"The Power of And." It's the simple reminder that while life often seems to present us with two opposing choices, we often have the ability to pursue both if we will give the requisite thought to doing it well. In manufacturing, companies think that they must choose whether to produce a quality product or to produce it quickly. In fitness, we are sometimes told that we have to choose whether to develop endurance or strength. In life and family, we think we have to choose whether to excel at work or excel as parents & spouses. But in all of those cases, there is a way to embrace both good things, as long as we use godly wisdom in trying to do them both well. It's the power of and; not the tyranny of or.

This simple principle should be applied to how we think about church. I find that many elders and preachers are more naturally inclined to thinking about the church in terms of its group behavior or in terms of the individual members who make it up. And while there's nothing wrong with those natural inclinations, we need to be aware of them so that we can deliberately open our eyes both aspects of church life. Because every congregation is individuals and a group.

This means that our group activities matter, and so they should be overseen by the leaders and engaged by the members. Worship assemblies, Bible classes, home devos, VBS and other special events, singing, worship leader training, and preaching... Church leaders should be eminently aware of how these things are going and how we are using them 1) to best glorify God, and 2) to maximize the spiritual benefit to the congregation.

AND...

It means that the individuals in a church matter. There is simply not enough religious activity to make up for a deficit of visiting orphans and widows. The extroverts need church fellowship, and the extroverts need church fellowship. Senior saints need to be visited and encouraged, and young folks need to be mentored and encouraged. Parents need someone to check on their parenting and their marriages. New Christians need well-guided Bible study. Engaged couples need Christian marital counseling. People with doubts need someone to shine the light on Scripture to answer those doubts. The socially awkward people in a congregation need friends, and the cool people in the congregation need friends. The rich and the poor both need reminders that Christ is our true treasure. And church leaders should be eminently aware of how all of those people's spiritual needs are being met.

Whether you are a leader in one of God's churches by position or simply by influence, don't pigeonhole your thinking into an emphasis on one or the other of these ideas. We should pay attention to the individuals in our church and to our group efforts. We serve God with both, and so we should serve him well with both.

- Dan Lankford, minister

“Moreover, he said to me, 'Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears. And go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them and say to them, "Thus says the Lord GOD," whether they hear or refuse to hear.'” (Ezek. 3:10-11)

Ezekiel is told to do three things with the words that God speaks to him. Think about each one of them for a few moments. They serve as instructions for us too, giving guidance for all who teach God's word.

• "Receive in your heart and hear with your ears." Ezekiel, while he is called to be the preacher, is first called to be the listener. He, like all saints, was to have a mind that was clearly open to receive God's word. Those who teach others but do not absorb the word into their hearts or put it work in their lives are hypocrites. Teachers of God's ways are not meant to be merely professionals with a skillset; they should be, first and foremost, disciples. Receive the word with your own ears and in your own heart; don't let its power pass you by on the way to your hearers.
• "Say to them, 'Thus says the Lord.'" God did not intend for Ezekiel to go to the people and tell them his own perspective or plans regarding their exile in Babylon. He was called to tell them what God had said. And so it must be with preachers today: We must do our best to honestly represent God's teachings on every subject matter specifically because they are God's teachings. Our job is tell both saints and sinners, "This is what God says."
• "Whether they hear or refuse to hear." This is perhaps the toughest part of Ezekiel's commission. In his time, most of his people's hearts were callous to what God had to say, so he was rejected often. And the fact remains that there will always be those who refuse to hear when truth is preached. And yet, our job is to faithfully teach it anyway. Because we believe that the effectiveness of salvation comes from the power of God—that his way always works, even if all the world rejects it. And so it is like Paul told Timothy: "Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season" (2 Tim. 4:2).

The task of teaching the word of God is a serious one. Pray for Jared and for me that we are up to the task. And pray for all of God's people, that we will have more people who follow God's instructions for Ezekiel and who faithfully fulfill their teaching ministry.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Here's an article that I wrote several years ago (it first appeared here). I'm sharing it again as a message that's perpetually helpful and serves as a follow-up to Sunday's message here at our church.

In the 1920’s, a British publishing group called “The Thinker’s Library” produced a number of essays and magazines supporting two ideas. Firstly, they entirely backed Charles Darwin’s theories of macro evolution. Simultaneously, many of the same writers spoke of the racial supremacy of Western Culture and Westerners because we were supposed to be “more evolved” than other cultures. Those ideas of racial superiority fed the Holocaust mentality, even though there was no real science to back them up. The views were bogus and harmful to humanity in the long run, even though they were held by the prevailing intellectuals of the day.

One modern writer recently pointed out that those atheistic philosophies aimed to show that the secular West is the model for a universal civilization, and atheism is doing something similar today. They are simply using different vehicles. Where the ideas of evolutionary secularism used to give cause for extolling the sins of racial prejudice and mass murder, the same ideas are used today to extoll the sins of homosexual behavior and many other perversions of the God-ordained family order.

What does it mean for Christians? Among many other things, it means that Christianity is not dying! It means that God is alive, and so is the faith! While the philosophies of the world come and go, Christianity continues to stand on the same principles upon which it was founded. Where other religions—Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam—morph over time because they must necessarily adjust their core values to the needs of their people, Christianity continues to change people because we must necessarily conform to the core values of holiness.

It is important that Christians realize this. As the world’s voices grow louder and more adamant that secular, human-focused thought is the only right way to live, Christians may stand with a quiet confidence in the grace of Jesus Christ.

Gamaliel, a Jewish rabbi in the time of Paul, once spoke up for the apostles. Their lives were being threatened for teaching about Jesus. And while he might have been on the wrong side of understanding the situation, he wisely gave this prophecy about Christianity: “…if this plan is the undertaking of man, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrown them. You might even be found to be opposing God!” (Acts 5:38-39, ESV).

Have no fear, brothers and sisters! Our God cannot be overthrown by mankind! No worldly philosophies, no Supreme Court rulings, and no level of immorality on TV can stop the power of the risen Savior! People may leave the Lord, but the Lord will not leave his people. Jesus promised that the gates of Hell would not prevail against his plan. Let us view the world’s attacks with the confidence that for all the changes of life, God is alive! And so is the faith!

- Dan Lankford, minister