MASCULINITY: A THREAD. “The end of all things is near; therefore, be alert and sober-minded for prayer. Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.”—1 Pet 4:7-8

Staring down the end, Peter commends two things:

Prayer and love. If I have any advice to offer to other pastors today, it is this:

Prayer and love may appear weak and naïve, but they are the most effective weapons in the church’s arsenal.

Churches who forsake these for “telling it like it is” are no churches at all.

⛪️ 🇺🇸 CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM : WHAT IT IS, WHAT IT ISN’T, AND WHY IT MATTERS

During the Q&A at the @holypostpodcast event, someone asked, “What is Christian Nationalism?” Fair question, since it’s thrown around quite a bit these days.

I want to try to summarize my answer here. 1/11 WHAT CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM ISN’T:

It’s not Christians participating in politics, voting, or participation in civic life. Christians should participate in each of those things as citizens in a democratic republic. 2/11

🚨 SBC Insider Baseball Tweet Thread Alert. 🚨 I made this somewhat cheeky tweet in hopes to demonstrate what I perceive to be hermeneutical inconsistencies and some confusion re: the proposed Law Amendment. I saw a few questions in response, so wanted to follow up and clarify.

https://twitter.com/bezner/status/1729859193560068239

First, my original tweet. I was attempting to point out how many of those who want to read the role of females in the NT church as “crystal clear” will simultaneously ignore other seemingly “crystal clear” commands or apply a cultural hermeneutic to them. For example…

I don’t talk a ton about my health on the socials, but I’m texting with a longtime friend who is up against it right now in the battle with cancer, and I wanted to share a couple of quick things.

For the uninitiated: I have heart failure and should’ve died in 2003. 🧵Thread: For all my passion about living the Kingdom here and now, my source of hope is that one day the dead in Christ will rise and Jesus will bring about the death of death. Some days it's the only thing that keeps me going.

If you’re disease-ridden:

We hope in the Resurrection.

Two days ago news broke of an amicus brief filed in which the SBC, SBTS, and Lifeway were all third parties. The suit attempts to prevent the statute of limitations being lifted in cases of sexual abuse. I waited a beat before speaking to ascertain facts and await explanation. As best I can tell, the EC acted unilaterally w/o trustee approval. The trustees were voted on by messengers and messengers have consistently and nearly unanimously voted in favor of sexual abuse reforms since @RobertDownen_’s @HoustonChron story in 2019. houstonchronicle.com/news/investiga…

🧵 There is a narrative often peddled in certain circles that the SBC is in decline bc of liberal drift.

In truth, the SBC’s decline has happened during the watch of the Conservative Resurgence.

Meanwhile conservative non-denoms are growing. As is conservative Pentecostalism. What if it’s not about theology near as much as it’s about hypocrisy? About greed? About misogyny? About racism? About covering up abuse?

Most folks who talk to me about our affiliation with the SBC aren’t worried about theology.

They are tired of unethical leadership.

He told me about a church planter in his city who destroyed his church through a series of character issues (not moral failings, to be clear) and then was immediately hired by a megachurch in his city.

He said: “Is he an amazing speaker? Yeah. Will the church grow? Probably.” He continued: “But I’m worried about who will be hurt as a result. And I’m worried that no one will care.”

This is one conversation with one friend. Anecdotal and all that jazz.

At the same time, he hit on some things I’ve been thinking about.

🧵 I’ve been waiting for @Saddleback to release an explanation of their position before saying much regarding the recent dust up on whether or not they are in friendly cooperation with the SBC. Bottom line: I’ll vote for their reinstatement. Here’s why:

youtube.com/embed/J15dGUQQ… 1. Saddleback’s position may not be “hard” complementarianism, but it falls within what many other churches in the SBC do in practice: an all-male elder board gives ministry oversight to the work of the church. Stacie operating as @BethMooreLPM used to say: “under authority.”

“God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”—Rom 5:5

How do I know if I am filled with the Spirit? My heart is filled with the love of God.

How do I know if someone else is filled with the Spirit? They show the love of God. I’m unimpressed with the one who issue impressive theological treatises who has not love.

Nor the one “standing up” who has not love.

Nor the brilliant teacher who has not love.

Nor the powerful preacher who has not love.

It’s been a minute. Time for an evening 🧵. I’ve been thinking a good deal lately about waiting on the Lord. There’s a story tied into that, but it’s not for this tweet thread. Suffice it to say: Waiting on the Lord is when we must pass time waiting on some sort of resolution. I’ve noticed that this usually (not always) involves our discomfort and our powerlessness. Our circumstances are usually something we would like to exits as quickly as possible, and our ability to end those circumstances is nil—or close to it. What are we to do?

Eugene Peterson said a pastor has one sermon.

Today one of my church members pointed out my “one sermon” seems to reside at the intersection of Kingdom, obedience, and Resurrection.

After a bit of reflection, I think she’s right.

Here’s why those themes matter to me: Kingdom:

Understanding that Jesus wanted us to live the reality of eternity this side of death, and that the church-community is the place where this reality can be embodied literally changed my life. It completed my understanding of conversion. The NT makes sense with Kingdom.

🧵🪡on Suffering

This evening Joy and I visited an older couple in our church. The husband has Stage IV cancer. Barring a miracle, he likely will not see next year.

They have anticipated this moment. A few months ago they asked me to renew their vows after Sunday worship. They have cried their tears and asked their questions. They know there are no answers to be had, only Jesus to hold.

There comes a moment in dying when you stop searching for answers.

When answers are no longer helpful, you are faced with a deathbed choice.

🧵🪡 Hospitality/Holiness: But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.—Acts 10:28

Jesus confounded the conventions of his day by talking to, eating with, and visiting the homes of those who were considered unclean by the religious leaders of his day. After his Resurrection, the apostles began to understand Jesus’ heart for all people to know the Way of God.

Paul is converted and becomes the “apostle to the Gentiles.”

Here Peter realizes something similar, and that Cornelius’s heart is more important than his ethnicity.

🧵🪡 A prayer for us as we read or listen to the Scriptures each morning:

Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
—Psalm 119:18

The Bible contains cavernous depths which can never be completely spelunked, with innumerable jewels to discover. This morning Job 7 came alive in a fresh way. It was as if I saw and understood vv 17-18 for the first time.

“What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention, that you examine them every morning and test them every moment?”

Keep reading.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.—Romans 14:17

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.—Romans 14:19

Blessed are the peacemakers. Romans 14 is always fascinating to me.

Paul simultaneously says: You can eat and drink anything. It’s all clean.

AND

But don’t eat or drink anything that you know will offend others or cause people to say you are evil.

Translation: You’re free, but you still consider others.

Had a long call with a friend yesterday about “platform” and ministry. A few things came out of that call felt worth sharing:

1. Ministry isn’t supposed to be a platform. Pastoring isn’t a platform. It’s serving. It’s shepherding a specific group of people. It’s foot-washing. 2. Ministry—specifically pastoring—is best done thru consistency over time. If you love your church and your community well, your influence may grow in your community, but likely at a sustainable, incremental rate. Pastoring is the goal, not influence. That’s a by-product.

Mark 3:23: So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan?”

Let’s get this Tuesday started off right with a Twitter thread on angels, demons and spiritual warfare.

I’m a believer in angels, demons, etc.

Some thoughts: I keep a note on my desk that says, “When we eliminate the supernatural from Christianity, it ceases being a faith and becomes a philosophy.”

The great Western temptation is to see Xianty through materialist eyes, to see it *only* as the path to having a good life.

🧵 I *should* be getting ready for bed b/c tomorrow’s Sunday, and, well, you know. But I wanted to follow up on the thread I tweeted earlier from @stusheehan re: masculinity and Christianity.

Here’s the short version: Christian masculinity is conformity to Christ. Period.

1/ But somewhere along the way we’ve convinced ourselves that we must equate facial hair, weapons, and being overtly aggressive as the true qualities of what it means to be a Christian man.

This is problematic on a number of fronts.

First: It has nothing to do with the Bible.

2/

For fun, I’ll thread a few that come to mind…

I accidentally caught the stage greenery on fire during a candlelight Christmas Eve service.

https://twitter.com/kevonstage/status/1486710479510650882

A kid cannonballed and swam out of the baptistery.

A man lived in our storage closet and bathed in the baptistery for about two weeks before found him.

🧵While in my 20s and serving as a small church pastor, I underwent a season of doubting my faith. I found myself questioning almost everything I had once counted as certain in my life. The unraveling began sometime in college as I noticed the Bible never called drinking a sin—something that I had heard multiple times up to that point in my life. It accelerated while in seminary, discovering an entire world of opinions I had never before encountered.

Because I like to live on the edge: A 🧵 on abortion: Today the Supreme Court will hear arguments on a case that has the potential to overturn Roe v. Wade. If this happens, abortion availability will be decided by states, as opposed to being mandated by the federal government. I am (generally speaking) opposed to abortion and have written about the theological reasons Christians have historically opposed the practice elsewhere. (The piece is below. It is a bit dated, but the overall content remains relevant.)