Pure Church

For the last three days, I've had the privilege of joining Michael Lawrence in training pastors here in South Africa. We adapted 9Marks workshop material for our audience, which meant dropping some of the polemics that the original 9Marks material offered for the American context and attempting to apply the Scripture to the cultural context of South Africa. It was a fascinating and enriching time interacting with the brothers and sisters from rural and small city and township South Africa.

Some things I appreciated/observed :

1. Relevance

Parts of the Bible just exploded in my head and heart in new and fresh ways. For example, when talking about qualifications for leaders today, "the husband of one wife", sometimes thought to be easily understood and applied in the West, cut to the heart of a lot of sensitive pastoral problems in a culture where polygamy is accepted. You can see the wisdom of God in the inclusion of what seems in some cultures to be obscure passages and statements. It reminds us of how sufficient the Bible is for all of life.

But the exchange raised some interesting pastoral questions. How would you counsel the man who is converted by the preaching of the gospel but prior to faith in Christ maintained four wives? Should he keep the first while divorcing the other three? Should he keep them all? Should he keep the first, and, while not divorcing the other three or engaging in conjugal union, maintain the material support of the other "wives" and any children from those unions? If he divorces them, are the wives free to remarry? What, if anything, is the church's responsibility to those wives in a culture where they are not likely to remarry at all? All of a sudden, "can this man be an elder?" became the easy question. It was good for my soul to see passages like Eccl. 9:5-6 be applied in a context where ancestor worship is normative. Passages that seem to belong to a far off time with "ancient" Israel proved their relevance in a pagan culture today.

2. Trends

We had lunch at a nearby mall, where I was shocked to see a great number of Muslims frequenting the stores. Currently, Muslims comprise 2% of the population but occupy about 12% of the seats of parliament. When I consider the great migration of white South Africans out of the country, the deep poverty and high HIV/AIDS rates among some black South Africans, and the immigration of Muslims to the country, it does seem that South Africa could become "the Islamic Republic of South Africa" in about thirty years.

3. Strategy

Number 2 is made all the more possible by the weakness of the church in South Africa and the mercenary focus of Muslim communities in the country. Muslims are building schools in the townships of South Africa, indoctrinating young South Africans, while many churches struggle to cooperate, clarify the gospel, or work effectively in these communities. The consensus opinion by non-CESA folks is that CESA is the only evangelical denomination in the country and South Africa's best hope at a strong, biblical gospel witness. Many independent African churches are theologically mixed with pagan practices, most Baptist churches are theologically liberal, and many charismatic and pentecostal churches are carried away in excesses. There are, of course, shining exceptions. But this is how church leaders here describe the landscape. The country needs the Christians to forge a unified and gospel-centered strategy wherever possible.

4. Seriously?

At dinner last night, a waitress donned a silk sash and approached our table for a donation to the Society for the Care and Protection of Animals. Our gracious hosts explained that there is a wide and focused effort to raise funds for the care of animals. Many schools require their students to contribute financially. Even third graders in one school are asked to knit blankets to give to the care of animals. Meanwhile, I've not noticed any fundraiser efforts for the townships, and needed medical supplies don't make it to the sick. It's strange to see people so organized and focused for the care of animals but distant and non-responsive when it comes to the care of people. We see the same in the United States and other places. It makes me wonder about which really insignificant causes capture my attention while I move around willfully ignorant of deep suffering.

5. Statistics

Speaking of animals and humans. The government regulates the size of animal reserves, requiring thousands of acres in order to include certain animals like elephants and lions. There appear to be no regulations for the number of people you can squeeze into a mud house or shanty in townships. Moreover, while all the animals receive adequate square footage and medical care from people working game reserves, only an estimated 25% of children with HIV receive needed treatment.

6. Weather

I have to say this somewhere. It's cold and rainy in Africa, at least South Africa. I loved my history and geography teacher in high school, but she never told me to pack a jacket and umbrella when travelling to Africa! Where's the scorching heat? Where's the dessert and arid climate? I'll tell you where. Texas :-)

7. Humbling Honor

To address several groups in post-Apartheid South Africa with the Bible's teaching on ethnicity and unity in the body of Christ. The talks were received well and I pray bears much fruit. It was beyond encouraging to see the eagerness with which church leaders and students at UKZN engaged the topic. It's an honor and privilege to be here.

8. Needed

Pastors, seminaries, internships, teachers, and church planters in South Africa. George Whitefield is doing a great job training men, so are groups like Entrust. But there is so much more that's needed if this country will be reached with the gospel of Christ.

9. Contrasts

This morning's paper features a South African taxi driver who chased down a hit-and-run drunk driver who injured a 7 year old boy. He's a hero. Just beneath that article is a story about President Jacob Zuma, who declared in court briefs that he was "above the law" and should not be prosecuted while in office. One man risks his life and taxi to uphold justice, another uses his position to thwart it. The taxi driver gives us hope.

10. Gracious

The ladies who hosted me in their homes: Michelle, Lillibet, and Kristi.

11. Lucky

The blokes who married these ladies--they married well above their own status: Tim, Grant, and Paul :-)

12. Longing

For my wife and family and church. Headed home... but treasuring South Africa.

It's difficult to begin writing this post. Every word I've considered using to open this post is simply inadequate. Woefully inadequate. "Overwhelming" won't work. "Horrific" misses the mark. "Astounding" or "paralyzing" won't do.

What do you say when you visit an area where 85% of people there--men, women, and children--are HIV positive and dying of AIDS? 85 PERCENT! Imagine: a situation where 8 out of every ten people you see have a deadly virus coursing through their bodies, slowly killing them, and then moving on like a microscopic invading army to kill anyone who has the most intimate contact with them (sex). It's... (there are no words).

Meanwhile, only 25 percent of those infected receive treatment (ARV). Only a quarter may slow death and live "normal" lives for a season. The number of orphans from this pandemic is.... Well, there is no word for it. Apocalyptic maybe?

Oh, and by the way, unemployment is (unofficially) 80 percent.

And what you're imagining probably isn't the correct picture. This isn't even the poorest part of the country I've seen.

When I posted Grant Retief's comment that the gospel was the first tier solution for mercy ministry for the AIDS pandemic in Africa, I hadn't quite realized that it's the only solution for mercy ministry.

You can not recover from an 85% HIV/AIDS infection rate and 80% unemployment. There's no humanistic, social service, entrepreneurial philosophy or effort that can repair that. It's not a thing broken like a bike needing an inner-tube, or a car needing new fuel injectors. The thing simply isn't there to be fixed! An entire generation is dying quietly--nearly gone! Children are the knee-high reminders that there were once fertile, replicating men and women walking around. They're miniature recollections of once full-grown life that's evaporating. And they, too, the children, are HIV positive and dying of AIDS. This is starting over... almost completely.

Today, we visited a ministry called Lily of the Valley. It's a very comprehensive effort to try and address this pandemic: gospel preaching and Bible teaching, housing for AIDS orphans, medical clinic, cottage industry/business. They're doing a valiant work. Please pray for them.

As we toured the place and heard more about the ministry, I was left with a couple thoughts:

1. These people are trying to re-engineer an entire society. The problem and the work are massive. For example, just how do you re-introduce fatherhood to a culture when virtually none are known or exist?

2. The implications of the gospel are enormous for this re-engineering effort. Not only must these dear people in God's image come to believe in Christ and be saved, the outworkings of gospel life must be freshly imaged and lived as the only reconstructive force powerful enough to address this plague. If the succeeding generation isn't swept up in a revival, a supernatural enlargement of God's converting and sanctifying work through His Spirit, then the catastrophic effects of sin will destroy them. And this sin attacks at the very point where promiscuity meets reproductive hope.

3. This makes squabbles about the social gospel almost irrelevant. I say "almost" because anything that obscures or supplants the gospel that saves cannot be completely irrelevant and must be avoided. The social gospel dooms people to hell. But in the final analysis, so too does a so-called "biblical" gospel that gets penal substitution, justification, repentance and faith correct but never moves us to preach it, teach it, spread it, apply it, and risk it and ourselves in caring for the needs of people perishing in sin and disease and hunger and war and poverty and illiteracy.

My dearest friends and mentors are among the most cautious about evangelical social ministry degenerating into the social gospel. Michael Lawrence and I had good discussion about this following our visit. These friends see historical precedent for evangelical churches confusing mercy ministry with either the gospel itself or the church's reason for existing. They're concerned about the gospel and the church remaining focused on its primary mission--preaching the gospel. No other institution outside the church is given the mission to preach the gospel. If the church won't, no one else will. Pastors shouldn't abandon this charge. I share every one of those concerns. I learned these concerns and priorities from these brothers, to whom I owe more than can be calculated. This is not a critique of them. I mention them only because I know some of you will be familiar with their positions and you might think there is some disunity between us. There isn't; only the very deepest affection and unity in Christ.

But after I've said I have these same concerns, then what?

I can't be so concerned about what might be lost that I'm too paralyzed to venture anything on it. I'm looking at this scene in Africa--and it could be in most any place in the world--and I just can't justify the idea that my only task as a Christian and a preacher is to preach the gospel. I can't justify the idea that if I only preach the gospel--which I must preach and treasure and guard--then I've been faithful even if I've not served the needs around me. When you're standing this close to the naked, brazen effects of sin and depravity, you realize that Christ's work of redemption is our only hope and that we need to act in that same hope.

Today's visit to one town reveals to me the betrayal it is to claim to be gospel people and not be merciful people.

I'm not sure what I expected when I arrived in South Africa, but I wasn't expecting the audiences I addressed to be as integrated as they have been. From the CESA synod meeting, to the Antioch Bible Church worldviews conference, to the gathering of Christ Church Uhmlanga, the audiences have pleasantly surprised me by their diversity.

This isn't to say South Africa is anywhere near the harmoniously diverse society that people here want it to be. But it strikes you that the country is farther along in post-Apartheid community than the unintelligent visitor like myself would have thought.

To appreciate how far along the country is, you'd have to compare the state of things to the United States--not the present U.S.--but the U.S. 15 years after Emancipation from slavery. South Africa has had the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, there have been denomination-level and church level discussions about "race" and reconciliation, and there is the sea change in governance.

The U.S. is just now getting to the point where meaningful discussions about "race" can be had. Rather than repent after slavery, there was the rise of the Klan, the repeal of Reconstruction gains, and the establishment of Jim Crow. The U.S. effectively introduced its own apartheid after slavery. Apologies for slavery have come 100 years after the fact and sometimes quite grudgingly. And in quite a number of places, Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour in America.

What strikes you is the forthright and bold way in which South Africans have taken up its discussion of "race" and reconciliation. To be sure, a lot of that forthrightness stems from the fact that black South Africans are the majority in the country, whereas African Americans were a minority in the U.S. following Emancipation. Majority/minority status matters when it comes to determining whether your history of oppression will be addressed with any haste. For example, it's unthinkable that the "with all deliberate speed" verdict of the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Education could have been passed in a black majority South Africa. Or, it's unimaginable that a majority black South African president would only be elected 140 years or so after Apartheid's end. Things happen faster here because black Africans are the majority. But that notwithstanding, they are happening and it's striking.

And I'm praying that more and more the peace of Christ which reconciles sinners to God and ethnic groups to each other would be present in this place. Ephesians 2:11-22.

So, Michael Lawrence and I walk up to the airline counter with luggage in two, expecting to get our 16 hour trip to S. Africa underway. The young woman at the counter kindly asks for our passports. We each comply.

Then with an Indian-African accent, she says, "Sir, do you have another passport?"

"Hmmm... no," I replied.

"To enter S. Africa, you need a passport with at least two blank pages back to back. We can't allow you onto the plane. If you were to reach South Africa, they would immediately deport you."



Michael and I look at each other in mild disbelief. I think I said something very intelligent and winsome like, "Huh?" She kindly repeated herself and pointed to a little sign on the desk explaining it all in black and white. I'm not sure why the South African Airlines website or the ticketing agent who sold us the tickets didn't make this clear, but it's apparently the law in S. Africa.

And guess what? It's Saturday afternoon--no chance of zipping in and out of your local Washington, D.C. passport office (never a chance of that anyway; just thought it sounded good). And oh, by the way, since today is Saturday, tomorrow is Sunday. No office opened then either. What about Monday? Labor Day--a holiday in the States--all government offices closed. Earliest appointment will be 8am on Tuesday morning. Earliest flight out, 5:40pm Tuesday afternoon, the same day I'm to have addressed the national conference of CESA on the gospel and 'race.'

Now at this point, I'm thinking, Looks like I'm headed back to Cayman. We call our good folks in S. Africa, seven hours ahead in deep sleep near midnight, to break the news. A productive conservation, some quick schedule changes so that Michael speaks on Tuesday and I on Wednesday, and maybe I'm still in business.

I say "maybe" because James tells us to make sure we say, "if the Lord wills." And that seems an appropriate lesson because if the Lord had willed, I'd be flying over the Atlantic right about now watching a movie and eating bad airline food for 50 bucks. If the Lord willed, there would not be some unpublished passport regulation for entering South Africa. But the Lord willed that I be here in D.C. for Labor Day weekend, celebrating the Lord's Day at CHBC, and enjoying a little more sleep in this time zone. The Lord's will is always good.

I'm praying everything goes without a hitch on Tuesday. I just feel like the enemy would conspire to hinder this important conversation in South Africa. I'm so thrilled he can't overthrow or even challenge the Lord's will and providential ruling in all things. God's best will be done. Please pray that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So, this is a public service announcement: If you're going to South Africa any time soon, check your passport for a couple blank pages. Okay... whether or not you're going to South Africa, it might be good to check your passport. Don't wait until you're at the ticket counter and you're reduced to eloquent statements like, "Huh?"

I'm on my way to meet Michael Lawrence in Washington, D.C. to leave tomorrow for two weeks of ministry in South Africa. We're traveling at the invitation of Entrust and 9Marks and we'll have opportunity to serve in a number of exciting ways.

While there, we've been asked to address the Church of England South Africa's National Conference. Michael will deliver two addresses on penal substitution; I'll have the privilege of delivering two addresses on "the gospel and 'race'" and one address on the sufficiency of Scripture. The "Gospel and race" addresses will essentially be the T4G talk broken into parts and expanded a little. Later in the visit I'll have opportunity to do this talk with students at University of KwaZulu-Natal. Please pray for these talks if the Lord gives you liberty. I can't think of a context with more opportunity and more challenges for a discussion on the gospel and 'race.' And I can't think of a more necessary discussion among the people of post-Apartheid South Africa. I praise God for moving CESA and others to search His word for divine wisdom and help from His Spirit.

I'll also have opportunity to join with Tim Cantrell and the saints at Antioch Bible Church (north of Jo'burg) for their worldviews conference. Looks like it'll be an excellent conference addressing a range of issues demonstrating the supremacy of Christ over all things. I'll have the honor of addressing "The Supremacy of Christ Over Islam" and "The Supremacy of Christ Over Ethnicity." Michael will address their men's discipleship group.

From Jo'Burg, Michael heads to Pietermarietzberg to preach at the Lord's Day service of Church on the Ridge. Meanwhile, I'll head to Durban to enjoy the company of Grant Retief and preach at Christ Church Umhlanga.

We'll also conduct a 9Marks conference with pastors and church leaders. I'm looking forward to the interaction with African church leaders from both independent and Church of England South Africa groups.

We'll have tons of lunches and meetings with pastors and ministry leaders throughout the stay. And we'll sneak some sightseeing things in here and there. It should prove to be a faith and heart-expanding time in the Lord.