I recently read a Facebook post (yes, this is often what stokes the fires of a blog entry, I confess) by a pastor whose stance on many things I’d genuinely appreciate, but whose stance on some others I really, really don’t. He is a brother who I believe truly seeks to please the Lord with his life, and I don’t doubt his sincerity or moral purity. He is “one of us,” as I confess his brotherhood and inclusion in the Kingdom, something he probably wouldn’t offer me. But this man posted something that reminds me of how easy it is for our zeal for “the right stuff” can cause us to pad the Bible with our own expectations and guidelines.
Oh, one of these blog posts, eh, Britt?
First, some background. This pastor preached a message today called “The Compromise Crisis.” He posted a quote of himself saying, “the church is losing its influence with [sic] the world because it has become impossible to tell them apart. There is an entire generation of children growing up that have NO IDEA [sic] what Old Time Religion [sic] looks like.” In this post, this pastor stated that “compromise” has resulted in a crisis of sorts, and he listed a few things that all ended with “down” that are symptomatic of compromise. Here’s his list, as follows:
- The Gospel has been watered down.
- Separation is played down.
- Discipleship has been dumbed down.
- Preaching has been toned down.
- Evangelism has been scaled down.
- Prayer meetings have been cut down.
- Bible college options have been narrowed down.
- Standards of any kind have been let down.
- Any mention of modesty is shot down.
- Men of God still preaching hard are knocked down, torn down or gunned down.
- Christians using their platforms to name sin have been shut down, chased down and put down.
- Old-time saints of God are worn down.
He then ended his post by saying, “Don’t tell me that the compromise of our day has not resulted in a crisis!” Now, while I do think there’s a lot of compromise happening in what calls itself Christianity today, I began to suspect that how this pastor would define compromise was much different than how I would define compromise. So I went to this pastor’s YouTube channel and listened to bits and pieces of the sermon itself. I wanted to know more before getting too picky.
The sermon itself
From the outset of his sermon (and again at about 41 minutes in), this pastor makes it clear that he’s talking about “our churches,” indicating that he’s not really addressing Roman Catholics or Mormons here. He’s concerned about other independent Baptist churches, and how they’re pretty much all compromising. And he’s here to sound the alarm, to “go on record” as he said, to “remove all doubts and let the devil know where we’re at.” Now, I’m not a huge fan of preaching to the devil, as I’d rather see pastors spend time carefully shepherding their flocks, but whatever. To each their own, I suppose. After reminding his church to give him feedback during his preaching and jokingly saying that he’d have the ushers let their air out of people’s tires if they got up and left, he began his sermon, which was a “passionate plea for God’s people to return to the old paths.”
Okay, again — to whom are you preaching, exactly? If you’re preaching to your church, why are you pleading with other pastors in other churches to get back to the old paths? I don’t understand this at all. Or rather, I do, and I just don’t like what you’re doing, because it’s pretty gross and quite an abuse of the sacred desk to use it as a bully pulpit to call out other pastors and preachers and churches and strawman them on a Sunday morning for amens and affirmations.
Anyhow, the pastor continued. “For those of you that don’t know me, I was saved at the age of four. I was raised in a Christian home. My parents were pastors and missionaries. My wife grew up in a pastor’s home. And I’m a fifth generation independent Baptist preacher. There’s nothing really that gets under my skin more than for a new convert or for a a a young preacher boy in his 20’s that’s halfway through Bible college trying to tell me what the old paths are and are not and what old-time religion is and is not. I think I’ve reached an age and a stage in my life where I maybe can have some say in what old time religion is. And because I’ve been around for a long time. Amen.” Again, to whom are you preaching? Do people in your church not know you?
Anyhow, after some egregious miscarriage of Scripture having to do with YHWH’s command to “remove not the ancient landmarks,” the pastor arrived at his thesis. He is “talking about a deterioration of lifestyle under the umbrella of Christianity.” Later on in his sermon, after excoriating people playing video games, he states “The compromises of our day [have] made compromise appealing, made it attractive. It’s cool to be a compromiser. It’s cool to trade your old King James Bible in for the ESV. It’s cool to get up and preach in your ripped-up blue jeans and your t-shirt. It’s cool to replace the piano and the organ with a rock band. It’s cool to turn the lights off and paint everything black and have a fog machine. It’s cool to post on your social media account that pastors and their wives can sit around sipping bourbon. Come on. It’s cool to tolerate the in and be inclusive and and be non-judgmental, of course, of everything, but people that are still in the old paths, obviously. It’s cool to invite in non-denominational pastors and women preachers. It’s cool. It slaps. It slaps. It’s fresh. It drips. It’s dope, bro.”
Ah, gotcha. So what we’re identifying as “compromise” is mostly clothing style issues, music instrument preferences, Bible versions, and enjoying bourbon once in a while (though I confess that the egalitarian issue can be rightly considered “compromise” within complementarian circles. Granted). Anyhow, after another rant (“Men that have no idea what they’re talking about do not get to tell me what I can talk about. I’m not one of the kids in their youth group. I’m not one of the preacher boys in their Bible college. I’m not the impressionable new convert listening to their podcast. I’m not a weak [insecure] mindless preacher buddy at your dinner table. I’m not a novice. I’m not a rookie. I’m a veteran. I got battle scars on top of battle scars. I eat napalm and gunpowder for breakfast.”), he winds down the sermon with an invitation while quoting the song, “Give Me That Old Time Religion.”
So that was that.
But what about the Facebook post you mentioned?
Interestingly, the sermon didn’t seem to contain the bullet-pointed list that the Facebook post proffered. However, it certainly went hand-in-hand with it, so I can see why he posted it alongside his sermon on social media. At this point, I want to take a look at this list and see what we can see when it comes to what this pastor calls “compromise.”
First, he states that “the Gospel has been watered down.” Okay, sure — that’s definitely happening in some places, no doubt. There’s Unitarian Universalist Churches that pray to Mother Gaia while they fly the trans flag outside that clearly aren’t preaching the Gospel. But remember — this isn’t who this pastor has in his crosshairs. He’s very likely more sighted in on the church down the road that doesn’t give an invitation at the end of their service or lead people through a “1-2-3 repeat after me”-style prayer. He’s almost certainly focused not on people who actually water down the Gospel, but rather on the people who don’t use the King James translation of the Bible. But I don’t want to spend too much time on this one — this one troubles me the least, really.
Next, he tells us that “separation has been played down.” Well, now, what does this mean? I agree in some ways that many churches aren’t as separated from the world as they should be (as a lot of church practices and performances do seem to veer well into a place where separation from the world is blurred), but as we learned from his sermon, the idea of “separation from the world” to this pastor doesn’t have as much to do with Biblical doctrine as much as it does with men wearing suits, women wearing dresses, folks singing only hymns accompanied by piano and organ, and — again — everyone reading from the King James translation of the Bible.
Next, we learn that “discipleship has been dumbed down.” See, I think this one is ironic, because I actually think the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement (generally speaking) doesn’t really have their collective minds wrapped around how the Bible portrays discipleship. I think that someone like John Mark Comer in his recent (and often heavily — and I mean heavily — maligned) book “Practicing the Way” has a much better handle on it, even if I do share some minor concerns with the book and its author. Growing up, it was “get saved, and then become a disciple, in that order.” What a tragic misunderstanding. But anyhow — I’m impelled to return to my oft-repeated question here: what does this pastor mean when he says this? It’s punchy enough to get an “amen” from a riled-up crowd or a “like” from a far-off fervent Facebook friend, but if one actually takes two seconds to slow down and think about what this means, it’s totally hollow without any sort of definition of terms or examples to help us understand what he means.
Next, we hear that “preaching has been toned down.” No, it hasn’t. What you mean is “preaching doesn’t involved as much shouting or sweat.” And frankly, I’m fine with that. If we were to spend time with Jesus on the shores of Galilee or in the hills of Judea, we’d probably find a wise, kind, authoritative, gentle voice speaking at normal decibel levels, even if projected a bit for a large crowd. We’ve got microphones today, folks. It’s going to be okay if we don’t get all red in the face. In all my years pastoring and preaching and teaching, I did get animated at times, but never to the point where folks thought I was angry or about to have a stroke. So, no — preaching hasn’t been toned down. It’s just become more like Jesus would do it, and that bothers you because it doesn’t fit into the “old-time religion” paradigm.
His next concern is that “evangelism has been scaled down.” No, not necessarily. While it’s possible that some churches are suffering from a far-too-internal focus, I don’t think you can make the case that the Independent Baptists aren’t evangelizing as much as they were. Instead, I think the method is changing, and like before, I think the method is changing to reflect more or less what it would have been on a day-to-day basis in the time of the disciples. So when you express concern about evangelism being “scaled down,” what you mean is “people aren’t going out door-to-door, knocking and handing out tracts and having people pray at the door” or “people are retiring bus ministries around the nation.” But that doesn’t mean people aren’t evangelizing.
Following this, we learn that “prayer meetings have been cut down.” I don’t mean to sound like I’m simply denying much of what this pastor is saying, but I really don’t know that this is the case. It may be, but I don’t have my finger on the pulse-beat of every Independent Baptist church. Maybe this pastor somehow does. But I think the opposite is more likely to be true, actually. As folks move toward a more small-group approach to doing life together as church families, many churches, including my own, are launching more ways for their people to pray together as a church and as small groups. Nonetheless, let’s say this is true. What does this have to do with “compromise” and “looking like the world?” I don’t really see the connection.
Next we hear that “Bible college options have been narrowed down.” Good.
The next concern on the list is that “Standards of any kind have been let down.” Wait, what? All standards? Any kind? This is silly. First, let’s define “standards.” What does this even mean? It’s far, far too vague to be helpful. But even if we were to define standards as suits, dresses, ties, skirts, KJVs, pianos, organs, and so forth, how does it follow that “standards of any kind have been let down?” This is just mashing that “amen” button as hard as possible in hopes that no one asks the question, “what do you mean by that? Can you give me some specific examples?”
Similar to this, we are told that “Any mention of modesty is shot down.” Again, what? Any mention of modesty? This is simply not true. What this pastor means is “people are not dressing in ways that I consider modest,” with a built-in definition of what “modesty” means. And here’s the ironic part of the whole thing — this pastor is one of the most immodest people I know. Not in clothing (though one could argue that flashy suits are, well, flashy), but in his speech. In his sermon, he bloviates and brags about how accomplished he is and his lineage as a Christian and how well he has it all together. Reminds me of the 1st-century Jewish religious leaders, to be frank. Not modest at all. So again, this pastor’s concerns have very little to do with modesty — they have to do with his personal preferences.
Ok, we’re getting to the end. He states, “Men of God still preaching hard are knocked down, torn down or gunned down.” I mean, that’s what Jesus said would happen. But you don’t mean that, do you? No, you mean that pastors who are “preaching hard” (read: being insufferable and cowardly jerks from the pulpit as they act more like Satan than Christ) are being fairly critiqued by people who are following Jesus best they can, or at the very least being rightly ignored. No one is knocking you down, tearing you down, or — God forbid — gunning you down, brother. They’re disagreeing with you while having Scripture to back it up, and you don’t like it. Case in point: in this blog entry, I’m not knocking you down, tearing you down, or gunning you down in any way. I’m writing a polemic, a critique of your post and your subsequent behavior because it is not Christlike. And here’s a fun twist — it’s interesting that you spent your whole sermon tearing others down and then pouting about it when it happens to you.
Next, we learn that “Christians using their platforms to name sin have been shut down, chased down and put down.” Well, maybe. If you’re talking about men like Mike Winger, who gets calumniated for rightly calling out and exposing sinful behavior among pastors who hide their sins and rip people off, then yes, I think you’re right, and it’s a bummer. But I don’t think you’re talking about that. I think you’re talking about you. You see yourself as a martyr, some sort of spiritual action hero who is doing his best to hold the standard high and keep those “ancient landmarks” of 20th-century fundamentalism exactly where you think they ought to be, and when folks see through the arrogance and foolishness and hypocrisy of it all and don’t want to listen to you, you play the victim. No one is shutting you down. If they were, I wouldn’t have been able to see your Facebook post or go to your website and listen to your sermon. Come on.
Lastly, he says, “Old-time saints of God are worn down.” Now, I don’t quite know what this has to do with compromise, but I think I largely agree, as long as I properly understand what you mean by “Old-time saints of God.” I think you’re referring to yourself and others like you, indicated by the use of the term “Old-time,” a term used to sanctify and venerate the highest order of religion in your circles and in your pulpit. So yes, folks of your ilk are worn-down. You’re outnumbered, and you’re dying off. And I wish you’d repent of your ways and follow Jesus the way he wants you to, but if you don’t, you’re going to meet him having missed a lot of opportunities to make a real impact on a lost and dying world.
Man, that was so long. No more, please
My conclusion is simple: if the act of leaving silly, foolish fundamentalist dogmas is “compromise,” then count me in as a compromiser. I don’t want to be associated with the harmful dreck that draws in unsuspecting but well-meaning followers of Jesus and traps them in an unbiblical mire of warped and distorted traditions of men, and drives away the rest. I’m happy to have compromised away from “Old Time Religion,” because it’s drawn me ever closer to the Risen Jesus every step of the way.
