One of my uncles recently asked me how my studies were going at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a former Baptist who now is part of an independent Bible church in Arkansas. I told him things were going well and that I really liked where the seminary was at. He asked what I meant, and I told him that the institution as a whole had become more conservative. He further asked what I meant by that and I don't feel like I gave him a good answer. I said something along the lines of it being more committed to the testimony of the Scriptures, meaning it was more theologically conservative on some important issues.
This week I heard of a friend of mine who has been in church for years and just became a Christian late in life. She is a wonderful, fun, loving, caring wife, mother, grandmother, and even great-grandmother. The times I have been around her she has truly been a joy. He concern has been that she has simply not been good enough. One of my other friends has been teaching Paul's book of Galatians to her. Through his teaching and their wrestling through the good news of the Gospel of Grace she was converted. It has been a great source of joy for me and her evangelist seeing God work in her life.
I have also recently read of the story of John Wesley. This summer Kristen and I got to see where Rev. Wesley is buried and where he studied at Oxford. Wesley was a true Christian hero and had a great impact on not only American Christianity, but on America itself. I read how Wesley had started "Holy Societies" in Oxford and around England, was an ordained Anglican minister, was raised in a church going household where his father was a minister, and had been a missionary to the colony of Georgia AND YET WAS NOT TRULY CONVERTED! It was not until Wesley came in contact with the German Moravians that he was truly converted!
How could Wesley go through all that church and not have a correct understanding of the Gospel? How can my friend have been in a Presbyterian church her whole life and then at the end be worried that she has not been good enough? What was wrong in the church in Wesley's day and still in our day?
The most glaring problem of the American church continues to be that it is not clear enough and doctrinally sound enough with the Gospel.
This problem is directly connected to the battle of conservative evangelical Christianity with moderate and liberal Christianity. At its core it is a Gospel issue.
Churches that are more conservative in their Bibliogy and Theology will have a better understanding of the Gospel. The battle over the authority of the Bible and for conservative evangelical theology is essentially a fight for the Gospel of Grace through Faith in Christ. It is the battle for the historical Reformed calls for Scripture Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, and Christ Alone.
If you are in a church were people have sat there for years and think they have to be good enough to enter into heaven, then run your pastor off. If you are in a denomination that is filled with people who are trying to be good enough and the grace of Galatians is not taught then reform it. If you are a minister and do not understand the importance of what I am talking about or are not weekly preaching a gospel of grace then quit and go sell cars.
Last night I was holding Mason and thinking about this reality. I promised him that as his father and his pastor he would grow up in churches that clearly teach the gospel. The churches I pastor will be churches where the gospel of grace is clearly and constantly taught.
P.S. Since I reference Mason at the end I thought it gave me license to post another picture of him. This is a proud Poppa with his son watching his first Dallas Cowboy game.
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