My Nomination for 2017 Word of the Year:

It's the last day of 2017. I'm ready for church, but have a few minutes before we need to go, so  I figured I'd do what seems to be the in-thing to do at the end of the year--declare a word as the word of the year.  Most of the "Words of the Year" seem to be assigned that status because so many people have looked the word up in some database, or done a search for it on the internet. My word of the year received that distinction because it is one that has been central in what I've been doing since January a year ago, and because it has been at the heart of the work of Pacific Islands University, the ministry within which I serve.

It's been a remarkable year for Kathy and me, and Pacific Islands University. I wasn't supposed to be here on Guam. Kathy and I had already purchased tickets to return to Palau, to serve in the extension PIU used to maintain there, and to work with the Palauan Evangelical Church. PIU's President, Dr. Dave Owen found out he was sick when he landed in California, for what was supposed to be a couple of weeks long visit to the US Mainland. He, and his wife, Joyce, have yet to return. It turns out that his ailment was a potentially deadly form of cancer, T-cell Lymphoma. The last year for Dave and Joyce was filled with chemo-therapy, scans, kidney failure, a bone marrow transplant, and thankfully what appears to be a complete recovery.

About the same time that we at PIU were dealing with Dave's diagnosis, we also had to deal with the departure of a much-loved Academinc VP and the announcement that Spring 2017 was the last semester that our VP for Student Development, and her husband, our Maintenance Director, would be with us. Then a wonderfully sweet volunteer teacher--between her and her husband, they taught a full-time load each spring--had jaundice. The diagnosis went from hepatitis, to gall-bladder, to pancreatic cancer. She never got out of the hospital. Another husband-wife team has been serving under a far less than ideal situation. Because of an aged father who needs care, and the utter incompetence of US immigration, this couple is separated by thousands of miles. He here, and she in Europe.

It was only partly in jest that I referred to our campus at the "Village of Job" (For you non-Bible types, that's Job, sounds like "Joe," with a "B" on the end. Read the first two chapters of the Bible book by his  name and you will understand why.) Those calamitous problems were stacked on an institution that was already thin on staff, short on money, and working hard to adapt to rapidly changing needs in this part of the world. My status went from "the guy who sits in the president's chair," to Interim President, to President. For an old preacher who found it humorous that he was a member of the Board of Trustees for PIU, that is a steep learning curve.  Kathy? What was anticipated as a four-month absence from home, has now become a year-long establishing of a second home. Like me, her status has changed over the past twelve months. She has grown from sweet, to sweeter, to the sweetest person I know.

So, perhaps you can understand why I am declaring FAITH as the word of this year that is coming to an end.

Faith means a lot of different things. In making my declaration I embrace some of them, and reject one outright. Let me deal with what I don't mean, first:

There is the Oprah, Hallmark, for you old-timers, the Norman Vincent Peale idea of faith. It is an act of the will, an almost magical (or according to some you can remove the "almost") power that we humans have to make things better. Some have called it "faith in faith." You just have to believe. Not only does this kind of faith, so-called, not deliver, it can often make things worse. Well-intentioned, wrong plans executed with the utmost faith are still wrong, sometimes destructively so. Actually, 2017 has been very been instructive in confirming the lesson that really, I have no control. I can't trust in myself and my abilities, especially in my pseudo-ability to conjure up good things by thinking and feeling good thoughts. Cross that one off the list. It's not what I mean.

Biblically faith often refers to a set of truths. This use of the word has been brought into our world, by the admonition, much more common in my youth than now, "Keep the faith." That great servant-leader, the Apostle Paul, was able to say, just before his death, "I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7). Jude found it necessary to counsel Christians living in a time of moral decline (sound familiar?) to "contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints" (Jude 3). There is a body of truth that one ignores at his own peril, and often the peril of others. Down through the centuries, the followers of Christ have faced evil forces, which compelled them to forsake the faith--reject this body of truth.

They didn't. 

Another way to put it is to say, "We should believe in the truth that God has given us. If that is to take place, we have to know what that truth is. We need to be like Ezra, who had decided to "set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach" it (Ezra 7:10).  It takes work, Paul told his protoge', Timothy. to study, do his best, make every effort at mastering this faith (2 Timothy 2:15). I suppose, if God had chosen to do so, He could have given us an infusion of all the truth we would ever need. Instead, He gave us the Bible. He gave those who are gifted as teachers, and ordained that those who become Christ-followers should be a part of the church so we would have the benefit of her knowledge not only in the present but that accumulated store of faith-knowledge that goes all the way back to the time when the "Faith was once for all handed down to the saints." I have been privileged to grow up in a place and time that abounds with witness to, teaching

of, and encouragement in that Faith. Over the past year, it has been my privilege to be involved, in a more intensive way than ever before, in helping those who grew up in a less Faith-saturated environment to gain a better grasp of the Faith.

The lessons I have learned about faith in 2017 have been mostly about a properly focused version of the kind of belief that I rejected as deficient.
Years ago, I was privileged to speak at the baccalaureate service for my son's high school class. In preparation for the assembly, I took a piece of climbing rope and cut it into pieces, about six inches long. I'm far from being a mountaneer, but during my message to the graduates, I was able to tell them about an experience I had had rappelling down a rock face. I explained all the safety precautions that my guides had taken before allowing me to go over the edge. Basically, no matter how clutzy I was--and trust me, I'm good at clutzy--I would arrive safely at the bottom, as long as my rope was sound. On the other hand, the most skillful climber is doomed to disaster if his rope is rotten.  At the end of the baccalaureate, I handed each graduate a piece of rope, to remind them that in life, even more than in climbing, you better check your rope.
Faith in a lie is deadly. Faith in God's truth is utterly dependable.

While my task has been to be an administrator/teacher/encourager/fundraiser/public-relater in a Christian University, my experience has caused me to be a student in the school of faith. I'm learning that:

• Those things that really matter are beyond my control. I've had to breathe deep, lean back into the rope, and trust.
• The things that I can do may seem unimportant and small, but they aren't. The Lord trusts big things to those who are faithful in small things. 
• Just because I do the small things doesn't mean that God will come through with the big things I have in mind. I'm not playing "let's make a deal" with the Lord of the universe. The fact is, I'm learning . . .
• The big things I want often aren't God's plan. If I could make a deal with God, it would be a bad deal. Not because God is mean, actually it is the opposite. God is too good to allow the likes of me to draw-up the plan for the what is going to happen. He is too kind to allow me
  
  to plan the future. When it comes to what will happen after this moment in time that I'm experiencing right now, I'm completely clueless. 
• Likewise the Big, really good things that God has in mind, are often things that I've never thought of.
• The best I can do is to do what I'm supposed to do, as best as I can figure that out, and then leave the ultimate outcome to God. As if He needs my permission.

So, others can go with youthquake, complicit, or Feminism. For me the 2017 word of the year is FAITH.

Starting Churches or Scraping Gum

I don't know Perry Noble. I've never listened to him preach, or read anything he has written. I think, maybe, one time I heard him on a panel with some other pastors. I am sure, though, that God is not calling him to start another church.
From all I hear, Noble is a talented speaker. He possesses that "something" that causes we mere mortal pastors who slug (or in my case slugged) it out in in relative obscurity, to have to do battle against jealousy, envy, and covetousness. He led Newspring Church, not only to mega-church status but into a multi-site, cyber-connected phenomena. About a year-and-a-half ago Noble was removed from his pastoral role, because of a dependence on alcohol, and for other reasons. The elders at Newspring maintain that he is, at the present time, not qualified to lead the church.
My pastoral friends and colleagues who serve in church structures with a hierarchy of leadership will rightly point the finger to what is happening in South Carolina, and say, "There they go again. That is what is wrong with Evangelicalism." To underline the point and add an exclamation point, Noble says the new church will be named "Second Chance Church." If this one doesn't work out will there be a "Third Chance Assembly"?
I maintain that, as long as he is not breaking any laws, Noble has every right to gather a group of people and call it whatever he wants. I am equally convinced that those people who are attracted to such an assembly should not be coerced to not attend. They can go, give, and participate as they please. If anybody asks me, though, I'd tell them they shouldn't.
I currently live in Guam, where "America's day begins." Guam is a US territory. We are part of the USA, except when we aren't. Citizens don't vote for president. We have US Postal Service, but if you send anything other than a letter to the rest of the US you have to fill out a customs form like you would to ship to another nation. I see an eerie similarity to the way many Evangelicals treat the authority of local church elders. "We believe in the authority of the Elders of the local church, except when they disagree with me, do something I don't like, or stand in the way of what I see as my private word from God."
Earlier I said that some of my colleagues will be rightly critical of Evangelicals because of actions like Noble's. Let me qualify that a bit.

• Not all Evangelicals are part of an independent church. Some Evangelicals function in churches with hierarchies similar to those of mainline denominations.
• Most Evangelical churches are not mega, and most Evangelical pastors are not celebrities. In my life-long career, I think I shook hands with one pastor who had, what amounted to, his own plane. He didn't give me a ride. The Evangelical leaders I know drive smaller, non-luxury cars, live in modest houses--one each--and are more likely to be found eating at McDonald's than at a plush resort. To look on the doings of a tiny minority of Evangelical leaders who "achieve" celebrity as the standard for the rest of we poor clergy infantrymen just doesn't make sense.
• While celebrity pastors are often able to find a group that will rally around them, after a scandal, there are many communities where churches, though independent, properly honor leadership decisions of other churches. (Though I don't know Newspring Church, I'm respecting the church's leadership in this article.) The churches I have been privileged to associate with would tell Noble, "Go back to Newspring. Work through the plan they have for you." I, and other colleagues of mine, in other churches, have told people who sought membership in the churches where we led, "Go back and sort out your issues with your former church, then, if you still want to join here, come back and talk to us."
• In short, not all Evangelicals wear the same jeans and untucked shirt.

He didn't ask me--neither did Tullian Tchividjian, Ted Haggard, or any of the others who followed this route--but if Noble had asked my advice, I would have told him that for the sake of the body of Christ, the reputation of the church, for your own welfare and that of your family, for the benefit of those who will gather around you if you follow through on this "Second Chance" plan, DON'T DO IT! Go back to your church, submit yourself to that leadership. Act like, and live like the church is more than just your private domain for showcasing what you can do. You may need to scrape gum off the bottom of chairs for a while.

You fellow pastors didn't ask me either, but here is some free advice. DON'T ENDORSE THIS KIND OF THING. I don't care how good a preacher, leader, organizer, etc. someone is, they don't get to go to the head of the line. As the CT article referenced above indicates, this isn't about punishing someone. It is about protecting what we used to call a "sacred calling."

For you laypersons, know this: Most likely the best church for you is the one you are in. We need to evaluate church leaders more on Godliness than on "kewlness." A pastor who lives the truth he proclaims is what you are looking for.

One more thought: "The God told me" syndrome causes a lot of trouble (in my humble opinion way more than any good that comes from it). If we are dealing with Scripture, properly understood and applied, we can go with confidence that God is leading us, but the sanctifying of hunches, intuition, and desire packaged in sanctified--dare I say "sanctimonious"?-- language leads to all sorts of evils. That is why the church in the New Testament is led by a plurality of leaders, not one man who speaks as a prophet who should not be questioned.

If Perry Noble gets to announce that, contrary to the leadership of the church to which he belonged (belongs), and in opposition to the pattern of the New Testament, God is leading him to start another church, then I get to make my own pronouncement. Pastor Noble, God isn't calling you to start another church, right now. You need to scrape gum for a while.

Thoughts on scandal and accusation:

I published this over at STTA, but it is probably more apropos here. Hopefully it will engender some careful thought and constructive conversation.

The Hits Keep on Coming

Another one . . .

(Those of you who follow the news will recognize that either I'm late, or I sat on this for a couple of days. It is the latter. I realize that this is sensitive. I hope it isn't needlessly offensive.) I received a text message today. It shared the news that Garrison Keillor was the latest famous guy to be accused and summarily fired over allegations of sexual misconduct. I'm not even going to try to count. Suffice to say that in recent months some of the biggest names in entertainment, the news world, and politics have fallen. Others, against whom convincing accusations have been made, have thus far avoided the ax, but for how long? The current climate is clearly more open to hearing the accuser than at any time in the recent past. We can rejoice over that. Too often, and for too long the same power that was used to abuse those who were not in positions of power, was wielded to keep those victims from bringing the abuse perpetrated on them to light. For what it's worth it's not a new problem. On the other hand: Was it during the Clarence Thomas hearings, when Anita Thomas accused the, now, Supreme Court Justice of sexual harassment, that this statement first became popular, "It's not the strength of the evidence, it's seriousness of the accusation"? Have we entered a time in which no male in any kind of public position could successfully defend himself against a serious accusation? I don't know. It seems that the mood of the public is such that one need not even try. I have no way of knowing whether Garrison Keillor deserved to be fired or not. His comment is telling, though, "I’m 75 and don’t have any interest in arguing about this.” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/business/media/garrison-keillor-fired.html) Some would say that it doesn't matter if some innocent guy gets clobbered. It's about time for the shoe to be on the other foot. For too long those in positions of power have taken advantage of those who had little, if any, recourse. It's only right that power be given to those who follow in the train of those who were powerless. I imagine that there is a new breed of public relations specialist--experts at crafting statements that carefully skirt around matters of guilt or innocence, instead making sure that their clients are the first to condemn the actions of accused colleagues, whether accusations are real or imagined, because it is the seriousness of the accusation that matters. If anyone has Solomon's email address, I would appreciate them forwarding it to me. Until I hear from the sage, though, let me point out some flaws in the current system, and offer a couple of suggestions that might move us in the right direction. We absolutely should empower those who are treated wrongly, sexually, and in other ways, to be able to come forward and tell their story to the right people. Our Lord has a long history of sticking up for the weak. When the abused are throttled into silence the abuse and sin is compounded. Yet, we dare not act as if every accusation is gospel truth. The Bible gives a high standard for receiving an accusation (1 Timothy 5:19). Though scripture champions the cause of the underdog, it cautions against perverting justice to even the score (Exodus 23:2-3). Today's campaign against sexual abuse is taking place more in the newsroom and around the water-cooler than in the courtroom. Popular opinion is not a good standard of guilt and innocence. Just look at some of the fashions of the past, and examine the roster of those who have been elected to be public. The majority can be wrong. Our goal should not be to make up for past wrongs to others, by what we decide about entirely different people today. Rather our response should be to repent of past wrongs and commit ourselves to seek justice in the present--it's not about evening the score, it's about doing what is right. There is more, much more, to be said, but perhaps, for now, this is  . . . STTA (Something To Think About).