid's publishing either. The fact of the matter is, when I was a kid, I just wanted to be entertained. I wanted to play. I wanted to be a kid. I didn't want to be 'educated' about anything that wasn't in a textbook or basic school curriculum. If I read or watched a movie/TV show, I just wanted to veg and forget my troubles. I didn't want to be preached down to (one way or another). In effect, let's let kids be kids. Let boys climb trees and girls play with dolls (or if you had friends like me growing up, the girls could climb trees with the best of us!). At this age, kids aren't trying to figure out their identities. They're not worried about cultural norms. That shiny red fire engine from Tonka? It's just a fun toy to play with. Nothing more. Nothing less. But the publishing world (and much of academia) seems hell-bent on challenging these children to other pursuits and frankly, I'm tired of it. You might say, "But Kent, kid's books aren't preaching agendas to kids today. At least not by some menacing left wing agenda. They're not sexualizing them or trying to make them question their identities." Look, I won't argue with you on that. I guess, that's a matter of opinion. But unfortunately, I think kid's books today are bent toward a certain ideology that has no business in the world of children. What's more, I believe today's publishers are pandering to certain marginalized demographics at the expense and exclusion of the more traditional demographic (ironically, marginalizing children under a more traditional belief system). There's nothing inherently wrong with representing a marginalized group...if it's central and appropriate to the story itself. It's when it's done simply to HAVE a story about a marginalized individual for the purposes of pushing certain ideas that I take issue with. That's when it's preachy. That's when it's agenda. And once again, it makes the more common 'traditional' individuals feel that they're the odd person out (by the way, NO child (no matter where they may lie among the sociological spectrum) should ever feel they're the 'odd' one...let's set the record straight there). But kids shouldn't feel as if something is wrong with who they are simply because they happen to be part of a group considered 'traditional'. Look, I'm only saying that authors and publishers should focus on fun, entertaining stories for kids and leave the 'narratives' to the grown ups, if they feel so inclined. Unfortunately, I've spoken to a lot of parents about this issue and a vast majority of them truly have no idea what books their kids are reading (this seems more prominent within public schooled families than private or home-schooled ones). During a busy workaday week, many parents just don't have time to review the material their kids are absorbing (whether it's books, TV, or Internet stuff). Honestly, that's on them. It's their responsibility, not the school system or libraries or bookstores. But there's so much we can do to help these tired, overworked parents when it comes to their children's books. The Call to Action! Back in 2022, I released my very first middle grade mystery in this vein of providing stories to kids of a certain age without agenda or bias or some lesson they were to learn. Just a fun kid's mystery (or sort of Hardy Boys meets The Three Investigators meets Stranger Things) called 'The Mystery of the Undying Man'. It was supposed to be the first book in a middle grade 'The Grand Avenue Detectives' (which was rather semi-biographical for me with a heaping helpin' of ghosts, conspiracies, and mad science run amok). Truth is, it didn't do well at all. Even today, there are only 12 reviews for it on Amazon (although they're all quite positive reviews). But I was horribly disappointed in the sales for this book. As a matter of fact, just as my YA fantasy, The Legend of the Winterking, that also failed miserably...I wasn't just disappointed, I was devastated. I lost all interest in pursuing further books in either series. Time, as they say, heals wounds, however. It also provides invaluable insights into why some things we do fail. In this case, I realized that I'd approached the marketing the same way I approach my grownup books. But kids don't buy books in general. Their parents do. And parents can only buy books for their kids if they're aware of them. The only way many parents can even be made aware of non-agenda fun stories for their kids is if they're introduced to them by several different avenues: 1) school libraries, 2) school reading lists or book clubs, 3) homeschool organizations, 4) word of mouth by other parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles, and even teachers/librarians. As an indie author, let's face it: it's not easy to get a middle grade book into ANY of these things without having a large, far-reaching publisher doing most of the heavy lifting. But we've already discussed the leftist bent these publishers already have. If you don't believe me on this, check out any publisher website you can think of. Go to their 'Submissions Page'. Take a look (very carefully) at what they say. Invariably, most of the large publishers (whether adult or childrens) will preface everything by some variation of the following: "We give preference to stories and authors representing a marginalized aspect of society." Try being a white, heterosexual, CIS male trying to get a book published by one of the Big 5 publishers (or any number of smaller children's publishers) and see how far you'll get. [I told you this post might be a career killer!!! I'm stacking the firewood around my own heretic burning party right now!] Point is, a conservative Christian male author most likely will have to continue to publish solo if he hopes to keep his middle grade stories free and clear of a particular bias or agenda. So, if that's the case and if I'm going to succeed in this MG writing endeavor, I'm going to need your help. I don't expect everyone to appreciate what I've said in this post or what I'm trying to do. And that's fine. But for those who agree with me...for those who want to see kids have a choice in the types of things they read without fear of negative influences, listen up. Go to your school libary. Ask them to order The Mystery of the Undying Man (it's available through Ingram distribution, so all libraries should be able to get them). Go to your school's PTAs or English teachers and ask them to take a chance and place the book in the school's reading lists. Go to your local bookstore and ask them to stock it in the kid's section. Homeschool and have a local homeschool organization you belong to? Let them know about it as well. Right now, as it's my only MG novel, it's all I have to offer. But I promise you, more is coming. Coming very soon. And yes, that means book two of The Grand Avenue Detectives series (and a few other surprises down the road). I'm committed to this endeavor. I love kids. I want to make kids happy. Make them laugh. Entertain and thrill them. I want to do so without an agenda one way or another while also providing safe, clean reads. Yes, my books will have monsters in them (cartoonish monsters, of course). Yes, they'll have elements of fantasy or even horror. But I guarantee you they'll be safe for your kids to read. I've staked my entire writing career on letting you know this, so you know how serious I am about it. This is my promise to you: If you help me succeed with Middle Grade books, I promise your kids or grandkids or students won't be disappointed. What have you got to lose? Ways to help in Summary: Ask your school library to carry my middle grade books Try to get my books on school reading lists or book clubs Ask your local bookstore to carry them in their kids' sections Word of mouth, word of mouth, word of mouth! Share my MG books with your local homeschool or private school groups! Thanks for everything! And God bless! Addendum: For those curious, don't worry. While I will be focusing much of my attention on these middle grade (and I suppose maybe a few young adult) novels, I'm still going to pursue my grownup pulpy mystery stylings as well. I retire in just 17 months from my day job and anticipate being able to go full time writer when that happens!

  • Call to Worship: Submit to the potter's hands

    The Potter and the Clay, Part 1 Recently, there was a discussion on my Facebook page about the pros and cons of "dressing up" to go to the corporate worship of a church meeting. I'd posted a picture of myself in my Sunday best and commented that the "come as you are" approach is not only a disservice to us as growing Christians, but potentially unbiblical in terms of the focus of 'church' in general (I talked about this in my series 'Sow, Grow, and Harvest' a few weeks back, but it bears repeating: church services are not for the lost/unsaved. They are specifically for believers/followers of Christ). In the Facebook post, I focused more on the aspect of not dressing up to go to church anymore. I lamented this passe tradition for a number of reasons, but stressed how we, as believers, are required to prepare ourselves for worship. We'll get more into the specifics of the Bible's exhortations to prepare in next week's post, but for now, understand that this preparation is triune. We're to prepare our minds and our spirits, but we're also supposed to prepare our bodies. The body, I believe, is the link between both mind and spirit. Without it being prepared, the others will suffer. The response for this Facebook post was a mixed bag to say the least. There were excellent points made on both sides of this issue. But I found it oddly disquieting how loud and volatile those against such notions lit up my thread. I was familiar with each of these arguments before they even typed them because for most of my life, I'd been debating on their side over the same issue with my own mother. The most common protests regarding "dressing up" to go to church? God/Jesus doesn't care how we dress. What about poor people? Many can't afford to wear "Sunday's Finest." Dressing up makes one prideful. Pride is a sin in itself. Three good points. As far as point one, they are correct. Jesus doesn't care whether we dress in 100% silk Armani suits or ragged old potato sacks as long as our hearts are in the right place. As for point two, I believe they're making an assumption about the definition of our 'Sunday finest'. Not everyone's nicest clothes are created equal, and that's perfectly fine. Dressing in clothes purchased in a yard sale or through a charity shouldn't be a source of shame, especially if it's the nicest piece of clothing they might own. And pride? Well, if the act of dressing up to go to church swells a person's head and makes them feel superior to others, those people have spiritual deficits that should be addressed by those who love them. Their disciplers Their pastors. And rest assured, the Holy Spirit has a way of correcting such issues of the heart. Ultimately, like everything ever posted on social media, the knee-jerk reactions I received comes from an improper reading of the post itself and a gross misinterpretation of my intent. People see a post like this. They skim the words, but do not absorb what it's truly saying (or worse, they don't care), and then, for them, it's time to 'let slip the dogs of war'! So, let me exhort you now as you read the rest of this blog series: pay attention not just to the words I'm writing, but the intent. No, you can't read my mind, so you can't automatically know what that intent is. But you can figure it out based on context. Of course, if I'm completely wrong, I expect to be called out. I just ask you read this with an open mind and let everything process in that noggin of yours before you lash out. Give God time to speak to you. Be honest with yourself and try to set aside preconcieved notions and biases. If I don't change your mind at the end, that's fine. I'm just sharing what I've been convicted of and by no means imply that dressing up is a biblical mandate, because it's not. What is a biblical mandate, however, is submitting to Christ in everything. Dying to ourselves (our desires, wants, hopes, and preferences) and letting Him mold us like a potter with his clay. 18  The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2  “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3  So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4  But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. 5  Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 6  “Am I not able, house of Israel, to deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, house of Israel . (Jeremiah 18:1-6, NASB) Before we talk about clothing or worship or anything of the sort, it's important to address an issue that is grossly neglected in the modern church and soteriological (salvation) discussions. We talk about salvation all the time. We witness to people. We share the good news. That's great. Unfortunately, to avoid any notion of a works-based salvation, we tend to avoid a key element to how one gets saved. We forget the 'Lordship' of Jesus Christ. He's easily and most often referred to simply as Savior. And that's good that we do. But far more rare is His title as 'Lord' in evangelistic messages. Lord. Think about that word for a minute. To call someone Lord is to submitting to their ruling. Their whims. Their laws and rules. A Lord's subjects are completely dependent on him for food, protection, shelter. In exchange for these things, the serf or servant submits their will and become completely loyal to him. Question: What is God's purpose in saving us? If you say to ensure we spend eternity in Heaven, you're only getting a small portion of the big picture. You see, like the illustration in Jeremy 18: 1-6, all humans are born defective. We are marred and disfigured by sin. When we get saved, God takes ownership of us. He recognizes are defects and He begins the process of reshaping us. Making us into new vessels. Perfect vessels. Vessels worthy of being placed in God's presence. A clay pot cannot resculpt itself. That would be impossible. It needs the skilled hands of the potter to fix those chips and cracks. That disfigurement that makes the pottery useless. Even more, the potter doesn't simply 'fix' those things, he reshapes the pottery into an all new piece of art! And that's precisely what God is doing the moment we become followers of Christ. Have you ever thought about what it means to 'follow Christ'? Nowhere in Scripture will you find Jesus tell a sinner to "ask me to come into your heart as savior." Nowhere in the Bible will you find Him saying, "You're okay just the way you are. Just love me as I have loved you and you will be saved." Nope. Not going to find that anywhere. What you see time and time again--whether to the tax collectors, prostitutes, adulterers, and sinners of all kinds or the Pharisees, rich men, fishermen, etc--is Jesus saying, "Follow me." [For one rich man, He told him to sell all his possessions and follow Him (Matthew 19:21). Why do you think He did that for this particular man and not others?] What does Jesus mean by "Follow me"? What is He saying, when He tells the curious to follow Him? Is He saying, "Hey! I'm heading to the Decapolis. Why don't you follow me there and see what I'm going to do!" No, He's by no means implying the "follow me" is some temporary thing. The phrase is like an instructor telling his student to "watch what I do and do exactly what I do and say." By telling all these people to follow Him, Jesus was saying, if you want to be saved, you must become like me. You must die to yourself. Crucify your fleshly desires and selfish ambitions. In Galatians 5:24, Paul tells us: Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires . (NIV) The reason Jesus told the rich man to sell all his possessions and then follow Him is because He knew the man's attachment to His wealth would prevent him from submitting fully to Christ. Jesus doesn't want just some of us. Parts of us. He demands lordship. He demands sovereignty in order to reshape us. Mold us. Turn us into new, unmarred vessels. All too often, however, the modern church wants to skip this part in its evangelistic presentations and the repercussions are obvious. The Church has become full of people who say they're saved, yet show no fruit. It has become full of what's known as nominal Christians. Christians in name only, but who truly do not "follow Christ" in its biblical definition or are willing to let Him change and sanctify us. Not willing to let Him reshape us into new vessels as a potter does with broken or marred pottery. But Kent, you might be asking, what does any of this have to do with dressing up to go to church? What does this have to do with preparing ourselves for worship? How does any of this apply? First of all, it has everything to do with worship. After all, only those right with God will be heard by God, whether prayer or praise. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells His followers that if they go to the altar to leave an offering and someone has something against them, they are to first leave that offering at the altar and go and make amends. This is just one of many verses to show that someone not in the right frame of mind and spirit (or in a sinful state) cannot worship God effectively (Matthew 5: 23-24). Second, I left out one comment in that original Facebook post that was like a slap to my face and a wake-up call to me. The comment said something like this (I'm paraphrasing to protect the commenter): "I don't care what you say...I'll never dress up to go to church. I'm going to stay casual!" Translation: My comfort is more important to me. Interpretation of translation: I'm not willing to change for anyone...including Jesus. Am I being too critical? Judgmental? Maybe with the one who posted this example. But the sad truth is that the Church is full of such attitudes. We've catered our entire church organizations to encourage this attitude with our "Come as you are" mentality. No, there is nothing any of us can DO to be saved. It is purely by grace through faith. But if you say you want Jesus to "come into my life" and save you and aren't willing to give up your old life in exchange for a new purified vessel, is that salvation real? Food for thought. In preparation for Part 2 of this series (not sure how many of these there will be yet), take a look at the focal verse for our continued look at preparing for worship and meditate on it for a while: In Ecclesiastes 5:1, Solomon tells us: Guard your steps as you go to the house of God, and approach to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know that they are doing evil . In the meantime, God bless you all. I'm praying for each and every one of you.

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