{"id":4709,"date":"2014-09-24T12:20:58","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T17:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=4709"},"modified":"2014-09-24T12:20:58","modified_gmt":"2014-09-24T17:20:58","slug":"less-gushing-more-blushing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=4709","title":{"rendered":"LESS GUSHING, MORE BLUSHING"},"content":{"rendered":"

My piece is posted on Ref 21, but you may comment here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Biographical description many pastors write for the web site of their church: \u201cMarried to the most beautiful woman in the world.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the best youth pastor in the country.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the smartest guy in every room\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I often joke that the most beautiful woman in the world<\/i> must be getting very tired.\u00a0 How would you like to be the wife to thousands of pastors?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The line about the youth pastor came out of the mouth of a seasoned pastor.\u00a0 He clearly wanted us to know how special our youth pastor was.\u00a0 I remember thinking that our senior pastor could not possibly know every youth pastor in the country to make such an assessment.\u00a0 Even if that were possible, it would mean our senior pastor would be God, for only God can determine who is really best, or more importantly, faithful. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The last quote is a direct quote from the address of an evangelical leader about another evangelical leader.\u00a0 Both guys certainly have much to offer, but it shows how even good people can get caught up in hyperbole.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was doing radio, one of my most faithful listeners told me that I \u201cwas the smartest guy on radio.\u201d\u00a0 I told him that was depressing to hear.\u00a0 Was the bar really that low?\u00a0 A bit more seriously, I gently asked him if he had listened to every single show on American radio.\u00a0 He was simply trying to encourage me, but again it demonstrates how much we Americans love superlatives.\u00a0 \u201cGood, better, best.\u00a0 Never let it rest.\u00a0 Till your good is better, and your better is best.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is nothing wrong of course with shooting to do excellent work.\u00a0 I attempt to do so myself.\u00a0 But the amount of cheerleading among Americans, including us evangelicals, needs to be seriously monitored.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Evangelicals aren\u2019t the only ones doing this sort of thing.\u00a0 Sure, many of us continue to say D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was the \u201cgreatest preacher of the twentieth-century,\u201d but Baylor University got in the act when it posted its \u201c12 Most Effective Preachers.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

We Americans love this stuff.\u00a0 Who are the people that really matter?\u00a0 Perhaps we know one of them.\u00a0 \u00a0Maybe if we follow them on Twitter they will return the favor.\u00a0 Spoiler alert: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones does not have a Twitter account.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not only do those who supposedly matter get our attention, but big things do as well.\u00a0 Big Christian conferences are a cottage industry in America.\u00a0 Good things surely happen at such events.\u00a0 I\u2019ve attended and spoken at some.\u00a0 However, are we enamored, even being seduced by these big events?\u00a0 Are we in danger of trumpeting the impressive numbers as a barometer for their legitimacy?\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to even entertain such questions, especially when lots of money and jobs are tied up with them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

About a year ago I was talking with a dear friend who does men\u2019s ministry in Canada.\u00a0 He is Canadian, but has spent quite a bit of time in the US.\u00a0 As we talked about various ways to minister to men, he mentioned that Canadians are suspicious of big things.\u00a0 It is why Promise Keepers was not a big deal in Canada, but was the<\/i> thing for many years here in the States.\u00a0 Promise Keepers has now gone the way of the Dodo bird, but other big things are amply filling the vacuum that was temporarily left.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps a restaurant chain can help us gain a better perspective.\u00a0 Here in Austin we have several places which serve barbecue.\u00a0 One in particular stands out for its tagline.\u00a0 Rudy\u2019s bills itself as \u201cThe worst barbecue in Texas.\u201d\u00a0 You can\u2019t set the bar any lower than that.\u00a0 Actually, the barbecue is quite good as the consistently brisk business attests.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe Christians ought to consider a little less fanfare about how great their particular organization does things.\u00a0 Triumphalism is endemic in American culture, but do Christians really need to go along with such silliness?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Years ago, I interviewed Cal Thomas on his important book, Blinded by Might: Can the Religious Right Save America?<\/i>\u00a0 Thomas co-authored the book with Ed Dobson.\u00a0 Both authors served in positions of influence during the heyday of The Moral Majority.\u00a0 When Jerry Falwell died, Cal Thomas wrote a moving obituary, but still was willing to say what needed to be said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The movement [The Moral Majority] also had its downside, because it tended to detract from a Christian’s primary responsibility of telling people the “good news” that redemption comes only through Jesus Christ. At times, this central message seemed to be replaced by one suggesting that a shortcut to moral renewal might come through Washington and the Republican Party.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My only disappointment with Blinded by Might<\/i> was that its message did not get out earlier.\u00a0 Imagine if Thomas and Dobson instead of being vilified or marginalized for writing were honored by The Moral Majority for having the courage to speak truth to power.\u00a0 Now ask yourself this diagnostic question: How many people do you know who have given a pointed critique to their own Christian organization and not suffered repercussions for doing so?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cLess gushing, more blushing\u201d would furnish the kind of culture where people can appropriately raise concerns within their organizations without being labelled a troublemaker.\u00a0 A sign of real health in any organization is where concerns, even pointed ones, can be openly discussed without any fear of reprisals.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.reformation21.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/less-gushing-more-blushing.php<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My piece is posted on Ref 21, but you may comment here. Biographical description many pastors write for the web site of their church: \u201cMarried to the most beautiful woman in the world.\u201d \u201cWe have the best youth pastor in the country.\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s the smartest guy in every room\u2026\u201d I often joke that the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-character","category-christianity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4709"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4711,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4709\/revisions\/4711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}