Church: This Has to Stop

The mission of the Church is not to impose the Law of God on others. Such attempts at imposition were what the Pharisees, those first-century Judean legalists, were guilty of and that Jesus so often condemned.

The mission of the Church is to proclaim God's Word, both Law and Gospel, so that all people can, by the power of the Holy Spirit, receive the gifts of repentance and saving faith in Jesus Christ.

It's through the proclamation that Jesus Christ, God the Son, has died and risen to save sinners like you and me from the eternal death sentence we deserve, that God gives faith to us. It's through such God-given faith that people have eternal life with God.

I have repented for a past in which I, as a pastor of Christ's Church, engaged in partisan politics.

While individual Christians are free to be as involved in politics as they wish, the Church and its pastors should not, except in rare circumstances, get involved politically.

We are seeing today in the US and Europe the tragic results of pastors and churches adulterating the proclamation of God's Word by indulging the vain conceit that their political preferences come straight from Christ. People are turning away from Christ because they think there's some actual connection between the Lord we claim to follow and the politics some Christians push.

Whether the agenda of these Christian legalists is politically conservative or liberal, it's a lie, an idolatry of self or of ideology that, whether intended or not, pushes Christ from His throne and gives people an excuse not to listen to God's saving Word about Christ.

It has to stop. For Christ's sake, it has to stop.

1 Pastor's Response to Yesterday's Executive Order

Yesterday, over on Facebook, I posted this reaction to an executive order signed yesterday that promotes and legitimizes the exercise of political influence by churches and other religious entities.

As a Christian and a pastor, not to mention as an American, I am deeply disturbed by the executive order signed today. 

The Church is not a political institution, nor can one draw a straight line from Jesus and a set of political convictions. 

To push a political agenda in the name of the God revealed in Jesus Christ is to take God's name in vain. 

The mission of the Church is to make disciples, bringing transformation and new life to all who believe. 

Churches that seek votes rather than pursuing Christ's great commission are faithless.
Church political engagement is also ineffectual because transformed lives can't be legislated or coerced. 

People and societies can only be transformed as a result of the work of God in the lives of people who voluntarily believe in and follow Christ. 

This is not a political statement. It's a plea for the Church to refrain from dishonoring Christ through political activity. 

This executive order is bad for the Church and bad for America.

I later added these comments to the post, as it appeared on a page frequented by colleagues:

We [as Christians] know that the world finds the gospel of Christ offensive.

But political activism by the Church makes Christianity odious to non-believers for the wrong reasons.

This order will encourage those who undertake political activity in Jesus' name to extend their activities, harming the spread of the gospel.

Any time the Church receives special treatment from the State, the Church's proclamation of Christ is hurt.

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Stick to the job at hand, Franklin!

I have long been an admirer of evangelist Billy Graham.

For years, I financially supported his organization with small contributions.

My ministry and my life as a Christian have been enriched by attending two Billy Graham Schools of Evangelism.

And, in what turned out to be the penultimate evangelism campaign of his illustrious career, I served on five different committees for the Billy Graham Mission in Cincinnati, held at Paul Brown Stadium. I served (and was the only Lutheran on) the invitation committee that asked Dr. Graham to come to the Queen City. Later, I chaired a regional prayer team, two other teams, and, finally, as chair of the counseling team, that group of counselors who met people who came forward to give their lives to Christ after Graham issued his call to faith in Christ.

I've also read and learned a lot from Billy Graham's books like Facing Death, The Holy Spirit, Angels: God's Secret Agents, and others. Billy Graham's preaching and teaching have been a source of inspiration to me from the moment I came to faith in Jesus Christ.

Along with Martin Luther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Phillipp Melanchthon, Martin Luther King, Jr., and my mentor, Pastor Bruce Schein, Billy Graham is one of my heroes as a Christian servant-leader.

But I have become disgusted with the overt political pronouncements being made by Mr. Graham's son, Franklin, now head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA).

Billy Graham grew close to presidents, of course, especially to Democrat Lyndon Johnson, for whom Graham almost decided to lead the War on Poverty. Graham was nearly as close to Johnson's successor, Richard Nixon.

[Billy Graham and Lyndon Johnson]

After being used by Nixon though, Billy Graham decided that while he would be available as a pastor to presidents, he would never again allow himself or his message to be co-opted by a political figure. He had bigger fish to fry: to make disciples of Jesus Christ by proclaiming the good news of new life and the forgiveness of sins for all who repent and trustingly surrender to Jesus.

When pastors or evangelists get involved with politics, they risk alienating groups of people who associate political parties and candidates with the good news, the gospel, and so reject Jesus with the candidates or parties they don't like.

Franklin Graham seems to ignore this lesson learned by his father. (One I've had to learn myself after mistakenly making a run for the state house of representatives while still serving as a pastor.) The younger Graham has recently made statements that seem to intimate that God preferred Donald Trump in the recent election.

That's ridiculous. I guarantee that I know as many committed, prayerful Christians who supported candidates other than Trump in the recent presidential election as those who did back the real estate mogul.

I think that it's fine for Graham to offer an opening prayer at the Trump Inauguration this coming Friday. I myself have offered prayers for the openings of a legislative session of the Ohio House of Representatives and, more recently, of a session of the Centerville (OH) City Council. We need to pray for public leaders, both in our public and private praying.

But both clergy and the Church should stand clear of seeming to stamp the approval of Jesus on particular political parties, policies, or candidates. It's an unauthorized misuse of Jesus' name and it inhibits our capacity to reach others with a far more important message than any that might be offered by any office-holder or political party: The message about Jesus than can transform believers from God's enemies to God's eternal friends.

Some day, when I'm no longer involved daily in pastoral ministry (I think I may retire in about ten or twenty years...I'm only 63 and feel as though I'm just getting started!), I may get engaged in publicly talking my politics.

But until then, I'm sticking with commending Christ. I'd rather that one person would come to faith in Jesus through the witness of Christians like me than see fifty million people vote for the candidate of my choice. The reason for that is simple: The candidate of my choice may be a bust, but Jesus will never let anyone down, now or in eternity. Only Jesus can give us life with God that never ends.

Just my two cents' worth.

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Avoiding the Faithlessness of Being a Political Church

Four days ago, Pastor Dennis Di Mauro, on Facebook, posted a link to an article detailing the recent votes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) calling for an end to US aid to Israel and mandating that the retirement fund of the denomination to refrain from making investments that might benefit Israel.

As a person who left the ELCA to join the North American Lutheran Church (NALC) over the issue of the authority of the Bible, the Word of God, over the life, faith, and practice of the Church, I took particular interest in DiMauro's linked article. Lots of other people did and it's engendered many comments.

Many of those comments lamented the ELCA having become a "liberal" denomination. But I had a slightly different take on things, which I shared in the comments section in the wee hours this morning. Here, in slightly edited form, is what I wrote:

Without commenting specifically on the resolution in question, I want to comment on how the ELCA is characterized by many of its opponents and critics. (Of which I'm one.)
I see the ELCA not so much as a "liberal" church, though I understand what people mean when they use this characterization.

Rather, I see it as an unbiblical and unconfessional church body.

I see the body of which I am now a part, the North American Lutheran Church (NALC), seeking to be biblical, approaching the Word of God with reverence, and confessional, seeking to faithfully live out the Lutheran Cobfessions' understanding of Christian faith. I also don't see the NALC as "conservative."

While the ELCA often seems to be in sync with political movements that are politically liberal, I pray that the NALC will steadfastly avoid associations with any political ideology or agenda.

Jesus isn't conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. He is God in the flesh who died and rose to set sinners free from sin and all of its consequences, to give life with God ever new to all who trust in Christ and the Gospel Word about Him.

Making disciples through the proclamation of this Word is work enough for the Church, the only work Jesus assigned to it, work that will eternally transform the lives of those who receive it with faith. It will even transform the way they view their world, how they live each day, and how they vote.

The problem with church political activism is that it's work of the flesh, reflective of human reasoning and understanding, rather than being the work of the Holy Spirit within us. Church political activism, liberal and conservative, isn't an expression of faith in Jesus. It's actually faithless, born of Christian impatience with how God operates to redeem and transform people.

We need to trust in God, love our neighbor, speak God's revealed truth, make disciples.

What do you think?

The Church and Politics?

From Article XXVIII of The Augsburg Confession, one of the basic confessional documents of Lutheranism:

...ecclesiastical and civil power are not to be confused. The power of the church has its own commission to preach the Gospel and administer the sacraments. Let it not invade the other's function, nor transfer the kingdoms of the world, nor abrogate the laws of civil rulers, nor abolish lawful obedience, nor interfere with judgments concerning any civil ordinances or contracts, nor prescribe to civil rulers laws about the forms of government that should be established. Christ says, "My kingdom is not of this world," and again, "Who made me judge or divider over you?" Paul also wrote...,"Our commonwealth is in heaven," and..."The weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy arguments,"...

At the very least, this article suggests that Lutheran Christians ought to be extremely circumspect about the Church, bishops, or pastors issuing political judgments in their capacity as spokespeople for the Gospel. There are no doubt times when the Church, bishops, and pastors may feel compelled to speak prophetically on social and political issues. But they should do so only when the ministry of Word and Sacrament, the true power of the Church as given by God, commands it. Absent that clarity, we depart from the will of God and diminish the authority of our proclamation of the Gospel when we present our own political views, however well founded we may deem them to be, as though commended by God.