[Editor’s Note: our guest post today may seem too political for some. It is and it is also not political. One dynamic that has become glaringly obvious in our churches is the political spheres clashing with the “religious” spheres in our midst. No one can deny the division and the disunity in the American Church today and as we come to the anniversary of an incredible historical event in our lifetime, we as followers of The Way must attempt to make sense of the turmoil in which we find ourselves.
Here at Outside the Gates, we have found ourselves in a political wilderness for years, a decade or more. But in the past few years, it has become even more difficult to align our beliefs with what we see infiltrating our church families. Here is one pastor’s views on what he saw. We are honored to share it with you as we move forward into new territory, outside the gates.]
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by Timothy Massaro
When Christian leaders finally wake up to the terror they have overseen and cultivated, they will, hopefully, denounce it. But in doing so, they will be persecuted and rejected by their own “conservative base.”
Little did conservative Christian leaders know, that the coming persecution of the church in the West will be at the hands of their own people. The conservative ejection of its leaders is coming.
Why? Because these leaders have failed at every turn to support the weak and the needy. They have given themselves to mammon and power worship long ago. They have supported abusive, tyrannical leaders in the church and outside it. They would rather support the “good ole boys club.”
When they finally wake up and see the animal they have created and the flames they have stoked, they will wonder what happened. They have been “preaching” the same message for years. They have been faithful to the “Gospel,” but the reality is their message and lives are at odds. “Truth” was just a tool to remain in power and have influence over seminaries, churches, and the coming generations. This is what their people saw and are mimicking. They sold their souls for 30 pieces of silver long ago. Now, it is too late. The “battle lines” have been drawn.
Sadly, this was foreseeable. This has been spoken about for decades, centuries ago, long before I came into this world. You can’t worship God and mammon. You can’t preach the Gospel and not care about the poor, the needy, the marginalized, or suffering. What we are seeing is the complete breakdown of holding to the truth of the Gospel AND the cost and life of discipleship that Jesus initiated with his Kingdom. This isn’t to say Jesus has failed. No. But it is to say most churches that are “conservative” aren’t following Jesus.
What our churches need is a Reformation from top to bottom.
We need to pray that we can overcome our ways of resentment and doing church that have led us here.
We need to repent and publicly side with those who have suffered at our hands and say what needed to be said long ago, even if it costs us all our rich donors, even if our seminaries close, and pastors/professors lose their comfortable lives and book-stipends.
Until we are truly siding with the marginalized and our lives show the fruit of a cruciform life, we really have no business being pastors, theologians, professors, running think-tanks, doing apologetics. We have to clean our house or God will in judgment.
It has already begun.
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Timothy Massaro is a husband and father in Nashville TN and can be found on Twitter at @word_water_wine
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