This is the final installment of the contributors’ interviews for Don’t Call It a Comeback: The Same Evangelical Faith for a New Day.
Justin Taylor, Denny Burk, Thabiti Anyabwile, Tullian Tchividjian and David Mathis answer questions today.
Justin Taylor, Vice President of Editorial, Crossway (Wheaton, Illinois). Justin is married to Lea and they have three children. Justin’s chapter is titled “Abortion: Why Silence and Inaction Are Not Options for Evangelicals.”
How do we help a younger generation of Christians stay involved with the pro-life cause and avoid “fetus fatigue”?
The older I get the more I am convinced that “”we have not because we ask not”” (James 4:2). We want something (defenseless lives to be protected and saved), but we fail to present our desires before the throne of the only One who is wise enough, good enough, and sovereign enough to answer them. If we want to save lives and to motivate the next generation, we should be fasting and praying.This is not to ignore the necessity of means, nor is a call to passivity. To pray persistently and without ceasing is hard work that can only be done by grace.
Paul Tripp talks about four facets of helping people change: love, know, speak, and do. This could be a helpful rubric for thinking about motivating and equipping pro-life action.
(1) We must be people marked and motivated by love—love of God and his glory, love for the unborn, love for young moms, etc.
(2) We must know what abortion is, how it is performed, how often it is performed, and why it is wrong. The abortion industry thrives on ignorance.
(3) We must speak up. It’s not enough to know that abortion is wrong; or even why abortion is wrong. We must be willing to articulate the truth in a winsome, compelling way.
(4) We must do something. Not everyone is called to do the same thing or the same amount of things, but if “”true religion”” involves visiting orphans and widows in distress (James 1:27), then surely it also involves doing at least something to protect defenseless human beings being intentionally killed within the womb.
None of this, we must hasten to add, is the gospel. But the good news is not merely new information we receive; it is the type of compelling news that changes who we are and how we respond. And gospel-centered people, living for God’s glory, will find it impossible not to take some steps, in some way, to make a difference to save a human life.
Denny Burk is Dean of Boyce College and Associate Professor of New Testament at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, Kentucky). Denny is married to Susan, and they have three children. Denny writes the chapter titled “Gender Confusion and a Gospel-Shaped Counterculture.”
What are a 2-3 practical steps a church or family can take to counter the gender confusion so rampant in our culture?
It has been rightly said that when there’s a mist in the pulpit, there’s a fog in the pew. That means that uncertainty in preaching leads to weakness and vulnerability among parishioners. That is why pastors must sound a clear note from the pulpit when it comes to biblical manhood and womanhood. In our day, there are few issues that are more countercultural than gender issues, and pastors must beware of the temptation to remain silent where the Bible speaks (1 Tim 4:16).
In your church, it will not be enough if you are simply against feminism and homosexuality. You need to be explicitly for biblical manhood and womanhood. There is a vision cast in scripture concerning what it means to be created in the image of God as male and female, and our people need to have this set before them in teaching from the pulpit and in exemplars from the flock (1 Thess 1:7; Titus 2:7). Make sure that you are nurturing these things in your church community.
Also, faithful Christian ministry requires us to be sensitive to those among us who struggle in various ways with gender confusion. We are all sinners saved by the grace of God. And on this side of the new heavens and the new earth, we will wrestle mightily with our own brokenness (Rom 8:23). Do not be surprised, therefore, when you learn that a brother or sister in your church struggles with homosexual desires. Instead, be ready with encouragement and resources to assist those who are fighting the good fight (Heb 13:13).
Thabiti Anyabwile is the full-time husband of Kristie, father of Afiya, Eden and Titus. He serves as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman (Cayman Islands). Thabiti writes “The Local Church: Not Always Amazing, but Loved by Jesus.”
What advice would you give to Christians who know they should love their local church but struggle to do so?
First, give thanks and praise to God for saving you and allowing you to know you should love your local church. Spend time rejoicing in these realities. Much of our difficulty in loving the church stems from the habit of always evaluating the church’s weaknesses and seldom meditating on her beauty. You want to prayerfully reverse that tendency.
Second, try to locate the source of your struggle. Precisely why do you find it hard to love your local church? Is it a personal conflict (Matt. 18:15-17)? A desire not being fulfilled (Jam. 4:1-3)? A weakness in the church (Rom. 15:1-4)? Or a personal sin issue you need to crucify (Gal. 5:16-25)? Be sure to conduct this search with 2-3 friends who do not struggle to love your church. As C.J. Mahaney often says, “Never limit your assessment of yourself to yourself.” The struggle to love suggests a dark cloud already hangs over your view of things. Get godly help to see properly.
Once you locate the root of the problem, third, get help from the church itself (Gal. 6:1-2). Follow the Bible’s counsel on solving conflicts in the family of God. Don’t try to fix things alone. The very community you struggle to love is the community through which God supplies His grace in our struggles (Eph. 4:7; 1 Pet. 4:10). You’ll find, by God’s grace, that the church’s patient endurance with you in your struggle to love becomes one more reason to love the church.
Tullian Tchividjian, Senior Pastor, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (Fort Lauderdale, Florida). Tullian is married to Kim and they have 3 children. Tullian writes the chapter titled, “Worship: It’s a Big Deal.”
What does it mean to have a gospel-fueled worship service?
A gospel-fueled worship service is a service where God serves the gospel to sinners in need of rescue—which includes, of course, both Christians and non-Christians. It’s a service where “the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:6) comes through prayer and preaching, sacrament and singing. As it does, we’re given the faith, hope, and love we need to be good news people in a bad news world.
The result of a gospel-fueled worship service is the exposure of both the idols of our culture and the idols of our hearts. The faithful exposition of our true Savior in every element of worship will painfully, yet liberatingly, reveal all the pseudo-saviors we trust in culturally and personally. It will disclose the subtle ways in which we as individuals and as a culture depend on lesser things than Jesus to provide the security, acceptance, identity, protection, affection, meaning, and satisfaction that all of us long for but that only Christ can supply. The praising, praying, and preaching in such a service should constantly show just how relevant and necessary Jesus is.
A gospel-fueled worship service will continually remind us that while we’re all great sinners, Christ is an all-in-all great Savior.
David Mathis is an elder at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and executive pastoral assistant to John Piper. David writes the final chapter, “Missions: The Worship of Jesus and the Joys of All Peoples.”
Are evangelicals losing their nerve and energy for world evangelization? How can we help younger evangelicals capture a renewed interest in winning the lost peoples of the world to Christ?
Evangelicalism is so large and fragmented that it’s hard to say from my limited vantage. From what I can see in the little pockets I’m a part of, I’m not deeply concerned. Some, no doubt, could stand to broaden/deepen their missional focus to see the worldwide implications of “living sent” not only in their local, but also global contexts. And others, of course, could be more aware of the local needs in our increasingly post-Christian context and not only think of “mission” as something done oversees by the odd folks that go out from among us and send back support letters.
How we can help younger evangelicals be “fully missional”—in other words, pursue mission both locally to our own people and globally to the unreached (and the increasing unreached in our own cities!)—is to make much of the global glory of God in the gospel of Jesus. Locking in on the will and trying to guilt our folks into going because “we have so much and those people don’t” won’t produce the healthiest and most fruitful missionaries. But if we continually draw attention to the most amazing person and reality in the universe—Jesus and that the good Creator and kind Sustainer of the whole globe has shown himself to be our Redeemer in him—with the Holy Spirit’s help, Jesus may be pleased to keep coming through on his unflinching promise to build his church (Matt. 16:18) and summoning from the heart (in our joy!) “sent ones” to take that gospel to the unreached.
