Jeff Noble's Blog, page 26

Nuff Said: A porn queen and Christians; a nation of depression; glutton-free churches and more good news from around the net

[image error]Nuff said is a collection of posts/articles from around the web that has drawn my attention in the following ways:

Made me think
Made me wonder
Made me feel

Here’s what I’ve noticed lately:

Stormy Daniels vs. Trump — Here’s why conservative Christians are sticking with the president

by Marc Thiessen

No doubt some Christian leaders have gone too far in rationalizing Trump’s past personal behavior and excusing his offensive comments while in office. He is a deeply flawed man. But Trump does have one moral quality that deserves admiration: He keeps his promises.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump pledged to defend religious liberty, stand up for unborn life and appoint conservative jurists to the Supreme Court and federal appeals courts. And he has done exactly what he promised. The abortion-rights lobby NARAL complains that Trump has been “relentless” on these fronts, declaring his administration “the worst .?.?. that we’ve ever seen.” That is more important to most Christian conservatives than what the president may have done with a porn actress more than ten years ago.

Trump’s election came as religious liberty was under unprecedented attack. The Obama administration was trying to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to violate their religious conscience and facilitate payment for abortifacient drugs and other contraceptives. During oral arguments in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, President Barack Obama’s solicitor general told the Supreme Court that churches and universities could lose their tax-exempt status if they opposed same-sex marriage.

Hillary Clinton promised to escalate those attacks. In 2015, she declared at the Women in the World Summit that “religious beliefs … have to be changed” — perhaps the most radical threat to religious liberty ever delivered by a major presidential candidate.

We Are A Nation Of Depressed People. Let’s Stop Ignoring The Spiritual Roots Of The Crisis

by Matt Walsh

The suicide rate among adolescents has jumped by 70% in recent years. The suicide rate for all age groups has risen dramatically, and now stands at a 30-year high… Today, one in six Americans takes some kind of psychotropic drug… By reducing depression to nothing more than a chemical event, we have reduced the human conscience to nothing more than a chemical event. By taking a materialistic view of depression, we take a materialistic view of humanity.

But anyone who has faith must recognize, plain as day, that the source of this man’s emptiness is emptiness itself… It is a dangerous procedure to remove despair from a man without addressing the reason for his despair… Before we began our societal campaign to medicalize everything, we used to refer to depression among the religious as a “dark night of the soul.”

The Rise Of The Same-Sex Marriage Dissidents

by Mollie Hemingway

In March 2014, Brandon Eich was named CEO of Mozilla, the company that makes the web browser Firefox. On April 1, he was forced out due to his opposition to gay marriage. I selected this article for Nuff Said because it’s profoundly worth digesting four years later.

Eich wasn’t hounded out of corporate life because he was wrong. He was hounded out of corporate life because he was right. His message strikes at the root of a popular but deeply flawed ideology that can not tolerate dissent… We also have a system that is demanding conformity, uniformity and discipline — it’s not just about marriage law, to be honest. It’s really about something much bigger — crushing the belief that the sexes are distinct in deep and meaningful ways that contribute to human flourishing… the push to change marriage laws is just one part of a larger project to change our understanding of sexual distinctions.

Perhaps advocates of the change should have explained at some point, I don’t know, what singles out marriage as unique from other relationships under this new definition. What is marriage? That’s a good question to answer, particularly if you want to radically alter the one limiting factor that is present throughout all history. Once we get an answer for what this new marriage definition is, perhaps our media and other elites could spend some time thinking about the consequences of that change.

Did we mindlessly put up red equal signs when we hadn’t even thought about what marriage is? Did we rush to fit in by telling others we supported same-sex marriage? Did we even go so far as to characterize as “bigots” or as “Hitlers” those who held views about the importance of natural marriage?

“I am afraid and therefore unquestioningly obedient.” All of a sudden those Facebook signs, those reflexive statements, those cries of “Bigot!” look less like shows of strength and more like shows of weakness.

Finally, a church deals with gluttony (kind of)

by Jon Acuff

When I saw this typo in a church bulletin I laughed. Mostly because I am not as mature as you. Things like this tickle me.

[image error]

Dear College Students, Read These Books

by Matt Smethurst

It’s graduation time, and students are off for the summer. This article offers a great summer reading list for three genres of students:

Non-Christians Willing to Learn About Christianity
New Christians
Student Leaders

Hi, I’m a Marvel…and I’m a DC: 10 Years Later

I’m a nerd. I know, but these always make me chuckle. Hard to believe that this video series is 10 years old.

 

Also in Nuff Said


‘Nuff said: Surviving Christmas Shoes, Sexy Christianity, Strange Fire, War on Christians





Nuff said: Extroversion vs Introversion, Are you naked?, Christian resolutions, Recommending books.. and more


Nuff said: Majestic Hotel, smartphones and sleep, church signs, church history, imperialist Christian missionaries


Nuff said: Noah and Tim Tebow, Repenters, Driscoll’s apology, Let it go-please, abortion speech, Urkaine, and help for those who don’t want to raise their hands in worship


Nuff said: Social media help, smart phones and dumb people, ministry to youth on social media


Nuff said: Bad news believers, hashtag diplomacy, silver bullet of discipleship, single and satisfied?, kids sports, Kid President


Nuff said: 10 commitments, the power of definitions, leaving your church well, ways you’re doing Twitter wrong, NO!, and more


Nuff said: Trusting scripture, a Gospel without words, a Trader or a Christian?, Does Powerpoint help?, Be a people person, Selfies Anonymous


Nuff Said: Son of Hamas, Elders as Disciple Makers, Hipster Quitter, Caveats to the #IceBucketChallenge, the new face of the IMB,


‘Nuff Said: Improving Your “Do,” Things to pray for your kids, 20 things you shouldn’t do if you’re over 20, 30 things you may already be doing that impress others, when a cult repents, too much phone? and Star Trek


Nuff said: Fix annoying iOS 8 tidbits, charts!, the world’s largest religion, why working from a coffee shop may not be a good idea


Nuff said: Saving Daylight, the church “stand and greet time,” the iPhone cone, why go to church and more


Nuff said: #1 Bible translations, Cause of Divorce, Donald Miller spirituality, coffee mugs, trusted professions


Nuff said: Cool air, on the wrong side of history, iPhone history, utilitarianism, Gmail helps, a heavenly visit?


Nuff Said: Demise of blog commenting, Small Groups make a BIG difference, Questions for sleepy Christians, & 11 books we lie about reading


Nuff said: A week later with the same-sex ruling


Nuff Said: Why Churches Should Stay Home on Halloween, Photoshop Alternatives, Dumb Ideas About Jesus, The Power of Next, Discipleship DNA, What Ben Carson would do first if elected President


Nuff Said: Bonhoeffer too popular? When $17.38 changes a life.. Churches & communication… The death of cultural Christianity… A college president stands up… Star Wars cast acapella


Nuff said: Impractical Jokers save the day, Watch Pompeii get destroyed, How to deal with crisis, How to reach millennials, Blacksburg Winter Storm aerial footage, 9 reasons the church need to reach college students


Nuff said: Pastor ponderings


Nuff said: A tribute to millennials as college starts again


Nuff Said: Tech companies trumping Trump, Helping authors, Pastors who ignore phone calls, ways for busy moms to be in the Bible, Frankfurter Sandwiches and more


Nuff said: Reaching milennials; Beat the idea, not the person; America runs on clicks; Email in real life


Nuff Said: A porn queen and Christians; a nation of depression; glutton-free churches and more good news from around the net

View the entire series

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10 Reasons why you should wholeheartedly support President Trump

You can’t mention President Trump in a conversation anywhere without being looked at like you just ran over a puppy with a lawn mower. His name and persona are polarizing… and this blog post has NOTHING to do with him whatsoever.

The title is merely clickbait. Pure and simple.

[image error]So you clicked. You’re now here, and you’re wondering why you’re still reading. You may be a bit aggravated to have encountered the digital bait and switch routine. You may even feel deceived.

Welcome to the world wide web, circa 2018.

It seems that content must be sensationalized in order to be consumed. As a pastor who enjoys blogging, it’s a constant temptation to only write about topics that will be guaranteed a wide audience. I love to write, but this blog is for my enjoyment as much as it is (I hope) for yours. And so regular readers know that my topics drift from matters of faith to technology to book reviews to cultural observations to randomness and back again. I do occasionally blog about contemporary issues, but it’s very occasional.

There are pastors who blog about current issues all the time. I’m envious of their blog traffic. They seem to be digital “Johnnys-on-the-spot” – always ready with a cultural analysis or article that then seems to get shared/go viral regularly. Does one have to blog about.. Kanye and Trump | theological insights from the Avengers movie | the second amendment and its subservience to Jesus’ teaching .. in order to be effective and influential on the web?

In my snarky moments, I wonder – are these contemporary-issue-blogging ministers discipling people one-on-one? Are they involved in multiple meetings each week for organization, strategy and coordination? Are they cultivating relationships within their church with new guests? How do they find the time?

In my less snarky moments, I wonder if my church members want me to blog about current issues like that? Do they want to know what I think (yes, I have opinions), or not?

I also wonder if the church-at-large needs these pastor bloggers to write about current issues so that it will know how  to think about contemporary issues? Are we cultivating church members who won’t do the work of reading the Bible to search for themselves how to apply biblical teaching to current issues?

What do you think?

I’m genuinely curious. What do you think are the compelling reasons for ministry leaders to write about contemporary issues (or not to)? How much is too much?

On the other hand, why do you choose to share a “current-issue” post?

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Why do you choose to share a "current-issue" post when you do?




It expresses my own opinion.






It made me think, and I want feedback.






I respect the author's viewpoint.








Other



















vote

 

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Should you delete Facebook?

[image error] Should we delete our Facebook accounts?

The outcry is huge, but the actual revolution is small. We wail against the evils of Facebook, and then when we consider the loss of interaction and cat memes, we whimper.

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the Facebook for a long time. (And I love saying the Facebook. My kids and millennial cringe and smirk behind my back as if I don’t know it’s not the Facebook. It’s also fun saying “the Tweeter” and “the ‘Gram.” When they respond and say, “Uh, ‘the Gram’ is not a thing,” it makes my heart glow.)

So here’s the dilemma – and let’s have an honest conversation about this: should I “stick it to the man” and delete my Facebook account?

Three reasons Facebook is not trustworthy

I believe Faceboook has shown itself to be untrustworthy. There is a preponderance of evidence to prove that. Here’s three reasons why I think so:

It has shamelessly used my personal information for its own advantages. Granted, I don’t pay for Facebook, so most would say I don’t have a leg to stand on. However, it was never my intent or consent to allow Facebook to use my information to make money. I don’t mind that they use the fact that I’m on their website to market things to me. But let me choose. If I click on an ad, then that’s my decision.

It’s maddening to see that their 2017 last quarter revenue was $12.97 billion. In a quarter. Their revenue. was. almost. 13. billion. dollars. Think about that. Their 2017 revenue was $40 BILLION dollars. It’s a website, folks.

We post our content for free, and FB gets paid through advertising. Genius. Truly genius.
When Facebook was initially created, you were relatively assured of seeing whatever had just been posted. It was a mess, but it was a glorious mess. Then Facebook began curating our content, and it introduced algorithms to impact what we see (or don’t see). This was a mistake, in my book.

Slate described how FB algorithms serve up what you see as “surprisingly inelegant, maddeningly mercurial, and stubbornly opaque.” No one really knows how their formulas work. I think we can all agree however simply by saying they stink.

These days, I only really see 15-25 people on a regular basis. The majority of “friends” – I don’t ever see their updates/posts because of what FB has done. While there are articles saying that FB is NOT limiting who I see in my feed, I have a very difficult time believing that from just a regular viewing of the last 15-20 posts each time I log in. Anecdotally, I dispute that.A recent NY Times article quotes Adam Mosseri, the head of the News Feed team at FB saying, “..we will predict which posts you might want to interact with your friends about, and show these posts higher in feed.”So, while FB may claim it’s not limiting what friends’ posts I see on its site, it IS admitting to burying most of my friends’ posts so far into my feed, that I lose interest after I scroll for a while?

Granted, I don’t want to track all of my “friends” on FB all of the time. But please, leave that up to me and my own filtering. Don’t do it for me.
Facebook has moderated information (I say censored) and attempted to influence me in a number of ways. The content that FB serves up to me these days – articles and links – seem to be done to only expose me to certain viewpoints. Whether it’s a conservative viewpoint or not is beside the point. I don’t want them filtering what I see. A recent Times magazine article revealed:

The end goal for the world’s largest social network isn’t just to guess what you’ll click on when you’re bored. The company wants to show you the things you care about most in your life, both online and off. “If you could rate everything that happened on Earth today that was published anywhere by any of your friends, any of your family, any news source…and then pick the 10 that were the most meaningful to know today, that would be a really cool service for us to build,” says Chris Cox, Facebook’s chief product officer. “That is really what we aspire to have News Feed become.” The company, it turns out, has a plan for doing just that.

Doug Rushkoff wrote an opinion piece for CNN which I quoted in this post back in 2011. He compared the trust consumers have with Apple with that of Facebook:

Ultimately, they don’t trust Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and are suspicious of his every move. By contrast, Apple founder Steve Jobs took away his customers’ hard drives, Flash movies, keyboards and Firewire ports — and yet consumers put up with the inconvenience and discomfort every step of the way because they believed that Steve knew best, and trusted that he was taking them somewhere better.

Apple users pay handsomely for the privilege of putting themselves in the company’s hands. Facebook does not enjoy this same level of trust with its nonpaying subscribers.

That’s because on Facebook we’re not the customers. We are the product.

[image error] Another reason to delete your Facebook account

Let’s admit this. Facebook was novel and fun at first. Those of us who remember what it was like being “left out” of Facebook because we weren’t a college student remember those early days of FB. In September 2006, FB opened its digital doors to everyone. It was interesting, fun, and amazing to be able to reconnect with people.

And then we got inundated. 1.39 billion people log into FB monthly to check their news feeds! With that population, Facebook is bigger than China! It’s overwhelming. It’s impossible to keep up with if you more than 200 “friends.”

But here’s the main “other reason:” it’s poorly designed. We may have enjoyed FB “back in the day” as its novel approach served up posts and pictures from our friends in a sequential “feed.” As new people posted, the feed got bumped down. But today, with that amount of information – from friends, from pages we’ve “liked,” etc, a single, linear column of constantly moving information is essentially USELESS. You cannot keep up.

Facebook doesn’t just need better ethics. It needs a design overhaul.

Think of how useful a tabbed approach would be – a Family tab, a Friends tab, a Local tab, a Pages tab, etc. Facebook thinks it’s offered this to us with the column on the left, but editing these columns is difficult to figure out. The website as a whole has become visually unappealing.

You may scoff, but I alway thought Google+ was much more visually appealing, simple and uncluttered. And Google+’s ability to create “Circles” and drag and drop friends into circles was helpful for viewing. On the contrary, organizing a Friends List on FB is anything but easy or intuitive. It’s TIME consuming (which is why most people don’t bother).

Why to keep your Facebook account

In 2013, I posed the question:

“If you hate Facebook so much, why haven’t you deleted your account?”

Here’s what I said then, and I am still stuck at… for now:

Strategy. It’s a place of influence. I’m hesitant to withdraw from a sphere that I can speak into. God still hits straight licks with crooked sticks, in other words.
Relationships. I am in touch with people on Facebook that I wouldn’t be here on my blog or on other social mediums.
Reach. Facebook is an immense tool for promotion.

Seeing as how I’ve been thinking about whether to delete my Facebook account for nine years now is an indictment on my inability to pull the trigger, or it’s a confirmation on my commitment to be strategically present in the digital world community.

Even if I did delete my personal account, the next question is: Could I lead my church/organization to delete their “Page?” Why and why not?

I think the important thing here is for each of us to be able to articulate why we are keeping Facebook (for now).

One disturbing reality: with over a billion users, if I were to delete my account… I wouldn’t be missed? There’s just too much noise, distractions, videos and rants on FB for any of us to notice when another one of “us” drops off the scene, right?

By the way, I started blogging in 2004 – the same year Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook out of his dorm room. To make up for lost revenues, I need each of you who reads this to donate, oh, say $50 billion? Also, when I refer to “the Facebook” and the young ‘uns make fun of me, that’s actually what Zuckerberg originally named the website.

Related

When I left a comment on Mark Zuckerburg’s page (2009) – I was making suggestions then about design too!
Which image best represents you on Facebook? – drawings by a Polish artist are great conversation starters for how you use FB
Still using Facebook… (2013) – a post for ministry and social implications of using FB regularly

And an infographic FYI..

[image error]

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Urging Easter

[image error]If you haven’t been invited to an Easter service – at a church near you – consider this your invitation. It’s that time of year. It’s the apex of the Christian calendar. Easter is the culmination of Christmas. If you’re not a Christian, check out a church anyway this Sunday. If you are a Christian and you haven’t been in church for a while, I urge you to “Easter.”

Make this Easter a priority for you, your family, and friends.

I’m a pastor, and I’m sure people expect me to invite them to church. And yet, church attendance is not my goal. Rather, I want to see people experience and encounter the love of God. That’s paramount.

I’m a pastor, and Easter intimidates me. Typically, churches see a “bump” in attendance on Easter Sunday. With new guests and returning absentee members all choosing to attend church on Easter, everyone expects the pastor to be “on.” There’s a pressure to preach “the best sermon ever.”

I wrote in my journal this morning:

I am wanting to preach/speak in a way that refreshes the church, encourages believers, uplifts faith in each follower’s heart, and is used by God to lead nonChristians to joyfully surrender their life to Jesus in faith.

That’s my desire, but the results are really up to God.

I’m a pastor, and I long to see every seat filled (and then some) on Easter Sunday. I want to hear stories of members inviting neighbors, coworkers and friends and for those that visit to say, “I’m so thankful I came. It was the first time I can remember really understanding how much God loves me. I gave my life to Jesus that day.”

I’m a pastor, and I’ll be baptizing this Sunday. I can’t wait to see the smiles and joyful tears of families and friends as they celebrate the significance of salvation and forgiveness.

I’m a pastor, and I’ll be doing other “ministry” things during a long, two-service Sunday morning. I’ll help set up and tear down (since we meet in a middle school). I’ll welcome and greet. I’ll eat a couple of donuts with guests in the hallway.

I’m a pastor, and I’m also a man who desperately needs Easter.

I will worship as our worship team leads us in song. I will preach to myself the same message that I will be preaching to others. I will pray for my own heart to be transformed even as I pray for others. I will seek to experience and encounter the love of God as much as I want others to do so.

The message of Easter tells me – just like it tells everyone else – that my sins are forgiven in Christ. That by loving Jesus with all my heart – by trusting Him and placing my faith in what He did on the cross, I am saved. I won’t be condemned by God in the day of judgement. That the promise of the Bible is that whomever trusts Jesus as their Lord will be freely given peace with God. That God will not hold anything against me. My past, present and future screw-ups have been “paid for” by Jesus death. That just as Jesus was raised from the dead, so shall I be.

I need Easter. You do too.

Make this Easter a priority for you, your family, and friends.

Invite someone today. It will be a joy for you and them.

Also, when you think of it, pray for your pastor. It’s an important Sunday. Through prayer, they (and I) need to be reminded that they don’t carry the weight of Easter. Jesus has done that for us too.

P.S.

If you don’t have a church home, and you’re in southwest Virginia – especially if you’re in the New River Valley, please consider this an invitation to Northstar Church – either our Pulaski campus (service at 10:00 a.m.) or our Blacksburg campus (services at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m.). You’ll discover a group of people who will be ecstatic that you visited and urge you to enjoy Easter.

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Death Diapers

I don’t remember how the conversation arrived at its destination. It was a series of segues, that at the time made complete sense. I was talking with Aaron Peck on the phone, and I found myself sharing with him the story of Ehud and Eglon from Judges 3 in the Old Testament.

It’s a fascinating story, and it’s one of those tales that is interestingly morbid and gross. Here’s how it goes, in my own retelling:

Ehud was a stud. A left-handed stud. Eglon was a king. An evil, fat king. It was in the days of Israel in which there was no king, and Israel would enjoy years of peace in their newly-conquered Promised Land, punctuated by years of oppression by those whom they had not yet conquered.

King Eglon was king of Moab, and he oppressed Israel for 18 years.

“Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjaminite, as a deliverer for them.” (v15)

Ehud takes a tribute to Eglon, and he requests a private audience. Unbeknownst to Eglon, Ehud had created an 18″ sword and tied it under his garment to his right thigh. When the time was right, Ehud (being left-handed) reached across his body, pulled the sword, and plunged it into Eglon’s ample belly. So much so that the Bible says:

“Even the handle went in after the blade, and Eglon’s fat closed in over it, so that Ehud did not withdraw the sword from his belly.” (v22)

Yeah. Delightful. Interestingly morbid, right? Here’s the gross part. Next, the Bible says:

“And the waste came out.”

Yep. Eglon pooped himself. And it’s recorded for eternity in the pages of scripture.

There’s all kinds of lessons to be learned from this. Don’t cross God, or he’ll make you poop yourself. Israel won’t take any crap from anyone. And so on..

I finished reading the account (over the phone) to Aaron, and I said, “That’s crazy, huh?”

He responded, “I don’t think it’s that fascinating. Everybody poops themselves when they die.”

“What?!!!” I exclaimed in disbelief (and some alarm).

“Yeah. It’s a thing. When you die, your muscles relax, and you poop yourself,” he said, matter-of-factly, with no trace of compassion for Eglon’s servant or for the friends and family of anyone that has to clean up after the death of a loved one.

I had not considered this, but then I was struck with what I believe is a genius idea for a product. The product name came to me in a flash of inspiration as did the tag line for the marketing campaign.

I said, “You know what we should market?”

“No, what?” he said.

“Death Diapers,” I said. (And from here on out, we will refer to Death Diapers with a . Yes. Death Diapers. It’s now a thing.)

He laughed.

“And the voiceover on the commercial marketing our new product will be super sensitive and compassionate. It will say something like, ‘Be prepared and practical. Be sensitive to your family and friends. Wear Death Diapers. BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU’RE GOING TO GO.'”

Everyone I’ve shared this idea since this conversation thinks Death Diapers is a great idea. I have already begun formulating a FAQ sheet for the marketing website that will come. Some of the questions that I’m sure will be asked are:

Can you wear Death Diapers as you would an adult diaper?

Yes. Yes, you can.
Will Death Diapers be attractive and comfortable?

Of course. They will be offered in fashionable colors, corresponding to the season. One of our best-selling lines will be the Pumpkin Spice Death Diaper.
How will you achieve market saturation?

We prefer not to use the term “saturation” when speaking of Death Diapers.

So, I may be looking into a GoFundMe or Kickstarter option for this revolutionary, sensitive and practical product. Thanks to Ehud and Eglon.

Death Diapers.

Because you never know when you’re going to go.

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Get Siri-us, Apple

I get to complain about Apple because I’m a fan boy. It’s the deal of only I can make fun of my family. A while back I wrote Seven things Apple doesn’t do well. This post addresses how Apple breaks #4 in that list with the functionality of accessing Siri in text messages and other apps on iOS devices. My contention is that iOS 11 messed it up.

Here’s how you currently access it:

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Once you press the Siri button, you can start speaking. After you speak, the screen looks like this:

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The problem is that this is a bad design. Notice all the wasted space and while pressing anywhere in the gray reactivates Siri, you must tap exactly on the keyboard to access the keyboard (which is important to correct the invariable misspells or autocorrects. Why would Apple make it so inconvenient to get back to the keyboard?!

Wasted space and inconvenient:

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What’s the fix?

It’s tempting to just make the icons bigger and buttons, right:

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Let’s just reclaim space:

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In the design above, you get more screen space, and it’s easier to get get back to the keyboard.

Another thought:

In previous iOS versions, pressing the Siri button next to the space bar would return you to the keyboard after using Siri automatically, for an easy correct, if needed. I think that default is much more helpful.

Apple has shown with the current design that they’re not worried about consuming screen space, so why not do this:

Option 1

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Option 2 [image error]

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Too much time on my hands?

Yep. Probably so. I love Apple products. It pains me when I see them doing things that don’t make sense and aren’t intuitively right. I just wanted to help.

What do you think?

At least I’m not developing possible iOS 12 possibilities (which, by the way, these two concepts are awesome!):

iOS 12 Option 1
iOS 12 Option 2

Oh, and a disclaimer. While I’m pretty sure my daughter loves me, I generated these texts using www.iphonefaketext.com.

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Remembering the message of Billy Graham

[image error]It was in my hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas that I first saw Billy Graham. It was the only time I saw him “in person.” His Little Rock crusade filled up a stadium with altar calls and praise what was normally filled with Hog calls and touchdowns.

As a prideful Baptist college student, I remember critiquing his message. It was so simple as to be almost embarrassing. There was no “meat” – no depth, or so I thought. I had grown up in a church that focused exclusively on expository preaching – line by line, verse by verse. The church I attended in college was the same way. It’s how I even preach today.

However, that night, in the warm September air of War Memorial Stadium, the Reverend Billy Graham preached a simple, loving message about Jesus Christ and how we all needed to acknowledge Him as our Savior. And he appealed/begged/cajoled/urged us to consider our sinFULLness and to turn for forgiveness to Jesus alone, who made us and loved us. Through faith alone in His death and resurrection, we could have eternal life. We could be “born again.”

I was already a Christian. I affirmed his content, but I was disappointed in its lack of… style, depth, exposition, etc. I was the professor; he was the novice. Such pride enveloped me that night.

Until the altar call.

As the music began to play, Billy Graham invited any and all who wanted to get right with God to come forward. His organization had trained hundreds of volunteers in the weeks prior to receive those who came. He said there would be people there to pray for anyone.

And I watched in humbled astonishment as people surged forward. One after another, people left their seats, walked the steps/aisles, and made their way to the grassy football field. Everywhere you could see, there were people moving. Responding. Many in tears.

I stood there in humility, as my bewilderment turned to thanksgiving.

God does not need flashy speakers, big churches, social media, (this was before the internet!). God is simply looking for those humble enough to proclaim a simple, true message with no adornment other than love.

Billy Graham died on February 21, 2018 at the age of 99. The world mourned, and for the past week, media has been full of both the man and his message. It’s amazing how the gospel is being preached by him and others boldly and freely during these days. It’s another testimony to his commitment to the message of Jesus. From Kathie Lee Gifford to news anchors to world leaders to coffee shops, the gospel is preached because of Graham’s life.

I think Billy would be gratified by the exposure of the gospel, much as the apostle Paul was:

“To be sure, some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of good will… What does it matter? Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice..” (Philippians 1.15-18)

Billy Graham was a man who lived his entire life completely confident in the message of Jesus to convict, transform and change people. He submitted himself to that message, and it is what he preached over and over – simply and faithfully.

He resolved to “preach the gospel — not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ will not be emptied of its effect.” (1 Corinthians 1.17)

He understood, like the apostle Paul, that if we’re not careful, we will lose the message in silly attempts to be relevant, clever, or humorous. Or we’ll lose ourselves in our attempts to be influential, powerful, or innovative.

“My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2.4)

I am ashamed of my prideful, critical spirit that September evening in 1989. It was a spirit that elevated myself and my own knowledge. In truth, I was not belittling Graham’s simplicity, but I was belittling the gospel’s power. I have learned over and over since then that it is not my job to embrace eloquence or wisdom but to simply embrace and preach Jesus Christ.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes..” (Romans 1.16)

If you have stumbled across this post, and you are not yet a Christian, I thank you for reading through it to the end. I say yet because it is my earnest hope that perhaps you will see beyond Billy Graham’s life to his message, to our message. It is other-worldly.  It is true. It is genuinely good news.

“For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin.” (Galatians 1.11)

What do you do if you want to know more about the “gospel?”

The gospel literally means “good news.” Maybe you have no prior understanding of the Bible, of Jesus, and you’ve only heard/believed what you’ve read or thought antagonistically toward “Christianity.” I encourage you to find out for yourself. Life is too valuable (and short!) to go on hearsay about life, death and forgiveness.

Watch this short video to help grasp what all the fuss is about.

More Resources

Sermon from Little Rock crusade:  The Bubble that Bursts
Sermon from Little Rock crusade: The Value of Your Soul
Christianity Today’s amazing website on Billy Graham
Time Magazine’s obituary on Billy Graham
Video: Billy Graham tribute from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

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A discouraged pastor

As I glanced down at the text I’d just received on my phone, my heart sank.

“Hey brother. Pray for us. We had a very disappointing business meeting and deacons meeting last night. Really frustrated.”

It was from a pastor friend. I texted him back that I was praying.

I know where he is. I’ve been there. Many times. Being a pastor empties you. That process of emptying is one of the most agonizing and fulfilling experiences of humanity. More on that later..

[image error]I prayed for him. I asked God to bring repentance and transformation to his deacons and their families. I asked God to bless my friend with endurance and joyful confidence.

After I prayed, I was reminded of a low point in my own ministry journey as a pastor. I was at the Exponential Conference in Orlando in 2008. Ed Stetzer had spoken, and I found myself back in my hotel room that evening, despondent and frustrated – with God, with ministry, my church and my future. I had come for encouragement and refueling, but I’d had “successful church ministries and strategies” shoved down my throat all afternoon at the conference.

Pastors with published books. Pastors with more hair. Pastors with no hair that looked much more debonair than I with my thinning hair. Megachurches. Megaministries. Megaegos. Megastrategies. I felt small.

Where does a pastor turn for encouragement? Of course, the immediate answer is: God. We know that. We KNOW that. And it’s only through our personal relationships with the Lord who called us into ministry to begin with that we are renewed and find strength.

HOWEVER (and please don’t judge me, for as a pastor, I *feel* that pressure constantly of not being good enough or articulate enough or studied enough or visionary enough or “spiritual enough”..) when I feel small, I also want to be encouraged by flesh and blood. Tangible assurance.

So, let’s say I order a book by another pastor – to receive words of hope. But what do we typically find in books published by pastors in the last 20 years or so? (at least by celebrity pastors) – interspersed throughout the book will be comments about how they spoke to a conference of thousands or how their church exploded in growth or amazing stories of God’s activity around their ministry/preaching/church.

The nuggets of encouragement found elsewhere in the book begin to feel inauthentic due to the revealed “success” of their ministry or church.

It’s interesting that when you’re discouraged, you tend to be discourage-ING as well. That April in Orlando, when I was at Exponential, I was empty. I had needed encouragement, but I’d been fed “success.” I blogged that evening about Ed Stetzer’s presentation and said:

Ed Stetzer began the conference’s first main session, and his “presentation” consisted of statistics and research. Terrible way to begin a conference that should be inspirational and encouraging. In addition to that, everything he shared seemed targeted for the megachurch, in essence telling them that they need to be planting churches instead of growing monstrously large. In short, I give Stetzer’s presentation a D-. Seriously. The content was good, just inappropriate for the context.

Yeah. I was discouraging.

That evening, I learned that Ed had left a comment on my blog entry. He said simply:

I will have to try harder next time…

Ouch.

Discouraged pastors discourage pastors. Dang it. My emptiness had overflowed and drained another.

So when I received the text yesterday from my friend, I immediately texted back that I was praying. And I still am. I am praying for him, and in praying for him and his family and church, I am provoked to also pray for other ministry leaders.

It’s not like it’s a “thankless job.” We do receive encouragement from our church members. But it’s a vocation that by its nature is mostly intangibly measured. We are all wired, I think, to want to SEE that we’re making a difference. But attendance, budgets and buildings and books are not really reflective of eternal significance. You can have a large church that is essentially unhealthy.

So pray for your pastor today. Pray for your church staff. Remember that it’s difficult for us to confess our discouragement. People expect us to be “up” all the time. No one is inspired by a depressed minister. And so we tend to internalize our frustrations and hurts and disappointments.

By the time we send a text asking for prayer, we are probably at our wit’s end. And yes, we are turning to God too. But we count on you to be a reflection of Him as well.

In the Old Testament, the prophet Samuel was pleasantly surprised to receive genuine repentance from the people of Israel when they realized that their asking for a king was actually rejecting God as their spiritual leader. He was encouraged by their request for him to pray for them, and his response to them is wonderful:

As for me, I vow that I will not sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. (1 Samuel 12.23)

Such is the heart of a pastor for his church. Such should be the heart of a church for its pastor.

I glance back at my friend’s text and am praying for him, for his church and for their prayers to be numerous for one another.

A follow-up

In case you’re wondering, Ed Stetzer and I got to visit at the conference in 2008. It was enjoyable and refreshing, and he was so gracious. In a surreal moment, I was able to participate in a trip to Krakow, Poland later that year with him. Being on mission together was incredibly encouraging, and I’m deeply grateful. Perhaps one antidote to discouragement is refreshing ourselves together on mission?

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Slanket Sermon 2018

A quick moving snow hit Blacksburg hard on Sunday morning, February 4, requiring us to cancel our church services. The snow came down quick and roads got bad. I met some of our leaders at Hardees for a quick breakfast after they had begun setting up the middle school where we meet for worship.

A church snow day for Northstar has come to mean a Slanket Sermon for me.

What’s a slanket?

I’m so glad you asked. A snuggie is a thin blanket with sleeves. A slanket, on the other hand, is a thick, plush, wonderful blanket with sleeves that wraps you in warmth and is perfect for… preaching outdoors.

So after Hardees, I navigated home, marveling at how much snow had fallen in only an hour! (The video is 4x speed; don’t worry, folks!)

Here’s a quick devotional from Philippians 1:27 – aka The Slanket Sermon!

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Sick for a week?!

Many, many moons ago – in fact, back when I was in high school – I had chicken pox. I didn’t know what being “sick” really meant until I battled those bumps. I wrote an essay then titled Journal of a Plague Week to document what it was like to be poxed.

Of course, I’ve been sick since then. My illnesses usually are related to sinus infections. But last Saturday, I got ambushed by something that I’m still fighting. It began with a  pounding headache and coughing – seeming to come from nowhere. I felt so bad that I texted our associate pastor and asked him to be ready to pinch hit for me (and I never miss church!).

I wound up skipping church, but each day this week has begun with me feeling like I was improving. I’d get up and get going, only to find my body refusing to go further past mid-afternoon. Evenings have ended in exhaustion and more coughing. I finally waved the white flag and went to urgent care on Wednesday afternoon.

I came back to the house and curled up on the floor in front of the fireplace, expecting meds to work a miracle. They seemed to be working, for on Thursday, I was able to work the latter half of the day. But by Friday afternoon, things were downhill again, with the return of coughing and a low-grade fever.

After spending most of the night coughing, I went back to urgent care first thing Saturday morning, and got more meds. It was when I picking them up at the pharmacy that I learned I’d only been taken half the dose I should have been taking of the antibiotics. I was supposed to have been taking four pills a day (2 pills, twice daily), but I had interpreted that to mean to take two pills each day. I felt like an idiot.

Here’s a few thoughts about being sick:

I sat in a packed urgent care waiting room on Wednesday, wearing a mask that the nurse encouraged me to wear. I had stepped in off the street, and life seemed normal, but there in the urgent care, it was like a battle zone. Apparently this is the worst flu season in a decade, with no end in sight.

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The heavy red line shows that this season has the highest percentage of people seeking care for flu-like illness since 2009-2010. (via CDC web)

Coughing. A productive cough is when stuff comes up and you feel better when you cough. An unproductive cough feels like raking your esophagus with steel wool, leaves you with a sore throat and nothing to show for it.
I was never told that I had the flu. Since I came in on Wednesday but had been sick since Saturday, they treated me for acute bronchitis. There’s nothing cute about bronchitis.
Prescriptions are like recipes. If you don’t follow the instructions, the results won’t be tasty.
People don’t think you’re cool for refusing to “be sick.” I know my church staff wasn’t exactly thrilled to learn I was still sick after two days of being on retreat with them.

Sick or snow?

So I’m sitting this Saturday out. I’m couching it, resting and hoping for enough recovery to be able to preach tomorrow. The weather is also vying for attention at this point, threatening to dump 1-4″ of snow on us before church starts tomorrow. It’s a race to health or inclement weather.

Time to add another log to the fire, turn over and snooze a bit more. Basketball is on TV as white noise.

So what’s your plague story this year? Have you been incapacitated? What do you do when you’re sick?

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