Thoughts About The Civil War And Church

I was born in Los Angeles in 1971…but my parents moved to Easley SC in 1975—so, even though I was not born in the South…I grew up here, which has caused me to deeply appreciate Southern culture.

I LOVE sweet tea (yes, I heard that Amen), I love biscuits and gravy, I love a tomato sandwich and I really do like sitting on a back porch and watch bugs commit suicide by flying into that beautiful purple light! (You would think they might look @ all the other dead bugs and back off but…oops…sorry, almost chased a rabbit…speaking of rabbits…)

However, one of the things I do not understand about us Southerners is our whole fascination with the Civil War. I LOVE history—I read about it all the time; in fact, it was the ONE subject in school that I excelled in…and I have never read an account of the South winning the war. In fact, by the time it was over I believe we had pretty much received a beating! (I actually had a Yankee tell me one time, “Be nice to me—I have matches…”)

But for some reason there are some Southerners that will NOT let it go—even though the war was over in 1865—that’s about 140 years ago. I about fell out of my chair when I read this letter to the editor in our local newspaper about how Jefferson Davis was a better leader than Abraham Lincoln.

Some people refuse to let the past die—speaking of that…it reminds me of the church in a few ways…

I was talking to a discouraged pastor the other day who had just made a bold move in his church—he installed a screen and a projector. He told me about the hour long conversation he had with a church member who had a serious problem with this “tool of the devil” coming into their church. He then made the comment to me, “Dude—if the 1950’s ever make a comeback—we are ready!”

As I read the book of Acts I see the church was a powerful movement…a FORCE in the world; however, today it looks more like an institution. It was once a way to reach the world—now too often it resembles a fortress from the world. I read something the other day that rocked my world, “You cannot wash the feet of a dirty world if you refuse to touch it!”

It saddens me that the church is no longer an agent of change in our society! We have became more concerned with who we are trying to keep rather than who we are trying to reach.

We have given more attention to how many we bury rather than how many we baptize.

We have become more concerned with what people are wearing than how messy their lives might be on the inside.

We have become more concerned with parliamentary procedure than focusing on what matters!

We have become more concerned with taking a vote rather than getting off our blessed assurance and loving a world that so desperately needs Jesus!

(If I can be honest—many churches today are nothing more than “mini-mafias.” There is a family or two in the church that makes all of the decisions…and if you do not agree with the decision you are simply “done away with” as the pastor!)

The church became more concerned with guarding tradition rather than reaching people—and because of the churches desire to play it safe we almost lost an entire generation to the enemy!

Folks, I have no desire to play it safe at NewSpring—God has not called us to be “keepers of the aquarium” but rather “fishers of men.” We can’t put our feet up and relax—there are too many people in this world that are going to hell for us to begin looking at things that, in the grand scheme of eternity, don’t amount to a hill of beans.

God has been rocking my world lately. About two months ago He began to lead me to pray for a “harvest of souls.” I literally wrote that prayer out in my journal nearly every day. AND a few weeks ago I met with the whole staff here at NewSpring and told them that God had been really laying it on my heart for us to pray for a “harvest of souls.”

In fact, during our last First Wednesday service I preached a message on how we as a church needed to reach this community for Christ. (You can download it here.) 

God is AWESOME—in the past two weeks at NewSpring we have seen over 200 people accept Christ! Why? Because we love people enough to take the Gospel to them and put it on a level where they can understand it AND accept it.

200 people—I can’t get over that—in two weeks—that’s a God thing! STOP and think about that for a minute—200 PEOPLE! 200 new believers!!! And people—this is merely the beginning! There is MORE on the way! God is going to rock the entire upstate of South Carolina—and we get to be a part of it.

If you are a member or regular attender of NewSpring I want to ask you to do two things…

#1 - Stop right now and thank God for all that He has been doing!

#2 - Ask God to show you who you need to reach out to and invite to church!

I am amazed!

Let me say one more thing before I quit…and I know this has been long.

I had a conversation with some friends the other day who told me that a fear among some people in this church is that I am going to leave one day for “greener pastures.” That I am going to begin to look for other opportunities…that I will go to a large city & be at a church with more resources and more prestige.

Now let me qualify this by saying that God can do anything He wants—anytime He wants…BUT…

I HAVE NO DESIRE TO GO ANYWHERE ELSE!!! I LOVE ANDERSON! I WANT TO SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE HERE! I want to pastor NewSpring until I die—I want to preach my own funeral, crawl in the box, let you guys bury me…and then come back here and have a celebration!

I am not a “preacher for hire.” It gripes me when I see pastors who always have a resume in their briefcase and are seeking other places of employment! I don’t want to be anywhere else—I want to be right here!!! I understand where the fear comes from…the average stay for a pastor today in America is 22 months—no wonder our churches are in a sad state—they can’t find leadership that cares!

I love our church…but folks—we will always change! We will always do what it takes to reach this world. We will always listen to the voice of God! We will always care about those far away from God! And because of this I believe God will be honored, Jesus will be lifted up…and we will continue to see more and more people come to Christ!