The Summer Slump

 

The Summer Slump is a phrase pastors and church leaders use to describe the decline in attendance and giving that typically happens in churches during the summer months.  As soon as school gets out for the summer, families start leaving town for family vacations, trips to grandparents' houses, summer camps, and trips to the lake.  And most of the time, attendance at worship on Sundays is the victim along with regular giving.

While most families are not gone the entire summer, each week there are regularly at least a couple of families out each week.  As a result, many church activities often take a hiatus during the summer.  Activities for kids and students may take a break for the entire summer or at least a few weeks.  Men's and women's bible studies and other small group Bible studies often pause for a season.  Church budgets often have to be adjusted for the end of the year based on giving trajectories because of the Summer Slump.  

All of these issues are concerning realities that pastors and church leaders have to contend with.  But there is another Summer Slump that I want to encourage you to get out of.  That is the Spiritual Summer Slump.  

When the dog days of summer hit, we get lethargic about a lot of things in life.  We don't want to go outside to do work on our house or in the yard.  We stop going to the gym or going for a walk or taking a bike ride.  We spend more time in the air conditioning.  We may sleep in a little later.  And, if we are not careful, that same lethargy can extend to our spiritual exercises.  We get lazy about having our quiet time, going to church and worshiping and fellowshipping with other believers, spending time in faithful prayer.

So, let me give you three simple ways to maintain your spiritual health and avoid the Summer Slump: 1. Stay hydrated.  Jesus said that he is the water of life, so when the heat of summer comes, don't spend less time drinking the water that is Jesus.  Spend more time with him, time in the word, and time in prayer.    2.  Eat healthy meals that won't weigh you down.  Summer may not be the best time to do an intensive study on a deep theological issue, but that doesn't mean you quit studying the Bible altogether.  Do a short Bible study on your own.  Find a book that is encouraging and light-hearted.  Read through some short books of the Bible.  Pick out a short video series on Right Now Media to watch.  Pick back up with the Gospels in 30 Bible reading plan on Youversion.  3. Get in regular but scaled-down exercise.  When you are on a family trip, you may not have the same rhythms of Bible study, family devotions, or worship as you normally do, but you can still get in some meaningful times of worship.  While you are on the road trip, let the kids introduce you to some of their favorite worship music and rock it with them.  Listen to a Christian classic on audio like C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia.  Find a Christian concert to take the family to.  Take a weekend to binge watch "The Chosen" or The Lord of the Rings.  Have a family discussion about plans for growing together spiritually once the summer is over.

Stay hydrated, eat healthy and light meals, and get regular but scaled-down exercise and avoid the Spiritual Summer Slump.

A Vision for the Future

 

One month ago, I shared with the church a renewed vision for The Crossroads as we celebrate our first fifteen years as a church and move forward into the future.  The new vision, giving our lives away to build God's Kingdom and to bring God glory, came about as a result of extended times of prayer, seeking God's direction, and evaluating the vision statement that has guided us for the last fifteen years (Loving God, loving people, and rocking the world).  

For the past thirteen years, when someone asks me about our church, I have told them the same thing: "We are going to give you an opportunity to give your life away for something that matters for all eternity."  That response came about based on a desire to stop fueling the consumer mentality about church that has become a cancer in the American church.  

You see, in America, when people ask about a church, the question they often ask is, "What does your church have to offer?" or something similar.  By that question, what people typically are wanting to know is what programs do you have to offer for me or my family; what cool, fun, or exciting things do you do; what kind of music do you have; what kind of kid's activities do you offer; what events do you offer that will entertain or engage my family.  And if you respond to those in a way that says you are the church that has the best to offer in all the things they are looking for, they will come to your church.  At least until there is another church offering something bigger, better, more fun or engaging or entertaining.

If a church pursues that approach, you can draw a crowd, but you continually have to offer something new, different, and bigger than you did the last time, and something better than what is being offered by other churches in the same market.  In our market in North Texas, there are megachurches with multi-million dollar budgets, programs for every segment of the family, and musicians that have songs played on Christian radio.  The consumer mentality is alive and well in our area, and it actually is destructive to the long-term good of the kingdom of God.

So, I decided that we were intentionally not going to do that, not going to pursue that, not going to fuel that in people.  Not that we don't want to do things with excellence, not that we don't want to provide things that are fun and engaging and life-changing, but that's just not going to be the core of who we are.  So, I came up with a response that would intentionally deflect those kinds of questions and point people to the heart of who we are as a church.  Which is what prompted me to start answering with, "We are going to give you an opportunity to give your life away for something that matters for all eternity."

Over the past year, as I have prayed about the future vision for our church, I've come to realize that is the real vision for The Crossroads.  That is who we are, why we exist, and why we want our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and community to be a part of it.  As I prayed and thought through this vision, seeking clarity from the Lord, I realized that statement needed just a little bit of tweaking to be a clear, compelling vision statement.  What needed clarity was, "What is the 'something that matters for all eternity'?  What is it that we really want people to be giving their lives away for?  Two things really became clear: God's Kingdom and God's glory.  So, the resulting new vision statement for The Crossroads was born: Giving our lives away to build God's kingdom and to bring God glory.  I'll share more details about the specifics of what exactly that looks like and how we will live it out in the rest of this series.

For now, two thought questions for you to close: What are you (or your church) giving your life away for?  How are you giving your life away?

Hungering, Thirsting, and Holding My Tongue

 

At the beginning of this year, I engaged in an extended time of complete fasting for spiritual growth, seeking the Lord's direction for The Crossroads, praying for an awakening in our nation, and asking God to raise up an army of church planters to reach people with the gospel. During that same period of time, I also was on complete vocal rest (That means I couldn't talk at all!) for two and a half weeks.  Silence is a historic Christian discipline, and it is something that the Bible encourages us to do in numerous places.  For instance, Habakkuk 2:20 says, "The Lord is in his holy temple; let the whole earth be silent in his presence."  Thus, there certainly can be legitimate spiritual reasons for engaging in times of silence before God, whether that is for a brief time daily (a quiet time), a quiet walk with the Lord in a peaceful place (throughout Jesus's ministry, he would often withdraw to a quiet or lonely place to be alone with the Father), or a more extended period of silence.

So, while there are great spiritual reasons to engage in the discipline of silence, my reason for going on vocal rest was much more practical.  Through years of speaking to a large group of people at least weekly as well as loving to sing loudly during worship, and using poor vocal technique, I had developed nodules on my vocal cords.  You can google them if you want a detailed explanation, but basically it's like having callouses on your vocal cords.  The result is always sounding hoarse and having a minor sore throat after speaking for a long time.  The first remedy for them is simply not talking for a period of two to three weeks with the hope that they will heal during that time.  So, that's what I did.

Now, I wasn't totally without any means of communication during that time. I carried around a small whiteboard and dry erase marker with me (when I remembered them) that I could use to write messages.  I also used a weird version of charades and a tiny bit of sign language.  One of the things we learned is that LaRissa is horrible at charades!  I could send text messages, and I also found a couple of different tools on my tablet and phone that would convert text to speech.  None of these solutions were great, though, and made communication slow, cumbersome, and ineffective.  So, mostly, I was just quiet. 

Although I was not doing this vocal rest as a spiritual discipline, keep in mind that it overlapped with an intentional extended period of fasting and seeking the Lord.  And God did use the silence in correlation with the fasting to graciously reveal himself to me.  Being silent allowed me to be more attentive to the gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit and to be more focused on meditating on Scripture and spending time in prayer.  The biggest "Aha!" moment came for me when I realized that not talking was harder than not eating.  I mean way harder!  

Think about that with me for a moment.  Eating is far more important in the long term for life and my physical well-being.  At some point, you cannot go on without eating.  Nutrients are necessary for life.  On the flip side, speaking is not necessary at all for life.  There are people who cannot speak, and yet manage to have a long and fulfilling life.  I know plenty of people who are extremely introverted who are perfectly content to go for hours on end without saying a word.  But that's not me!  While not eating involved some difficulty, not talking was incredibly difficult for me.

And that's how the Lord spoke to me.  What if I (what if we all) had the same attitude toward the voice of the Lord and the word of God as I did about my own voice?  What if I desired to hear the voice of the Lord more than I desired physical food?  What if I looked forward to time in prayer and time in the word as much as I look forward to my next meal?  What if I hungered and thirsted for hearing from Jesus as much as I do food and drink.

Thinking about that brought new light for me to a statement by Jesus.  Jesus had been in the desert fasting for 40 days when the devil comes to tempt him, and the Bible specifically tells us that he was hungry (Mt. 4:2).  So, the first temptation that the devil offers was for Jesus to turn a pile of stones into loaves of bread.  It was a temptation to use his power to fulfill his own personal desires, to satisfy his physical hunger, to place his need ahead of the purposes and direction of the Holy Spirit and God the Father.  Jesus's response is what the Holy Spirit illuminated to me: "It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Mt. 4:4).

Jesus understood that physical food was not all that was necessary for the thriving of human life.  While bread can sustain our physical bodies, bread cannot bring true life.  Only the word of God, only hearing from the Lord, only listening to the voice of the Lord can ultimately bring life to us.  So, for Jesus, the voice of the Lord was far more important than physical food.  Jesus knew that he could not carry out his mission on earth apart from the presence, the direction, and the empowerment of the Father and listening to his voice at every moment.

So, my big takeaway was this desire and this prayer: "Father, I want to live my life hungering for your word, to hear your voice, to know your voice, and to follow your voice more than any other desire in my life.  I want to hunger and thirst for righteousness.  I want to look forward to hearing from you more than I look forward to eating a great meal."   Maybe you would pray the same prayer today.

Praying at the Pump

 

Earlier this week, I stopped in at a gas station to fill up my truck.  With the historic increase in gas prices over the last several weeks, it is an understatement to say I was not looking forward to this.  As the pump ticked away the cost of the tank of gas, I experienced a range of emotions that most of us are likely familiar with as we buy gas: anger and frustration at the skyrocketing prices; anxiety about what this will mean for the global economy, already stressed supply chains, the cost of goods, and my own personal finances; casting blame on various parties all around the globe.  I was really getting myself worked up into a first-class bad mood.

But then God reminded me of the primary cause of the current pain at the pump.  An evil ruler has led his military to unjustly and without provocation invade and wage war against another nation.  So, I've decided instead of focusing on myself and my problems when I go to the pump, to use the pain at the pump as a prompt to pray.  Now, as I pump gas, I will thank God.  I will thank him that I have a vehicle to drive freely back and forth to work and home and that the roads to and from are passable.  I will thank him that gas is readily available to put in my vehicles.  I will be thankful that my wife and I are not huddled in a basement with other families seeking shelter from bombs and hypersonic missiles.  I will praise God that I have not had to send my children away as refugees to a foreign land for their protection.  I will be thankful that my son is not going off to war to defend our home.  I will thank God that I have a roof over my head, food on my table without any concern for when it will run out, clean water to drink, clothes on my back, and shoes on my feet.  

And I will pray.  I will pray for the people of Ukraine, for their protection, their strength and resolve, for their provision.  I will pray for the millions of children who are now refugees, separated from their parents, in foreign lands dependent on the kindness of relatives or even strangers.  I will pray for my fellow believers in Ukraine to be able to share the hope and love of Christ as well as the message of the gospel with their countrymen and even Russian invaders.  I will pray for the failure of the Russian invasion, Russian military equipment, supply chains, and communication lines.  I will pray for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.  I will pray for a change of heart for Vladimir Putin or for his removal from power.  I will pray for Western nations and our leaders as they seek to make hard decisions to secure peace in our world.  I will pray for the return of Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords.  I will pray for peace.

How to Deal with Debt

 

One of the most common approaches to life, happiness, satisfaction in modern America is materialism.  Materialism is the idea that value comes from material things, from stuff: cars, houses, clothes, money, electronic devices, and all of our possessions.  Materialism says that the key to happiness is the accumulation of possessions.  Much of the marketing industry in America is founded on this exact philosophy.  If you want to be happy or fulfilled or popular or attractive, you need to buy their product. 

In many ways, materialism is the god of modern America.  And if materialism is the god of modern America, the worship that god demands is debt.  If you must have more, newer, better stuff to be happy or fulfilled, and you don't have the money to buy it, what do you do?  You charge it!  Debt has become an accepted way of life for many people today.  U.S. consumer debt now stands at over $15 trillion!  Compare that to our total personal income of $19.6 trillion, and you understand that most of us are in debt.

So, what does the Bible say about debt and what should our views as followers of Jesus be when it comes to debt?  There are really three basic principles the Bible has in relation to debt:

1. Be cautious about getting into debt.  While the Bible does not condemn or forbid going into debt, neither does it encourage you to go into debt.  It gives cautions about the dangers of debt.  Prov. 22:7 says,  "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender."  The truth is, if you are going into debt, you have to know that you are placing yourself under the control of the lender.  You are giving someone else a measure of control over your life, and that can be a dangerous thing. 

Debt produces all sorts of problems in life.  You begin to be controlled by your debt.  You have to have a certain job, making a certain salary to pay your debt.  You have to work extra hours and extra shifts just to keep up with your debt.  You worry and get stress and ulcers trying to figure out how to pay your debt.  It produces strain and arguments in your marriage. You have debt, but you also have to maintain a certain lifestyle, do certain things, provide things for your kids, and so your debt continues to increase.  It becomes this monster that controls your life. 

Now, one thing in particular that the Bible warns against is borrowing against surety.  Look at what Prov. 22:26-27 says,  "26 Don’t be one of those who enter agreements, who put up security for loans.27 If you have nothing with which to pay, even your bed will be taken from under you."  Borrowing against surety means I am borrowing with nothing to secure my loan.  I am borrowing simply on my promise to repay.  It’s called credit cards.  Credit cards represent a great danger, because if you don’t pay, they are getting their payment somehow. Be cautious about getting into debt.

2. Pay all your debts.  You pay what you owe.  Rom. 13:7-8 says,  "7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law."  The only continuous debt that we need to carry in our lives is the debt of loving other people.  Everything else we need to pay off in a timely manner. 

 We need to pay our debts.  So, how do you do that?  Well, this is pretty complicated.  You have to spend less than you earn.  If you are going to pay off your debt and not accrue more debt, you have to spend less than you earn.  It’s a fiscal diet.  That means you have to think through your spending.  It’s called a budget.  Thinking through a budget is not hard to do.  You simply come up with all the sources of income you have.  You write those down.  Then you think through all your expenditures.  You start with the most important ones.  You take those out first.  Then come all the other expenditures.  And you don’t spend more than you earn.  Budgets aren’t always fun.  They aren’t always easy, but they are necessary if we are to get debt under control. 

Another thing you can do to eliminate debt is pray about your purchases.  Anytime you are going to buy something that costs more than say $100, pray about it before you buy it.  Give God a chance to either supply that need or tell you no before you go buy it.  Give yourself at least a day to pray about it before you go buy it.

3. Lend freely to others.  While the Bible cautions against borrowing, it actually encourages lending.  Look at Dt. 15:7-8,  "7 If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be."  Biblically, lending is not a business decision.  It’s a compassion decision.  It’s about caring about someone else and providing a means to help people who have less than us.

A lot of people are hesitant about lending to friends, family, church friends.  Why? Two reasons.  First, because we approach it as a business decision instead of a compassion decision.  We get upset because the money is not paid in a timely manner.  We hold it over them about how they use the money we lend them.  We worry about if we will ever see it again.  Those are business decisions.  But if we give based on generosity, if we give because we care more for the other person than we do for our money, then those concerns don’t really matter.  I encourage you to help other people with the things that God has given you.  But here’s the way you should do it.  View it as a gift.  That way, if you don’t ever get it back, then that’s okay, and if you do get even some of it back, then it’s a bonus.  Also, realize that it may be someone else who pays you back.  It may be at some other point sometime down the road that God uses someone else in your life to supply a need, and you get repaid.  God is going to take care of you particularly as you share his heart of compassion for others.  Then, let love and wisdom guide you.  Sometimes, lending to someone else is not the most loving, most compassionate, or wisest thing to do.  Because, the reason they are in need is because of some bad decisions in their lives.  Maybe they are in financial need because they refuse to work.  Maybe giving them money will only further some of their destructive choices.  So, you have to let love and wisdom guide you.

Then, the second reason we are hesitant to lend to other is because we don’t really have the money to lend because we are stretched to the limit.  Again, we have to get our debt under control so we are free to use our money the way God wants us to use it to impact other people.

Ultimately, we need to learn to rely on God more than on our credit cards.  We need to trust in the fact that God loves us and cares for us and is going to take care of us.  That is the real danger of debt, that we can come to depend on our credit more than our God.  God has already taken care of the biggest debt in our lives when Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross.  Col. 2:13-14: "13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses.14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross."  If we can trust God when it comes to meeting the greatest need in our lives, paying the greatest debt we ever owed, then we can trust him with the rest of our life as well.

Preparing Your Kids for Back to School 2020

 

Every year for the past forty-two years, back to school has been a significant time in my life, either as a student, as the husband of a teacher, as a parent of children returning to school, or, in the last year as the father and father-in-law of new teachers.  Back to school has always been a time of mixed emotions for me.  There was the excitement of starting a new year: the expectation of wearing those new tennis shoes that you were sure were going to make you run faster, the anticipation of wearing your cool new clothes, the joy of getting back together with your friends, the excitement of your awesome new school supplies.  There was also some sadness because of the end of another summer and saying good-bye to all the fun and freedom that comes with that.  And there was some measure of fear and anxiety associated with whether you were going to get a good teacher, how hard your workload was going to be, and whether you were going to have any of your friends in your class.

This year, many of those same emotions are still going to be in place as our kids return to school.  However, in many other ways Back to School 2020 will be significantly different than any return to school in at least the last 100 years.  Distant learning, hybrid learning, mask orders, social distancing, modified seating/recess/lunchtime/hallway behavior, sanitation and disinfecting procedures, temperature scans, COVID screenings, and suspended extra-curriculars are just a few of the significant changes our children will be experiencing this new school year.  As a result, they will likely experience a new range of emotions as they head back to school: things like significant fear and anxiety, anger, stress, confusion, irritation, depression, and feeling overwhelmed.

This year, like any other, there are certain things we need to do to help our kids be prepared for school: having their school supplies: establishing bedtime, wake-up, and get ready routines; making sure they have lunches packed or lunch payment ready, etc.  This year, unlike any other, there are new things we will need to do to help our kids prepare for school: making sure they have masks, teaching them to social distance, making sure they understand good hygiene.  While those external safety precautions are important for our kids, I believe there are some things we can do to support their emotional well-being that are even more important.

First, reassure them that they are loved.  Whatever decisions you make about school, make sure they know that you love them and that every decision you are making for them is because you love them.  Maybe this year, take the time to tell them you love them more often.  Give them more hugs.  Send notes of encouragement in their backpacks or lunches.  Text them (when not in class) messages of  support. 

Also, make sure they know that their teachers love them.  This year, more than any other ever, will be the most significant outpouring of sacrificial love by teachers for their students.  They will be working extra hours, buying additional supplies out of their own pockets, observing new procedures and protocols, taking on added responsibilities, comforting and assuring children, finding new ways to educate, all while putting at risk their own health and safety.  And they will be doing it all because they love their students.  Be sure your kids know that.  

The Bible says, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." (1 John 4:18, ESV) Making sure your children know they are loved will be one of the best antidotes to the fear, anxiety, and other emotions they will be experiencing this year.  Most importantly, make sure they know that God loves them.  Teach them that God cares about what they are going through and that they can talk to him anytime that they are feeling afraid or overwhelmed.

Second, encourage them that we've got this.  It would be really easy this year to focus on how hard all of this is.  Mask requirements are too restrictive.  The school is not doing a good job with their policies or keeping us informed.  Our children are being placed in danger by going to school or our family's well-being is placed in jeopardy because the kids are not in school.  Our children are struggling with grasping concepts because the educational environment has been significantly altered.  Important traditions and hopes and expectations we had for our seniors may once again be impacted.  

It will definitely be a hard school year and there will be plenty to complain about.  But if we focus on those things, we will increase our children's fear and anxiety about this school year.  We don't need to sugarcoat things.  We need to be honest with our kids that this is tough. But we also need to continually reassure them that we've got this and that we are all working together to get through it.  Support them.  Listen to them.  Challenge them.  Carve out time when they get home each day to hear about their day.  Have dinner together at least four nights a week.  Help them with their homework.  Laugh together.

Again, the Bible offers wise counsel for times like this: "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."  (Ephesians 4:29, ESV)  If we could apply those words to everything we say to our kids or in their presence this year, it will help them be much more successful this year.  Ask yourself if the things you are saying are building up your child, if they are the appropriate thing to say to help with the occasion, and if they are a demonstration of grace to everyone who hears.

Third, teach them that God is in control.  There will likely be a lot of things this year that seem beyond our control or completely out of control.  There will be questions that we don't know the answer to and circumstances that we are unsure how they will turn out.  Friends, family members, or teachers may contract the coronavirus.  School may shut back down.  Policies and procedures may change throughout the year. 

When life seems out of control, you and your children need to know there is someone who is in control.  When the storms rage in life, you need an anchor that will hold fast.  When it seems like life is falling to pieces, you need someone who can put them all together.  The only place you will find that kind of peace is in knowing that God is in control.  Ephesians 1:11 says that "God works all things according to the counsel of his will."  No matter how chaotic or out of control this world may seem, the best assurance for us and our children is in knowing that God is in control, that he is working all of this according to his plan, and that our lives are in his hands.

 

Speak Less, Listen More

God laid this post on my heart several weeks ago, but I've been holding off on writing it, mainly because I've been trying to apply the message of this post to myself.  I've been reading books, websites, and blog posts by Christian leaders on some of the hot button issues in our society; listening to friends and their opinions on the dominant cultural matters; reading posts from my friends who come from a broad spectrum of racial, cultural, political, economic, educational, religious, and geographic (both U.S. and global) backgrounds on all issues; listening to varied media outlets and a whole bunch of videos shared with me about COVID-19.  I wanted to make sure I was listening before I added anything to the conversation.

Having said that, this post is not about my opinions on race, politics, or COVID-19.  I have convictions on all of those things that range from strongly held to highly uncertain, all of which are seasoned with a huge amount of humility and grace.  I am by no means an expert in those fields, and my general approach is what Paul outlines in Romans 13 and 14: to submit to every governing authority as an instrument of God (unless submitting to that authority means being disobedient to God), to fulfill God's law by loving other people, not to quarrel or pass judgment over matters of opinion, and not to cause another believer to stumble by my actions with regard to matters of conscience over which we may disagree. 

So, this post is not about presenting my perspective on those various issues.  What concerns me is the way in which I see believers interacting with these various issues and, more specifically, putting their opinions out there for all to see.  Now, don't get me wrong, I definitely believe that as believers we need to seek to understand how our faith and the gospel interact with and direct every area of our lives.  I believe we need to do the hard work of digging into the word of God, appropriately interpreting it in its grammatical-historical context, understanding the timeless principles found in Scripture, and applying those principles in our modern context.  I do believe that the gospel has a lot to say about race, power, justice, poverty, the sanctity of life, gender and sexuality, and freedom of speech.  I believe that a biblical perspective on the kingdom of God and our citizenship in heaven has many implications for how we interact with government, politics, and our role as citizens of earthly kingdoms.  I think that a biblical worldview should affect how we view matters of individual freedom, submission to governing authorities, and religious liberty.  We should think through these issues biblically and prayerfully while seeking the direction of the Holy Spirit; and then we should enter into dialogue with our culture about these issues.

The problem that concerns me in so many of these issues currently is that many Christians are not entering into dialogue.  They are giving a diatribe.  They are hastily posting on social media their opinions and reactions to these polarizing, hot-button issues without taking the time to hear from other people or to consider how those posts may impact their unbelieving friends' understanding of and receptivity to the gospel.  

Earlier this week I saw someone use the analogy that your posts on your personal social media page are like the decorations in your home.  You put on the walls things that are an expression of yourself and your personal tastes, and if someone else doesn't like it, they don't get to come into your home and express their dislike.  I think that is a poor analogy.  Ten years ago, as social media was just beginning to take off, I wrote an article on developing "An Ethic of Social Media."    I said that posting on social media is like speaking into a megaphone in a large crowded room.  Even if your profile is set to private, anyone who is in the room with you has the freedom to leave the room and repeat what you said.  Thus, the many biblical instructions related to speech and the use of the tongue should govern the things we post about on social media.

In our current environment, God keeps calling to my mind one particular Scripture.  James gives this instruction: "My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness." (James 1:19-20 ESV)  It seems that in 2020 we have inverted God's instruction.  We are quickly angered and offended by things that are happening in the world, that our government is doing, that people of a different life experience are saying, that our "opponents" are saying.  And, we are quick to post our criticisms, complaints, defenses, anger and rebuttals to those things.  

What we desperately need right now is James's simple instruction to speak less and listen more.  On race, we need to listen to what our African-American brothers and sisters (Christian brothers and sisters, not simply an organization or movement) are saying about their experiences with injustice, racism, poverty, crime, and disadvantage.  We need to listen to what business owners, police officers, and community leaders are saying.  We need to listen to historians and political analysts from a variety of backgrounds.  On the pandemic, we need to listen to scientists, epidemiologists, infectious disease experts, and governing authorities, as well as mental health experts, economists, and the critics and counter-points to those.  On politics, I think we most need to listen to each other, our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends and family members.  We need to speak less and listen more.  I don't think we have the right to post our opinions on these matters until we have genuinely listened to other people.  And even after we have listened, maybe we need to hold off on hitting "publish" on our thoughts on these issues.

My concern is that as believers, when we post our personal opinions on these matters before we have actually listened to others, we do damage to our ability to share the gospel with people who have differing perspectives from us.  I do believe there are times when we must stand up and speak out on issues that God speaks clearly about, but we must always consider how that impacts the ultimate message that we want people to hear, the gospel.  Several years ago, I had a church member who was running for a local office in a highly charged election.  People in our community had strong opinions about the election.  One day, he came by my house and wanted to put a campaign sign in my yard.  I told him, "I love you, but I can't put that sign in my yard.  I have one message that I need people to trust me for, and it is not who to vote for."  Since that time, I have a personal policy that I will never put a political sign in my yard, because I don't ever want any other message that I communicate to get in the way of my ability to share the gospel with people.

That is the one area where we need to speak more.  One of the things that has grieved me most in 2020 is seeing professing Christians post more about COVID-19, race issues, or politics than I have ever seen them post about Jesus.  If we are going to speak up, let's make sure that before we speak up about anything else, we speak up about the gospel.  Let's share our stories.  Let's share with others that we have a good God who made us and everything else in all the universe to point to him, but that we now live in a broken and hurting world because we have all rebelled against God and have chosen to live our lives our ways.  Let's tell people that there is a consequence for our rebellion against God and that consequence is death, physical, emotional and spiritual death.  And then, please, let's share with people the good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth, became a man, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross to pay the price for our sin, then rose from the grave to overcome our sin and its consequences so that everyone who believes in him might have forgiveness of sin, adoption into God's family, and eternal life!  Let's speak up about that!