by Ryan Smith | Feb 14, 2017
Do you remember the TV show Frasier?
If so, you will remember one of the key formulas that made this one of TV’s most endearing comedies (if you’re under 30, you probably don’t remember the show, and I just gave you something to binge on Hulu. You’re welcome). The formula for many of Frasier’s most hilarious episodes was that of a misunderstanding.
Niles would hear a bit of private conversation between Frasier and Daphne and assume they were talking about one thing while indeed the conversation was about something, or someone, else entirely. Each character would then run around trying to solve problems or skew situations that didn’t even exist in reality.
The key to those episodes was lack of proper context.
Watching the news today reminds me of those episodes of Frasier. We are a people tuned in to sound bites and headlines. Consequently, we live in a world of labels, 140 character manifestos, and ad revenue based on click bait.
Whether it’s in government, politics, religion, or even pop culture, the ability to take a phrase and turn it into a biography has become an art form – and many supposed Picassos surround us.
Imagine this scenario: you’re sitting in your local coffee shop with a copy of your favorite Christian book on the table (perhaps Not That God by Ryan Andrew Smith available at Amazon.com and other fine retailers…I apologize for that).
Someone walks up to you and noting the word “God” on your book, asks if you are an “evangelical.” If you are a follower of Christ, and a lover of the Gospel, your immediate impulse is to say yes.
After all, Merriam-Webster defines evangelical as, 1) of relating to, or being in agreement with the Christian gospel especially presented in the four Gospels. 2) Protestant. 3) Emphasizing salvation by faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ through personal conversion, the authority of Scripture, and the importance of preaching as contrasted with ritual.
Yes and amen. Sign me up. I’m an evangelical.
But if you’re like me, your enthusiasm for the conversation is quickly marked by a burning red flag.
Today, the term “evangelical” has come to mean a variety of things. In large part, the term has become a designation of extreme right-wing conservatism. The person asking the question may not at all be asking about your belief in the Gospel, but whether or not you are a homosexual-hating, Muslim-deporting, anti-woman, Trump-worshiping, Toby Keith-listening, confederate flag-waving nut job.
Personally, I am none of those. But I am an evangelical.
Questions like these are framed more by the question-asker’s understanding of a specific term and can be powder kegs if the question-receiver’s understanding of that same term differs – if they are supposing different contexts.
It is easy to feel trapped in a world without context, in a world where everything means anything and nothing at the same time.
Are we conservative, liberal, or libertarian? Are we feminist, patriarchal, egalitarian, or complementarian?
Yes and no…well…It depends.
Context often takes a back seat in the church as well.
We do it with Scripture: We can do all things (Phil. 4:13)! God wants to prosper us (Jer. 29:11)! God is going to do something amazing in our day (Hab. 1:5)!
We do it with our terminology: Are you a Calvinist? Arminian? Charismatic? Fundamentalist?
We are often more interested in hearing what we want to hear than actually understanding the ideas being spoken to us or the person speaking them. We want everything in a box – a box that we made and understand – and we want everyone and every idea to fit neatly into these boxes for storage in our worldview bin.
The difficulty is, in a world with so many different worldviews, our words and ideas are getting thrown into competing bins.
However, there is still truth. As Christians, we know truth is found only in God. He gives us truth in the Scripture. Everything is happening in the grand context of redemption history in which a world steeped in sin meets the love of a righteous and reconciling Savior.
But how are we to get that message across if the terms Christian, truth, God, Scripture and sin are being received differently than how they are sent?
Is there hope for truth in a world without context?
Yes – but it takes some work. Mainly, it takes the work of cooler heads asking a specific pivotal question.
The question is this: What do you mean by ________?
Are you a Calvinist?
What do you mean by the word Calvinist? If you mean theologically argumentative, pious and missions-hating, then no. If you mean someone who leans on the sovereignty of God, then yes. Let’s talk more about this.
Are you an evangelical?
What do you mean by the word evangelical? If your question is framed by the Gospel and Scripture, then yes. If it is framed by a political or social idea, then perhaps not. Let’s talk more about this.
The difficult part of humbly asking someone to define their terms is that it requires conversation and dialogue – two dirty words in society today.
However, conversation and dialogue are two founding stones on the path to understanding. But this path is harder. It’s messier. It’s uglier, and at the end of the day, we ourselves might discover we don’t truly understand what we mean by the words we say.
Maybe we are actually more alike than we think. Maybe we are more different.
Maybe someone hasn’t fully thought through some things. Maybe someone has indeed spent a great deal of time coming to bedrock principles and truths and has much to offer.
Maybe we will have more opportunity to explain the Gospel and show others the Word of God if we are more engaged in conversation than a bumper sticker.
Maybe a people who ask more questions show they actually have more answers.
The question is, what do I mean by that?
by Ryan Smith | Jan 31, 2017
A few years ago, there was a commercial in which a lame, uncool dad was updating his twitter followers with the anticlimactic tweet, “I am sitting on the patio.”
The reason the quip was funny is, at the time, social media was in large part considered a somewhat invaluable waste of time and energy. It was simply boring people uploading boring pictures of food, cats and, as my dad always said, telling people every time you go to the bathroom.
But social media was also fun. It was engaging. Though waddling a bit in its toddler stage, apps like Twitter, Instagram, and even big brother Facebook were adopted not only by tech-savvy hipsters but by virtually everyone in society. To many, this wasn’t necessarily a good thing (remember Farmville?), but it was inevitable and brought a big world just a little bit closer together.
One of the unintended cultural shifts resulting from social media has been our capacity to get news from the source – immediately – and often in real time. I recall watching protesters in Ferguson, Mo., not on my local the 10 o’clock news, but directly on a live video feed from a concerned participant. Today, I open my twitter feed seconds after Russell Westbrook has yet again slashed to the rim with a signature slam (AAAND ONE!) to celebrate with Thunder fans across the globe.
Social media has been a revolution.
But as with every revolution, there is resulting chaos. Revolutions are defined not merely by what they overthrow, but what they replace it with. This often gets bloody. It gets ugly. Before the phoenix rises, the ashes are red hot.
The main outcome on display in the social media revolution is that no longer are journalists the tried and true resources of information – we are. We are all producers of our own media worlds with studios not in New York, LA, or even major marketplaces. The studios are in our pockets. We are the editors. We may not create the news, but we create our news. Our resulting appetite is insatiable.
This has led us out of the Information Age and has birthed the age of the Information Race. Who can get the first quip or quote? Who can get the first opinion? Who can be the first to spin or slant to get points for their team? It is not a race to get to the bottom of a given situation or idea. Accuracy and comprehensiveness are no longer viable targets. The target is to be first.
So what will rise from the ashes of this media revolution? It appears the reigning victor in the Information Race is activism. The ink barely begins to dry on a writer’s notebook recording a quote before lines are drawn, picket signs are made and the reaction becomes the story whether or not anyone knows, or has read, what was actually said or written.
In some ways, this is beneficial to society. Caring people hold other people accountable.
But this is not sustainable.
Spotlights swivel often, and voices clamoring for attention grow louder. When reactions become the news, provocations are needed to stoke the fires of the reactionary. In such a world, only the loudest noises get attention. Headlines become provocations. Society is too busy reacting to invest time in understanding.
Eventually, the more noise there is, the more it becomes white noise – indiscernible, indistinguishable and eventually, unimportant. The more words are said, the less words are heard.
When social media simply becomes yelling, it ceases to be social or media.
At some point, our infatuation with social media will turn into indifference. The revolution that overthrows the information race will not come loudly from the sky reigning down in hellfire and brimstone. It will come unnoticed – little by little, as people frustrated with the lack of truth turn off their devices and withdraw from their accounts. The old axiom is true: the revolution will not be televised. Neither will it be with the death of social media as we currently know it.
But facts will still remain. There will still be news. As concerned citizens, and particularly as the church seeking to follow Christ in an increasingly post-Christian culture, we will need engagement. We will need truth.
I would not want us to see the giant self-consuming flames of social media as a victory or even as a cause to reject social media completely. Social media is amoral, meaning it is not good or bad in and of itself. It is a sword only as capable as the hands of those who wield it. It is a mirror.
As Christians, we need to be wise about our day and age. As our world begins to look for a foundation of truth under the rubble of opinion, it will be vital that the church still stands as the buttress of truth – the Word of God – and not merely as another noisy set of opinions. The stalwart bedrock of the Scriptures will increasingly need to be on display as the cultural wind blows away shaky structures. We will need to be a church steadily feeding on, and with, the authoritative, inerrant, sufficient Word of God.
Church, lift high the Word of God. Some will hate it and hate you for it. They will yell loudly. But it will remain. In a world pursuing new news, let us hold fast to the truth that the only worthwhile news is the good news of the Gospel.
Social media, as we know it, is dying. Let the Word of God be preached at its funeral.
by Ryan Smith | Jan 17, 2017
I have a bit of a morning routine. I like to wake up before the sun, put on my fashionable (yet masculine) robe and shuffle into the kitchen to make a small breakfast and coffee. Once the food and hot bean water are steaming and on the table, I sit down to read the Bible and pray.
I also have a dumb cat.
Don’t get me wrong; she’s a nice cat. She’s just not enrolling in any honors training classes at PetCo, if you get my drift.
Her routine has begun to mirror mine in the mornings. After I shuffle into the kitchen and place my breakfast on the table, she is usually shuffling in as well – her eyes thoroughly drowsed from a night of sleeping after an exhaustingly full day of sleeping.
Instead of eating and reading the Bible (I fear she’s agnostic), she checks to see if I’ve dropped any crumbs on the floor for her to eat and then slowly meanders to a nearby window. There, she sits and looks out into the calm dusky morning for minutes on end.
Yesterday, after having just poured a nice dark roast, I sat down to read, as is my custom. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flashing black streak convulsing and whipping through the cold kitchen air.
I looked over to see my dumb cat’s tail thrashing around as her breath lightly fogged the window where her dumb face was affixed. Her eyes were darting about wildly, following what I assumed had to be a swarm of giant locusts, or a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” to warrant such violent concern from her beady little eyes.
Wondering what was causing such a traumatic and tremendous tumult, I shuffled over to the window to see what had stirred her into this frenzy.
It was a leaf. To be fair, at times there were up to three leaves blowing around in the air, but mainly, my dumb cat was overwhelmingly filled with anxiety and concern over a leaf rustling about in the wind.
I looked down at my dumb cat in pity. She looked up at me with frenzied concern.
I shuffled back to my chair.
Returning to what I was reading, I reread these verses in Psalm 1 talking about the one whose delight is in God’s Word and instruction:
“He is like a tree planted beside streams of water
that bears its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
The wicked are not like this;
Instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.”
Immediately, my mind went to those few leaves scattered at the mercy of the swirling wind. They were dead. Dry. Hard. Blown by whatever direction the air took them. They were harmless… “like chaff that the wind blows away.”
But then I remembered my dumb cat. To her, they were alive. They were strange, disruptive, unpredictable, eccentric, and alarming!
Sometimes the wickedness in the world causes me alarm. Whether it is wicked ideologies or those who hold to them, it seems the noise and movement of those who oppose God always hold more of my attention, concern and mindfulness than they should. It is easy for me to let anxiety and “what ifs” control my mind more than the peace of God through Christ in the Gospel.
But while these things may be active, loud and create a great stir, they are ultimately harmless. They are dead in their sin and transgression just as Ephesians 2 reminds me how I was – blown about by every cultural whim and ideology.
What my dumb cat showed me was a look at my own anxieties and the way I often look at the world. I often give bad news on my Twitter feed much more thought and concern than the pages of Scripture that point me to the living God who has overcome the world.
The Gospel gives us an overarching and undergirding confidence that, regardless of who or what holds the headlines and sound bites, it is ultimately God who holds the future. He also holds the present. He also holds us.
Let the leaves blow where they may. Let the chaff fall with the wind. Let the powers of this world have their day and make their noise.
God is sovereign. God is good. God is in control.
by Ryan Smith | Dec 1, 2016
Chip and Joanna Gaines have created an empire.
Given their humble spirits and southern courtesy, they likely would not agree to such a magnanimous statement. However anyone familiar with the Magnolia brand knows the far-reaching effect this couple has.
Not only do the Gaineses run a successful business in Waco, TX, but their business has been credited for revitalizing an entire town and industry. The silos of Waco, TX have become a place of modern pilgrimage. Their HGTV Show, Fixer Upper, is one of the most popular shows on television with a wide audience of viewers. Chip and Joanna have graced the cover of People magazine as well as many other publications. They are the authors of an award-winning book. They have their own lines of home décor, clothing, jewelry, and art. Joanna even has her own line of premium interior paint (#LifeGoals).
But ask any fan of the Fixer Upper TV show, and they will quickly tell you while they enjoy the show itself, it is Chip and Joanna themselves who are the center of their affections. From Chip’s quirky sense of humor to Joanna’s seemingly endless flow of creativity, this couple has humbly embraced the fame and status of recent years, yet continues to be the same down-home loving couple who weekly draw the eyes of millions.
Chip and Joanna are also Christians.
Their faith has been explicit on the show, and in other avenues, as they pray and share their stories about God’s leadership and their joyful submission to Jesus Christ. While their faith is not a centerpiece of the show, it is difficult to truly understand Chip and Joanna as spouses, business owners, and parents apart from their faith in God.
While much praise has been lavished on the couple, Buzzfeed and Cosmopolitan recently ran articles questioning and criticizing the couple. What they criticized was not their business dealings. It was not a great revelation about public sin or hypocrisy. It wasn’t even a hit piece on what this happy couple may be hiding in the silos (can you say “underground nuclear launch pad”?).
In fact, the articles were not really about Chip and Joanna at all.
The articles centered around some statements from Jimmy Seibert who is Chip and Joanna’s pastor and friend at Antioch Community Church. These statements were in affirmation of the cross-cultural, orthodox, long-affirmed, Christian principle that marriage is a gift from God meant for one man and one woman for life.
In response to the 2015 Supreme Court ruling affirming gay marriage, Seibert took the opportunity to uphold the biblical view of marriage that Antioch has held to since its inception and that orthodox Christians (as well as Muslims, Jews, Mormons, and Catholics) have affirmed for thousands of years.
Both of these articles, as well as a host of online voices, instead of simply stating disagreement or disappointment at the pastor’s words, are taking the opportunity to call Chip and Joanna into the dock. Calls and emails have flooded the Magnolia office as well as those of HGTV and Antioch Community Church.
These inquiring minds are calling into question Chip and Joanna themselves and demanding that they make a statement in regard to their beliefs regarding homosexuality and gay marriage. And the tabloids are salivating.
Both articles stop just short of labeling the Gaineses as hateful bigots. However, simply scroll down to the comment section and you will quickly see the fire ignited by the articles’ kindling. Many are calling for HGTV to cancel the show. They are calling for Chip and Joanna to recant their pastor’s words or face the painful throws of culture’s anti-Christian wind.
Again, Chip and Joanna have never been accused of discrimination on or off the show. They have never expressed harsh words or ideologies regarding homosexuality or homosexuals. They didn’t do anything other than be a part of an orthodox Christian church.
Among many things of note here, one for Christians to see is that we who hold to biblical authority and principles are no longer judged by our own actions – even if we have been proved as loving, hospitable, charitable and gracious (as Chip and Joanna have). Rather, the label of “hate” or “bigotry” can apparently be added despite one’s overall character or belief.
Chip and Joanna have stayed silent on the issue, but my assumption is they would agree with their pastor’s statements (at least most of them), but don’t want to cause unjust scrutiny based on a culture war in which they never took up arms.
Can a Christian believe in orthodox biblical manhood, womanhood, sexuality and marriage while still loving their neighbor regardless of sexual orientation? Can Jesus call prostitution, swindling, lying, and abandoning sin, yet still love the Luke 7 prostitute, Zacchaeus, Peter, and the other disciples?
The answer unequivocally is yes. However, the fact that prominent media sources would dig through a pastors sermon archive (the sermon in question was from June 2015 – almost a year and a half ago) simply to attack Chip and Joanna Gaines by association is perhaps a new low.
Christian, we shouldn’t be surprised at this. Many in our culture have become bent toward destroying the lives and character of those who profess Christianity and biblical authority. This isn’t new. Christians have been persecuted for thousands of years and the degree is much worse in other parts of the world.
So what are we to do about this? I believe Chip and Joanna have offered us a good model. Even in a few secular media outlets, some kickback is beginning to arise against Buzzfeed and Cosmopolitan for such a hit piece. Why? Because Chip and Joanna have lived lives marked by grace, love, conviction and charitableness.
The way we live our lives every day matters even if we aren’t being followed by a camera. We who affirm the Bible’s words that engaging in the homosexual lifestyle is sin must also daily affirm the Bible’s words that every one of us has sinned and has no hope apart from Jesus Christ who has the power to cleanse us from every sin and give us new life in Him.
Don’t shy away from declaring truth because Chip and Joanna are being held up to the light of scrutiny. Antioch Community Church will not be the last church to have its sermon archives examined, and pastors (as well as their church members) will be held accountable for their words. But remember, our accountability ultimately is not to Buzzfeed or Cosmo. Our accountability is to the Lord God.
So may we speak boldly like God, but may we also love boldly like God. May our daily lives speak louder than our enemies’ attacks – ultimately that many would come to joyful repentance and life in the gospel.
And pray for Chip and Joanna Gaines.
“Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us” (Titus 2:7-8).
by Ryan Smith | Dec 1, 2016
It’s become a bit of a common occurrence.
I’m sitting across the table from someone who is interested in becoming a church member. Over a cup of strong black coffee (because I’m a man), we discuss the Gospel, what church membership means and why biblical church accountability is important.
At the end of our time together, I always ask the question, “How can you help the church and how can the church help you?”
Inevitably, the reply comes, “I just want to serve.”
Granted, the reply has a variety of manifestations, but they basically boil down to the same idea. People want to be used for the health and wellbeing of the church and are eager to offer their services.
This is great, and I love this about prospective church members.
However, I know they are likely thinking about service in relation to nursery rotation, teaching Junior High boys, greeting or simply giving of their time and resources – basically something with a sign-up sheet.
These are noble acts of service, and the church (yes yours) needs people to help in these areas.
But as I slowly see them start to wince anticipating I’m going to bring up the vacancy with the Junior High boys (or give a lecture on tithing), I always say the same thing.
Even before the nursery rotation or coffee-bar station, your church needs you to serve in three ways:
1. Make your home a center of discipleship.
Discipleship doesn’t begin at the church doors (though it should certainly take place there). Biblical discipleship begins in the home. Whether or not you have a family at home, no matter what ages your kids are or if it’s just you in the home, this might look different for you than for others. But the idea is the same. Make your home a holy place. Make it a place that honors God where the Bible is read, God is worshiped and family relationships are biblical. Be hospitable. Invite people over and invest spiritually in them. Share the Gospel with your neighbors.
Don’t have anything in your home you wouldn’t want others in your church family to have in their home. God has gifted you with a home – whatever it may be. Creatively use it, first and foremost, as a place for making disciples of Jesus.
2. Be present for the church.
Yes, attend worship services and other church body activities. But being present for the church isn’t just about taking up a seat.
Ask yourself how your church life would look different if you considered your presence with the church to be for the sake of others rather than simply for yourself? Would you arrive at the same time you do now? Would you sit or park in the same place you do now? Would you talk to anyone other than the people you regularly talk with now? Would you act differently in the community and behind closed doors throughout the week?
Being present for the church can be different than being present with the church. Use your time before, after and during worship gatherings to meet new people; encourage and pray with others; sing the truths of the Gospel so the faint heart next to you might be encouraged; and generally look for a need in the body you have been equipped to meet. Let your church attendance be for the sake of the church, not the church’s activities be just for the sake of you.
3) Pray for and with the church
This one is simple, but often goes overlooked. Your church needs prayer. Your pastors need prayer. Other churches in your community need prayer. We live in a world where the church is becoming increasingly isolated from the culture as the truth of the Gospel is seen as even more of an offense.
People in your church may lose jobs, relationships or even worse for the sake of the Gospel. When you get together with people from your church – even over dinner on Tuesday at Chili’s – consider praying for your church and pastors before you eat. Spiritual battles need spiritual weapons and prayer is a weapon vital to protecting the church and its spiritual health.
As you can see, these acts of service on behalf of the church have little to do with titles. You won’t get an award for 20 years of faithful service each week in reading the Bible at home with your family. No one may ever see you pray for the church. Your prayer with another church member on Sunday morning may take place in a corner chair and not on a platform.
But when we focus on our time outside of the few hours on Sunday morning, we inevitably will strengthen those hours as we meet together. Our churches will be strengthened as our members see service not as a role on Sunday morning, but as a lifestyle lived daily.
Serve your church. Be a disciple and make disciples, whether in the church building on Sunday, the office on Tuesday, or at home on Thursday evening.
This is the foremost way to serve your church.
“Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it” (1 Cor. 12:27).