How Would You Lead an Overly Patriotic Church?
00:00:00.000 | Next Tuesday, we celebrate July 4th, Independence Day, as we call it here in the States, and
00:00:08.760 | the day raises questions about national loyalty and how we as Christians think through issues
00:00:13.440 | of how can we be an American, but also a stranger, an exile, an alien, a pilgrim.
00:00:20.400 | And that was our topic, really, that we addressed back in episode number 378 in years past.
00:00:26.060 | This year, we're looking at the topic, but we're looking at the implications of it on
00:00:29.160 | the local church.
00:00:30.640 | And last time on Wednesday, we talked about the place of patriotism in the local church
00:00:33.960 | and we heard from a pastor, a listener to the podcast named Scott, who is uneasy about
00:00:38.960 | what he sees in the church that he inherited.
00:00:41.780 | In this situation, Pastor John, when a pastor has inherited a strongly patriotic church
00:00:46.440 | where the patriotism is expressed in Sunday gatherings, how should a pastor who agrees
00:00:52.220 | with what you said last time, what should the pastor do next in leading that church
00:00:56.360 | well?
00:00:57.360 | Well, in that previous podcast, on this question, I said that I've been in several patriotic
00:01:04.080 | services that seemed to me to be out of sync, out of proportion to the biblical realities
00:01:13.860 | relating to the kingdom of Christ and our radical allegiance to him.
00:01:17.520 | And I suggested seven biblical principles that would inform how a church thinks about
00:01:25.180 | such services and constructs them.
00:01:28.480 | But I'm very aware that it's one thing to know principles, and it's another thing to
00:01:34.920 | be part of a church that has a long tradition of services with extended focus on each of
00:01:41.680 | the military branches and corresponding songs and corresponding flags and marches and decorations
00:01:48.760 | in red, white, and blue.
00:01:51.120 | And I share Scott's discomfort—Scott's the one who posed this question—I share
00:01:57.660 | his discomfort with those services for reasons that I think are pretty obvious from the principles.
00:02:03.620 | But what do you do if you have inherited such a church, if you're a pastor or an elder
00:02:09.040 | or just a member of the church?
00:02:10.580 | So here's my suggestions to the pastors who are in these churches and feel like things
00:02:16.260 | have perhaps, over time, just gotten out of hand.
00:02:19.300 | Number one, patiently week in and week out, preach Bible-saturated, God-centered, Christ-exalting,
00:02:26.860 | man-humbling sermons that by implication so elevate the lordship of Christ over every
00:02:34.260 | detail of life with such majesty that little by little the church begins to absorb the
00:02:41.580 | mindset that our highest affections and our only absolute allegiance belongs to Jesus
00:02:48.220 | Christ, willingly, eagerly, joyfully, no regrets, no restraint.
00:02:54.840 | So don't make the lordship of Christ over all of life an issue only on a controversial
00:03:01.420 | weekend.
00:03:02.420 | Do it all the time.
00:03:04.220 | If you do this all the time, within a few years, I think you won't be the only one
00:03:11.620 | who's feeling uncomfortable with those services.
00:03:16.020 | Number two, discuss your concerns with your trusted leaders of the church, your fellow
00:03:23.420 | elders, if you have elders or whoever.
00:03:26.980 | Until you get some of them on board with you, any change is probably going to be futile
00:03:33.780 | and maybe destructive.
00:03:35.940 | Pray with them.
00:03:36.940 | Open the word with them.
00:03:38.380 | Share your heart with them.
00:03:39.580 | Be patient with them.
00:03:41.020 | Show them the positive outcomes, not just any losses they might perceive.
00:03:46.660 | Number three, along with your elders, approach some of your most biblically shaped veterans—I'm
00:03:57.580 | talking military veterans—in the church and share with them your love for them, your
00:04:04.900 | appreciation and your value of their sacrifices and risks, and let them see how you relate
00:04:13.180 | the kingdom of Christ to all of that.
00:04:17.340 | See if you can portray a vision for them that would capture their imagination of what it
00:04:21.620 | might look like in a more Christ-exalting way.
00:04:26.180 | If you could get one or two of those folks advocating with you, you might be a long way
00:04:33.260 | towards winning the others as well.
00:04:35.780 | Number four, be a man of courage and humility and fearlessness in dealing with this issue.
00:04:42.740 | The last thing you want to communicate is that Christianity is somehow a wimpy religion
00:04:47.900 | that's afraid of risk, afraid of danger, afraid of sacrifice and death, and that's
00:04:52.340 | why it doesn't want to talk about the military.
00:04:54.300 | No, no, no.
00:04:55.780 | It is in fact exactly the opposite.
00:05:00.580 | One very practical demonstration of this might be that on one or two Sundays a year you would
00:05:09.020 | choose to highlight missionaries, either alive or dead, in the history of the church who
00:05:15.940 | have paid the supreme price, not to advance the American way, but to advance an even greater
00:05:22.780 | good, namely eternal salvation that comes in the kingdom of Christ.
00:05:27.180 | They too are worthy of our most focused gratitude.
00:05:32.140 | Number five, in whatever changes you pursue, show that there is gain and not just loss.
00:05:43.100 | When I came to Bethlehem in 1980, the American flag and the so-called Christian flag were
00:05:51.780 | in the sanctuary at the front on either side of the platform.
00:05:56.100 | Now I never said a word about it for 10 years, I don't think.
00:06:02.020 | I could, I maybe did and don't remember, but as far as I can remember, they just sat there
00:06:06.300 | and I didn't say a word about that, though I felt, "Hmm, what does that mean?"
00:06:11.020 | In the sanctuary, in the worshiping place, at the front, featured, foregrounded.
00:06:17.780 | Then we built a new sanctuary in 1990 and moved in in '91, and the issue was, "Will
00:06:24.940 | the flags be moved in there?"
00:06:28.180 | And at that point, I led the charge, the elders agreed, "Let's put the flags in the commons
00:06:36.780 | on either side of the steps where people go in and out from the world into worship, from
00:06:42.740 | the worship into the world."
00:06:44.540 | And I argued that the rationale was simple.
00:06:47.700 | As you come and go from the house of the Lord, you pass from a place outside where we live
00:06:52.860 | in large measure under the authorities of this nation to a place inside where we celebrate
00:06:58.900 | and put all the focus on our heavenly citizenship and our submission to the supreme lordship
00:07:05.560 | of Christ, and therefore, if we're going to have these flags, this is a really reasonable
00:07:10.740 | place to have them, and we've never had a controversy about it for 20-plus years.
00:07:15.900 | Nobody ever thinks about it, probably, but I think it's a good compromise.
00:07:20.820 | Number six, perhaps you will scale back aspects of the service and weave into the services
00:07:28.860 | expressions of repentance and the lordship of Christ that's been missing, and in the
00:07:34.860 | sermon, you can provide repeated nuancing for the way Christians have to deal with any
00:07:41.520 | human allegiance and help the people understand.
00:07:43.860 | And the last thing, number seven, that I would say is expect conflict on this.
00:07:50.420 | We probably lost a couple of people over that moving of the flags.
00:07:55.480 | They put the worst face on it, not the best, but after you've ministered for long enough,
00:08:01.460 | you win the trust of enough biblical people, love them, the folks that are unhappy, go
00:08:05.760 | after them, tell them you care about them, you don't want to disrespect them, and in
00:08:11.780 | the long run, the winnowing effect, I believe, in the church will probably be good for God-centered
00:08:19.420 | Christ-exalting Bible-saturated atmosphere that you are trying to create.
00:08:25.740 | Amen.
00:08:26.740 | Thank you for your practical thoughts here, Pastor John.
00:08:29.700 | And Scott, thank you for the excellent question, and I pray that these two episodes have been
00:08:33.660 | helpful for you as you lead your church.
00:08:37.500 | And as you can hear, we're working through some audio issues on Pastor John's end.
00:08:40.460 | Thank you for your patience as we work through the connection and get things fixed so that
00:08:46.100 | Pastor John comes through more clearly.
00:08:48.220 | Well, the weekend is upon us, and next week, listen to this lineup.
00:08:52.500 | We're going to look at remarriage after the death of a spouse.
00:08:55.660 | Then we're going to look at sleep patterns, how much sleep is laziness and how little
00:08:59.980 | sleep is arrogance, and how do we find that balance of sleep in our lives.
00:09:04.220 | A listener wants to know, and then we will look at the tension of ego and cultivating
00:09:08.700 | big ambitions for God.
00:09:11.180 | It's going to be a very interesting week on the podcast next week.
00:09:14.900 | I'm your host Tony Reinke, and we will see you on Monday, Lord willing, of course.
00:09:19.100 | We'll see you then.
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