Pastors Are Not the Only Ones Needing Courage

Be patient with me as I put another perspective on the table of civic engagement discussion. This is a longer article than my normal opining.

My journey into civic engagement (politics) began nearly 15 years ago. It is a long story about how I, as a pastor, made the final steps out of compartmentalizing my faith with regards to public policy and cultural concerns to embracing a comprehensive biblical worldview which claims Christ as Lord in ALL arenas of life. It has been both an exciting and bumpy journey.

I start with that disclaimer because I understand first-hand, up close, and with numerous anecdotal stories, the dynamics and challenges of being a pastor trying to lead a congregation through the landmines of what is labeled “politics”. No one has to lecture me about its divisiveness and polarization within an evangelical church. American Christians have so absorbed pietism, compartmentalism, and pragmatism into their spiritual psyche that for a pastor to speak on any culturally controversial theme is to risk social media blow back, church member departures, and sadly, alienation from colleagues. Pastors, on the other hand, have exchanged theological consistency with pragmatic expediency that they are reluctant (actually resistant) to tackle cultural concerns from their pulpits. All of these dynamics have placed the Church in the most impotent and anemic position with regards to public policy, despite its incredible promise and possibility. As I have often said, the Church and its pastors are the linchpin for either social renewal or deterioration. If the Church doesn’t arise and speak to the challenges of our era with a fearless commitment to biblical worldview then it is game over. There is no alternate plan.

So, it is with no small degree of sympathy that I understand the frustration of numerous conservative Christian activists who lament the absence of leadership of pastors in these great cultural debates. Believe me, I have stood alone and with a few courageous pastors who have dared to challenge Babylon for the soul of this nation. I have worked for over 15 years in various forms of outreach towards pastors with regards to civic engagement. I have numerous ideas as to how pastors might best be approached and solicited to the great concerns we face as a culture and nation. I understand their ministry concerns and pressures. I “get” the problematic issues intricately and have empathy for their position.

Yes, it’s their calling to speak to the evil of this day.

Yes, it’s their calling to stand and oppose injustice.

Yes, they are to be faithful to God and Him alone.

Yes, they are not to be swayed by the people’s acceptance or rejection of the truth.

I could go on and list the numerous ways pastors should be demonstrating more courage in this hour.

But I want to make sure we understand that pastoral courage is not the only courage which needs to be evaluated.

Allow me, if you will, a simple story to illustrate what I am talking about. This story is just one of many I could share with this general theme, but I think it most clearly illustrates the point.

Years ago, I received a phone call from a man I will call a “conservative activist”. He was a Christian man, obviously passionate about Jesus, the Bible, and seeing a return of America to her Christian roots and ethos. He lived in another state but had heard of our work in South Carolina and wanted to talk more about getting pastors engaged in the battles of elections and public policy.

He lamented for some time on the phone his frustration and criticism that pastors were civically disengaged. As a passionate patriot, he retold me the stories (and I patiently listened) of all the pastors who had “stepped up” during the Revolutionary War and led the fight for liberty. He longed to see a great contingent of articulate, biblically astute pastors once again ride over the hill of our ills to lead this nation out of moral bankruptcy. Like many well-intended, warm-hearted laypeople in the conservative movement, he understood the stakes and what needed to happen, but his frustration levels had spilled over into contempt.

Who was I to argue with that? I agreed there was a problem.

At some level, who can really blame him?

However, I tried to remind him of the unique pressures pastors face when approaching these issues. My response was not so much an apologetic for their disengagement, but rather an attempt at perspective.

I reminded him that pastors are navigating waters the layperson might be overlooking…

Today’s pastor is not always prepared or trained for such engagement and they feel inept.

For those pastors who may have been trained, many have embraced a theological pietism which pushes them away from such engagement.

Today’s pastor has been told (by board members and parishioners) to be more of a CEO rather than a prophetic voice to the culture.

Today’s pastor worries about being “hired” and “fired” by easily offended members who can force the issue.

Today’s pastor, like many Christian employees and businesspeople, are of middle income means and worry about personal income and expenses and are reluctant to precipitate an exodus of church members.

Like I said, this article isn’t a defense to excuse pastors from their calling, but a simple reminder that even the Reverend Jonathan Edwards, the notable pastor/theologian of the First Great Awakening, was fired from his Northampton Church. Yes, he was an historical hero, but that doesn’t mean all the bills get paid. It’s easy for the layperson to flippantly tell the pastor to trust God or even provoke the pastor to engage. The Christian activist can be aggravated that the pastor is not engaged but forget that the repercussions of his engagement may not be exactly the same as theirs. This reality needs to be appreciated.

My friend was reluctant to let pastors off the hook (not that I was trying to let them off either). He continued his criticism until I began to ask him some important questions. I’m not sure why I went this direction that evening. Perhaps I was tired. Perhaps I needed to vent some things myself. Whatever the reason, I decided I wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easy.

“Where do you go to Church?” (He told me the name.)

“Is your pastor engaged in government or cultural concerns?”

“Oh no, he wouldn’t touch these important moral issues with a 10-foot pole”, he responded.

“Then why are you attending there?”, I asked.

“Well”, he responded, “My kids go to youth there and they like going to church and it seems to keep their attention, so my wife and I feel like that’s good”.

It was at this point that my passion began to rise.

I said, “Pastors aren’t the only problem when it comes to lack of courage.”

“What do you mean”, he replied.

At this point I am not sure whether an anointing manifested, or I was aggravated, but I decided to drop the mic.

“The problem actually may be Christians like you. When is it your turn to be courageous? When do you look at your family and arise and tell them it’s time to attend a new church? When does a civically engaged church get prioritized over the giant entertainment centers? When does real biblical worldview training take precedence over fog machines, lights, X-Boxes, HD televisions, and stand-up comedy routines? There are churches out there which have a highly engaged pastor, but he is struggling to make ends meet at that church. He has stood for righteousness and born the brunt of ridicule, abandonment, and labored to establish the good ministry but is overwhelmed that there are no people or dollars to go forward. While people like you sit in these compartmentalized, disengaged, fearful churches with your energy and tithe invested in that work while this poor man of God can’t rub two nickels together or service the nursery. When is it your turn to be courageous and get up out of that mausoleum and go help a guy who is trying to save this nation?”

Silence…

I continued…

“Perhaps these churches and pastors will get the message if people like you, who are so upset about pastors not engaging politics, would get up and find a church where the pastor was engaging and support that man and that church. Maybe, this war over worldviews could be addressed if the people who claim to be concerned about it would actually put their feet in those churches and money in those ministries who are actually speaking truth to the death, decay, and decadence of the culture.”

“I understand your frustration with pastors. I am frustrated too. However, I am also frustrated that the hundreds of ideas I have to challenge the culture with a biblical worldview are sitting on a shelf waiting for God’s people who say they are concerned to join hands with me and back it up with their attendance and tithe.”

As you might imagine, the call ended shortly after that.

It’s easy to pick at the speck in another’s eye…

Your own log? Not so much…

If you have read this far, then I want to simply say that the era we have been born into is going to take courage on everyone’s part. Standing for biblical truth is going to produce hostility and adversity from numerous directions. Jesus didn’t incarnate Himself because He needed to win a popularity contest. He was enfleshed to create a Church which was commissioned and empowered to disciple nations and teach them all things He commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). Granted, execution of the Great Commission will look differently as churches implement their unique callings and strategies of ministry, but at the end of the day, we are all responsible for becoming “salt and light” to our culture.

I am currently tasked in my assignment and ministry to reach pastors in order to help them navigate and engage this important arena of civic government. New templates and fresh strategies are currently arising to do this important work. Other organizations and ministries have strategies in this endeavor as well, so together we will pray and believe that courageous leaders will arise to engage the “political” process in the future.

This is also on my mind because I am digesting Ron Dreher’s book, “Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents”. His thesis in this book, as well as his previous work, “The Benedict Option”, is to ask important questions as to what Christians must do to preserve their Faith in an adverse and hostile era. Many would conclude his answers to be radical, but historically he proves that moments like the one we are facing demands courageous responses from God’s people. We can no longer simply choose the most culturally or spiritually convenient path in any aspect of life. We will be called upon to make difficult and yes, even courageous decisions. As Christians, we can no longer deflect courage to our leaders alone. What will we all do to step up and be fearless in our faith applications? If you haven’t read these two books yet, I cannot encourage you enough to order them now and think carefully about what he suggests. His thesis may have been radical 20 years ago, but today seems plausible.

That said, what should the frustrated Christian church member do to demonstrate their own courage? How might that conservative activist in the pew start to remove their own “log” in their eye and practice what they expect from pastors? Let me offer a couple of suggestions.

1. Ask the Lord for a good spirit, a right attitude, and a kind heart before making any statement or decisions.

In a day of great political polarization and coarseness, we need Christians to speak and behave like…well…Christians. Our current culture lacks most aspects of decorum and civility. We don’t have to descend into the pit of smarminess and snark like the rest of the world. We can disagree with one another without being a jerk. Therefore, ask the Lord to create inside of you a right spirit and calm heart. Passion for civic engagement does not mean acting like a tempestuous child.

2. Set up a time to meet with your pastor or designated staff pastor and ask for the plan as to how your church will engage the civic arena.

You are gathering facts and actual belief systems. This is to be a discussion. This is not a time for debate. The reason is because you are not the pastor. You may not even be in leadership. If you are in leadership, then I would suppose a discussion would be even easier to arrange. The point is to verify and make sure what the theology of your pastor actually is with regards to civic engagement. It is possible you are on the same page and he is simply unaware this is a gap in church life. It could be he is paralyzed by the fear of stepping into an unfamiliar arena and concerned he makes a mistake. Let this meeting be a clarifying one and not an ultimatum.

3. Identify your relationship to your local church.

This article is not meant to open the can of ecclesiology and discuss the place and priority of the local church (although that needs to be done). Rather, I would simply challenge the conservative activist to evaluate the nature of your relationship with your local church. If it is a meaningful and significant part of your walk and history, then perhaps God is calling you to be a point of helpful awareness to the need of civic engagement in the mission of the church. You are to stay and be a witness or facilitator of this important mission field. If your attachment to your local church is tenuous or superficial, then perhaps this is the moment to find a more passionately engaged fellowship where you can plant, develop roots, and bear fruit in the ministry. My point is, you cannot complain about your pastor or church if you do not understand your commitment to its purpose. I suppose this could be summed up by answering the question, “Why are you there?”

4. Execute the purpose of your church choice and attendance.

Once you understand your relationship to your local church then execute and fulfill that purpose. If you are “called” to be a witness to the church’s need to engage the culture, then do it. Find a way to be a positive solution to what you may see as a problem. If you are unable to do that or frustrated by what you see, then perhaps this is God’s way of nudging you to another fellowship. Either way, God is asking you to courageously step ahead.

Whenever I brief pastors on civic engagement and public policy, I always take a few minutes to explain the church ministry pie chart. Every local church has a list (written or unwritten) of ministries represented in their church that could be presented in a pie chart. Every ministry “slice” represents a certain amount of time, attention, and priority. Obviously, ministries like: Worship, Discipleship, Benevolence, Youth, Kids, Nursery, Outreach, and a host of others could be identified as slices on this pie chart. All of them are important, but each one demonstrating different sized slices in emphasis in actual church life. Perhaps the Worship slice is larger than the Outreach slice. This isn’t bad. It is reality of emphasis. The issue isn’t making the “Civic Reformation” slice the largest slice on the chart, but rather asking the question, “Is it on the chart at all?”

I recognize, and hopefully the conservative activist does as well, that each pastor has a ministry lane which means these ministry slices may look different from church to church. That is to be expected. When I was a pastor, the Civic Reformation slice was probably too large and needed to be scaled back. Other pastors have slices that are way too small. What becomes problematic is when a defined commission from the Scriptures is not represented at all.

I really am not calling for a mass exodus of conservative Christian activists from their pietistic and compartmentalized churches. At least not yet. What I am calling for is a careful evaluation of our courage levels and willingness to take the step to put our money and service in a church and ministry that is demonstrating the courage for that which is important. Let’s make sure all “logs” are removed from our eyes so when the moment comes for a wise and Spirit-led decision, we can see clearly.