I was driving through Nashville last night with a friend, and we happened to pass by one of those SBC billboards that read, “Jesus Cares…and so do Southern Baptists.” We chatted a little about the impact of that on the city and the motivation behind it. My first thought was that it’s going to take a whole lot more than a billboard to communicate that to Nashville or anywhere else. More importantly, though, it occurred to me that if one is genuinely and consistently demonstrating unconditional love, a billboard is unnecessary.
Let me not paint in brush strokes too broad to do justice. Certainly, many people who came to this event care deeply about the people around them. Thousands of people were moved from their comfort zones to visit total strangers around the city in order to tell them about the love of God. There is much to be said for that. Surely, there is love behind those actions.
The question is whether that is enough. For those unsuspecting home owners who received a visit from one of the messengers and learned of and received the love of God for the first time, it probably was. But if these disciples of Jesus want to communicate the love of God, there must be more than a simple visit to middle class America with a Gospel tract.
You see, I have a problem with reading a billboard declaring our love for the world and then, as I stated in my previous post, resolutions are introduced that call for actions that speak to the contrary.
As my friend and I continued our conversation last night, we talked of the media coverage of the event and how we knew with certainty that the reporting would either be slanted to make the Convention look as bad as possible or they would focus on the most controversial and “newsworthy.” I don’t fault them for the latter, it is their jobs.
However, what would be more newsworthy than to hear resolutions coming from the floor of the SBC that, instead of running away from the world, were world-engaging in their focus? What would happen if a resolution was introduced and passed that encouraged every Southern Baptist Church to either begin supporting or work together to establish hospices for AIDS patients? What if a resolution were passed encouraging churches to begin developing training initiatives for young people to help them understand their culture and actively engage their world in their schools; to encourage them to get as involved as possible in all aspects of their culture in order to be a witness of the love of God to everyone around them? Would that communicate love to Nashville and the surrounding world?
Or how about this one: a resolution to encourage every church in every part of the country to begin a cultural analysis of their community and to start at least one ministry that reached out to the “least of these” and helped them become the human beings God created them to be. This would be top news because it would be such an unexpected development at the Southern Baptist Convention.
There are many churches all across this land that already do many of these things. What the billboard says is true, but our actions, as a body, fail to communicate that truth. We seem petty, self-centered and concerned only with self-preservation. We must, at all cost, preserve our Christian interests.
Is there a place for voices that look at the world and attempt to point out the dangers of living a life apart from God; the “voices crying out in the wilderness”? Should there be those who sound the warning of cultural fault lines? Should there be those who look at the world and say, this…this right here is dangerous; this is contrary to what is true and these are the consequences that could await you at the end of the path? I really think so. It is certainly what I attempt to do with this blog, but we must not do it unless we are prepared to love (through our actions as well as our words), as loudly as we speak our analyses.
I am guilty. I acknowledge that. I have so often been so defensive in my stance against the changing culture that I have failed to balance that analysis with actions that demonstrate a healthier and God-centered lifestyle. But I am under conviction and looking for ways to make changes.
The Southern Baptist Convention can do the same. We can acknowledge that we, like the Pharisees of old, have been so concerned with preserving our Christian subculture and defense shelters from the world, that we’ve failed to adequately engage the world in such a way that they will know, beyond doubt, that we love them. Then, and only then, might they listen to the Truth that we have to communicate. The cool thing? They will have already heard it.
NOTE: I only caught part of Richard Land's report on the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, but apparently, there were some good words regarding ministry to homosexual individuals. Read Joe and Steve's post on the subject here.
Labels: David C. Price
