PRIDE | Avoid or Engage?

This past weekend kicked off PRIDE month, a monthlong celebration of LGBTQ rights in our country.  This brings up a lot of different reactions among Christians.  More and more Christians are supportive, sadly.  Of those who hold to the Biblical position on sexuality, however, there are also varied responses.  Some want to avoid discussion on the issue altogether, pretend it’s not there, and just go on with life.  Others decide to engage, maybe posting a rainbow on their social media account and posting Genesis 9:13-16, the covenant God made with Noah.  Either way, it’s a tricky month for Christians who disagree with the culture’s shift on sexuality.  What to do?  Should we keep living life and just ignore it?  Should we engage in conversation about it?  If so, how should we and where should we discuss it?

While the Bible doesn’t have a book, chapter, verse reference on what to say during June Pride Month celebrations, it does lay down some principles of how to engage (or not engage) with people of differing belief in the world.  In this two-part series called PRIDE, we’ll discuss what the Bible has to say about differing morals and what to do about them.  My prayer is that over the next couple weeks we can be better equipped to deal with these issues.  Our world is not getting Godlier; it’s time we talk about how we respond.

Scott McFarland

When A+B≠C

Over the last several weeks, we’ve been going through our Parenting Faithful Children Series discussing how to avoid the 70% phenomenon, the percentage of kids who exit our homes and at the same time exit the faith.  One of the things I hate is that this discussion brings up a lot of guilt for folks who have been a part of the statistics—their child left faith after leaving the house and they don’t know what went wrong.

Certainly, sometimes the blame lies squarely with parenting choices: lack of church attendance, no serious commitment to teaching faith in the home, poor life choices and examples by the parents, etc…  But, sometimes, that’s not the case.  What about the situations where there were Godly parents who modeled their faith inside AND outside the home, were active in church participation, taught their children the Bible at home, and their children STILL walked away?  You probably know a few of these parents.  Maybe you ARE these parents.  What about them?

We will close out our series on Parenting Faithful Children discussing this scenario and what the Bible has to say about it.  What went wrong?  Is there any hope?  Join us.

Scott McFarland

Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

We’ll continue our “70%” series, talking about how to raise faithful children that defy the 70% statistic of kids who leave our homes and their faith after high school.  In this morning’s sermon, we’ll talk about how it takes being intentional—this isn’t going to happen by accident.  One of the biggest enemies in this effort is keeping the main thing the main thing.  It’s so easy to get sidetracked.  At our house, I am famous for starting things, getting 80% done, then moving on to something else.  I don’t believe I have ADD, but when you look at my project list you might be tempted to think so.  My other problem is that I’ll get into a project, then find other, related projects along the way that ultimately slow down or take away from the main project.  Maybe I do have ADD?

Either way, life can be like that.  Spending time developing our kids’ faith can be like that.  There are so many other things, right?  School, sports/extracurricular activities, friends, family outings, etc.—your kids’ and grandkids’ lives are a never-ending list of different projects/things going on!  It’s easy to let faith get lost in the shuffle.  If you are currently raising children or spend a significant amount of time with your grandchildren, I’d encourage you to think about some ways you can be very intentional and specific about cultivating faith with them.  It doesn’t have to be complicated—even something as simple as committing to memorize a verse every time you take a long car ride together.  These things are small things, but the small things become big things.  And big things will be what helps our children stay faithful into their adult years.                                                                                                                             

Scott McFarland

It Takes a Village

I remember the “it takes a village” jokes back when Hillary Clinton wrote her “It Takes a Village” book in 1996.  The point of the book was building on an old African proverb “it takes a village to raise a child,” and the amount of influence others have on a child’s development for the good.  Jokes and politics aside, Hillary had a point.  There is an incredible amount of influence other people have on our children and their development, particularly when it comes to faith.

The text for our sermon today comes from Titus 2 where Paul instructs older women to teach younger women.  The beauty of the church is that we have the depth of intergenerational relationships right at our fingertips.  Study after study shows that it is healthy for young people to have relationships with older people outside of their families.  The perspective on life, the affirmation of another generation, and the passing on of faith and values are all benefits of connecting older and younger generations.

We live in a society that age segregates almost by default.  We have trouble integrating generations and there often exists a suspicion or distrust between older and younger.  “That’s not how it was when I was a kid” or “you’re too old” are common criticisms leveled at each other, which creates an “us vs. them” mentality.  That’s not what we are commanded to do in Scripture.  Older are to teach younger, younger are to respect older.  We have so much to learn from each other!

Scott McFarland

Parenting Faithful Children

I’m no expert on parenting—I’m right in the middle of my parenting years.  I’ve made and continue to make lots of mistakes, so I’m not claiming to know much about the topic.  When I was in youth ministry, however, I began noticing something.  A lot of our kids were leaving after high school and not coming back.  Even if they stayed in town, they didn’t come back to our church; it was even more the case for those who went away to college or other places.  I was always bothered by this…why is it so common?  Nationwide, about 70% of Christian teens will graduate high school and not return to church—that’s a national number spread across churches of all denominations and fellowships.  That’s a lot of kids.  Why is this and is there anything we can do about it?

Over the next several weeks, we’ll dive into a series I’ve entitled, “The 70%: Parenting Faithful Children.”  My hope is that we’ll talk about this crisis, what has contributed to it, and what things we can do to slow it down.  Sadly, even under ideal conditions, not all of our children will live faithful Christian lives in their adult years.  That’s just the reality.  There are, however, things that can be done to increase the likelihood that your son or daughter will continue to walk with God after they leave your home.  I hope you’ll join us for the duration of the series and learn as we look at the Bible for our answers to this problem.

Scott McFarland

Spring is…Springing

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of the Hazardous Weather Outlooks, Tornado Warnings and Watches, and Floods. It’s almost like we’re paying for the mild winter with a crazy spring. I don’t mean to complain, but weather that comes with a side of destruction is on a different level than it just being a little too hot or too cold for our liking.

It’s not unusual when weather patterns start going crazy to think about the end of the world. Will this be how the world is at the end? Will there be lots of tornados, floods, storms? I don’t know.  What I do know is that God gave us a promise to continue sustaining the world throughout its life, until the end. At the end of The Flood, when God gives Noah His covenant never to destroy the earth again, He adds a special promise to it: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not
cease.” (Gen. 8:22)

Whatever Spring brings, you can be sure that God will keep his promise to sustain the world throughout seasons, harvests, and days. Ultimately, in promising this, God gives us a picture of His promise toward us: He will sustain us throughout our days as well—even when it seems like life is out of control, even when tragedies happen, even when things are hard. God continues to work behind the scenes to sustain His people. God cares for His creation—the earth, the plants/animals, and you.

Scott McFarland

Men and Women Reflecting His Image

As we wrap our Biblical Manhood and Biblical Womanhood series, I find myself reflecting. The church today is staring down a cultural moment that is unparalleled in modern history. Unfolding before us is a great deconstruction of ideas and institutions that have always been accepted by the majority of society, secular or Christian. As we see things like marriage, gender, sexuality, education, childhood development, and other parts of the fabric of society being questioned and dismantled, it is tempting to run or get angry. What I would encourage us to do is to lean into the teachings of Scripture, find our footing in what God’s word says on these topics, and allow the Truth to encourage us and embolden us to live differently than the world around.

I have said this before, and I truly believe it: the world will get tired of this, eventually. It may not be in your lifetime or mine, but eventually people will come to the end of these debates and will be looking for something that actually works. Once the shiny has worn off, people want to know what they can bank on and build lives on. It’s at that moment that Christians have an opportunity to step in with the Truth. However, it won’t be just because we have the Truth—we will only be able to speak the Truth if we are living the truth. So, in the meantime, as the world is wandering and wrestling, live the Truth. Reflect the image of God proudly in our genders and in our distinctiveness.

Resist the urge to make men and women the same or interchangeable. Men’s strength and courage, women’s nurture and wisdom are gifts that reflect the image of God in ways the other gender cannot.

The world desperately needs to see God.

Let them see Him in us.

Scott McFarland

What is a Woman?

It sounds so crazy to even ask that question, “What is a woman?”  Half a century ago, no one would have questioned what defines a woman or makes her who she is.  But, here we are today, trying to redefine gender and sexuality, attempting to reimagine cultural norms so we can create a new world where definitions of masculinity and femininity are fluid and
“non-conforming.”

My point is not to rant about the ills of society, but I do mention that to bring up a point I have been thinking of recently.  Since when did we let the world dictate what we believe as truth?  The church must be careful as the world progresses more and more into relativism and redefinition not to be swept away by the currents of culture.  John has some helpful thoughts on how to discern false teaching within the church that I believe also applies in principle outside the church:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. (I John 4:1-3)

Don’t believe everything you hear.  Test it.  Examine it to see if it is from God.  Examine the source.  In this day and age, we can never be sure.  In the end, Scripture and God’s revelation of reality is our only hope to holding on to truth.  Everything else is suspect.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Scott McFarland

A God of Surprises

As we celebrate Easter this weekend, there are a lot of Easter traditions that accompany the holiday. At some point today or this past week, you may have given a child an Easter basket, participated in an Easter egg hunt,
colored Easter eggs, or made candy. The combination of different traditions, for Christians, symbolize much more than a bunny or an egg. For us, it is a way to teach our children and remind ourselves of the God
who won victory over sin and death at the tomb after evil and Satan seemed to have won the day at the cross.

Many of the traditions we share over Easter involve “finding” something—an Easter egg hunt where eggs are discovered or cracking open a plastic egg to discover the kind of candy or treat inside. This is such a great reminder to us of the God of the unexpected, the God of surprises. At the tomb that Easter morning, no one expected Jesus to be raised. The women carrying spices did not. Even Jesus’ own disciples did not believe
after being given the message by the women who had gone to the tomb. They had to run to the tomb to see it themselves to believe, which is especially ironic considering the disciples were told multiple times over
Jesus’ ministry that he would be resurrected. No one saw it coming.

As we celebrate Easter this year, remember that God has always been and always will be full of surprises. He rarely acts in ways we expect, but always acts in the best way. He often doesn’t show up when we feel He should, but He’s always right on time. He doesn’t follow the script we give Him; He writes His own. That’s what makes Him God. But, rest assured, He will always come through, even when you don’t think anything is possible. The empty tomb is proof of a God who makes good on His promises, knows the right timing, and is full of surprises.

Scott McFarland

Where Have All the Good Men Gone?

If you grew up in the 80s, the opening lines from Bonnie Tyler’s song “Holding Out for a Hero,” written for the movie Footloose, can be heard clear as a bell:

Where have all the good men gone

And where are all the gods?

Where's the streetwise Hercules

To fight the rising odds?

The question, “Where have all the good men gone?” is a common one asked among females of all ages.  Women of all ages struggle to find men who are serious about life, serious about their values, and have a clear direction and focus.  What is going on?  It would take more than a bulletin article to give a full answer to the above question, but I think what is at play is a society in which men are given a pass on just about everything.  Psychologists have recently talked about “delayed adolescence”—young men who have been allowed to dodge maturity and responsibility through high school, into college, and beyond.  Since others around them expect so little, young men are allowed to grow into adults who have little direction, are allowed to do what they want when they want, and are trapped in a pattern of boyish behavior that keeps them from developing the character and maturity that makes good husbands and fathers.  Even getting married and becoming fathers does not produce the maturity their spouse or parents hope to see—they continue to act as boys while married with children.  “Boys will be boys” is more than just a phrase—it has become a way of passing off immature behavior into adulthood.

Perhaps my assessment of manhood in our culture is too harsh, but I don’t think so.  I’ve seen enough, talked to enough women, and experienced enough of it myself to think the above paragraph is overstating the point.  80 years ago, men graduated high school in June and were fighting Nazis in Europe by October.  They came home at 22 years old, got jobs, got married, bought houses, and began families.  By their mid-twenties they were several years into a career and a family.  Today, only about 2/3 of 25-year-old males are even working full time!  What’s the cure?  There are no easy answers for this kind of societal issue, but I believe the Bible has a lot of help to offer in this area of manhood and becoming a man.  Issues like building moral character, developing discipline, understanding responsibility, and other values and qualities of becoming a man are found in the pages of Scripture.  Books like Proverbs, letters like Ephesians and James are just some starting points for these conversations.  Take heart!  I think the world will eventually have enough of the lack of manhood in our society.  When it does, we have the opportunity as believers to develop ourselves and our young men into the kind of people God would have us to be.  It starts with us.

                                                                                                                              Scott McFarland