Camp meeting time

I apologize for my lack of posting. I really do care about you kids I swear. It’s just that some people put out good thoughts once a week (i.e. Keith Drury) some every other day (i.e. Doug Thompson), some seem to blog two or three times a day (Dr. Schenk coming to mind), but me … I get about one good thought a month… and that may be a stretch.

Ok so on to my thoughts for the month …

I have been at camp meeting this past week. Now let me explain, I am a big camp meeting fan. I’ve grown up on them. I love them. I also love preaching. When I’m in the car by myself I pop in tapes of preachers I like. Yes I know this makes me a dork, and I’m ok with that. Anyway, this has been the best set of preaching that I’ve ever heard at a camp meeting. Dr. William Ury is one of my favorite all time preachers (he’s up there with Stephen Manley, Joe Duvall, Steve DeNeff). Dr. Thomas Hermiz (The new GS of the CCCU) has a great preachers voice and is bringing the message of sanctification and holiness amazingly well. Dr. Mark Smith (The new president of OCU formally CBC) has also been exceptional. The worship has been very good, mixing modern and traditional, contemporary and oldschool, I think I even heard a Chris Thomlin song, WHAT?!?

So my question is, why is it that the altars have not been lined? Why do the teens rush to the altar along with a few younger pastors, yet most of the adults don’t blink an eye. They don’t even move. Worse, many of them walk out of service as the altar call is being announced. I distinctly remember Dr. Ury saying “if you are not waking towards God you are walking away from him,” and minutes later hordes of elderly were walking out the back of the tent as I watched teens pass them in the other direction going towards the altar. What a stark illustration.

It is easy to say that things aren’t going well in America or in the church. We whine and complain about a lack of revival in the church. I myself sometimes find myself falling into a trap. The first few nights I felt ok, because I looked and saw young people going down to the altar, and then Dr. Ury hit me with this. “How sad is it, that we use the young people as a front to our own spiritual death. We let them go to the altar and then say ‘look how healthy our church is.” Ouch.

So I started watching and realized he was right, and I can’t figure out why. “there isn’t enough holiness preaching” I hear. “If there were more then we’d have revival.” Ok so why not now? You’re going to have to come up with a better excuse because that’s the best holiness preaching I’ve ever heard. “more hymns” “more contemporary” more anything.

How about this? More Jesus. Sounds good to me. Perhaps if we would realize that the question is not why should we go down to the altar, but why we shouldn’t go down we’d have less problems. Maybe we gotten so stuck in two tripism (one trip for salvation and one for sanctification) that we have forgotten what it’s like to seek God. Heaven forbid the people around us think we are seeking God, they may think we have sin in our lives, and then they would think we aren’t sanctified. I am going to say this as plainly as I can. If we do not change our hearts we will die. As churches, as a denomination, as an entire movement. I’m not a prophet, but I am a concerned pastor. One who has grown up hearing phenomenal preaching, solid theology (thanks dad), and one who is worried that if we don’t start making some changes the next generation will lose the message of hope that we have. Melvin Maxwell said it amazingly well last weekend “if your product isn’t selling then you need to change your methods.” Even if we have the best message and “product” ever, it doesn’t matter if no one is hearing it. And if we do not change our hearts and fall before God, there isn’t going to be anyone around to proclaim it.