21st Century Slavery

Documentation of a world wide plague of human trafficking on every continent should create in all of us a sense of righteous anger and zeal for stamping out the circumstances that allow for such in our generation. The buying and selling of human beings is being carried on in many forms…in an underworld of crime and drugs and prostitution…and in a very visible world of poverty, war, and disease. The exploiters are those who feed off of the brutal exploitation of children, forcing them into battle or drug peddling or fodder for the pornography industry and sex trade.

An estimated quarter of a million individuals in the United States are being held in some form of controlling and illegal bondage. Young women and children have been the most frequently victimized. Typically those from other countries are invited to take on work and then after entering the country, forced into environments where their credentials are taken away, their communication with family is cut off, and their identity hidden. They are in turn forced to participate in all kinds of illegal activity under the threat of death or being told that they will be beaten or maimed or in some other way intimidated into submission. The examples are many and the methods abominable.

It is time for the nations of the world to work together to bring an end to the stealing of children to force them to become child laborers or child soldiers in the armies of warlords and tyrants. It is time for the sick mentality of those who use children for profit to end. It is time for those who allow the exploitation of children to be named, blamed, and shamed for the crimes they perpetrate.

The O. T. prophets cried out for justice and righteousness in the land. When something else is the norm of the day, the very foundations of what we value as liberty will falter and fail. Lest we forget, the strength of a nation is revealed in how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. Likewise, the weak and the poor should not be condemned to death because of where they are born or because there are no voices to speak for them. Speak out…do what you can do…stop the apathy.

Why Some Preachers Hate Mother’s Day

The nature of Mother’s Day observances in churches is certainly diverse. One colleague in ministry describes it as an exercise in “keeping women in their place,” while others give flowers to the “most-fertile” mother and ascribe the day as set aside for sentimental journeys. Other ministers bemoan the unintentional “recognition” of the “youngest mother” who was an unmarried teen and others struggle to recognize the oldest mother who is unwilling to tell the truth about her age. Even in the early years following the designation of Mother’s Day as a national observance, those who had petitioned for it grieved the fact of their success because of its blatant commercialization.

Few days are as capable of stirring emotions as this one – and for all sorts of reasons. Inevitably every congregation has those women who are unable to conceive and have never known the opportunity of motherhood. Similarly there are those who have suffered the loss of a child, and perhaps their only child, and such a time brings a refocusing on their loss. Others recently lost their mothers to death and that grief causes them to in some cases seek an escape from those fresh tears.

Yes, all of us do have a biological mother; and many, if not most, were women who provided the care and love and encouragement that are so nobly understood to be the essential elements of Christian virtue and nurturing. Nonetheless, others have experienced far less than that kind of love, and in fact may have suffered at the hands of an abusive or violent matriarch. There are those children who were brought into the world drug-addicted and abandoned. There are those who were emotionally abandoned and ignored. There are those who were constantly reminded of their inadequacies and inabilities and never offered affirmation and praise. Such mothers rarely invoke the sentiments of joy that proper mothering should render.

At the same time there are those incredible women, who in the midst of every trial and circumstance, provide a place of comfort and strength and meaning that creates an environment in which children thrive and grow and mature. They are to be commended and thanked and praised for the good works that they do and we are to be grateful for their love and the many essential blessings they provide to our lives.

In these times of many choices, we see an increasing pattern of single mothers, giving birth to those who will never know a home that included a father and a mother. Others end their pregnancy for fear of the consequences of their choices. Some never are able to conceive again because of those choices and the grief is real that accompanies that recognition. Still others struggle in the midst of troubled families, caught in the pains of strife and anger and bitterness that too often describe the “life and times” of homes and families in need of hope and new beginnings.

Into such a mix of emotions come those ministers, often in their own souls struggling to face the onslaught of emotions and potential pain that might be created by uttering almost any word. Yet Christian ministers are called to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ…a gospel meant for a hurting world full of anxieties, troubles, and misplaced allegiances. This gospel is good news to the poor, forgiveness to every repentant heart, love unbounded and full of promise for new beginnings. This gospel of Jesus is fortunately an appropriate message and when it is the message, it is always to welcoming hearts. The truth is, without God’s help, none of us would have a prayer of getting through the day...any day... much less Mother’s Day.

Motives for Personal Ministry

Christian community finds its center in the common life-changing relationship we theologically refer to as the Kingdom of God. It is the rule and reign of Christ as Lord of our lives. It is the company of those called and committed to following Christ. Yet the community we call the church very often acts like it is on the verge of collapse, at the point of exhaustion, making last-gasp efforts in the face of unquestioned opportunities for ministry. What gives? If the church is the gifted and spirit-led community of faith…should we rethink and reconsider our practice of ministry? Could it be that we are working without direction, ignoring the spirit of God? Could it be that we have professionalized our ideas about ministry to the degree that we have forgotten the calling of every believer to service? The reality of few attempting the labors needing the many is a circumstance not unlike that noted by Jesus when he called for prayer that there may be more laborers in the harvest. Do we point to such realities as a symptom of limited faith or disinterest or a failure of organization and inspirational motivators? At the same time, there is the reality, that in many cultures, the church that follows Christ will endure conflict with the culture, and can be confronted with persecution and suffering for Jesus’ sake.

Personally, I have spent a lifetime in ministry and observing churches of many sizes and shapes. Young churches, old churches, small churches, large churches…but some things are evident in them all. The work that accomplishes the most for the kingdom of God is born out of personal devotion to God, a sense of divine calling and a utilization of divinely given gifts and spiritually directed endeavor. Very often that form of ministry receives little fanfare and is bound to a humility and compassion that seldom calls attention to itself. The nature of this relationship is exactly what can be described only as God working in persons who make themselves available to God and who in turn are sensitive and willing to respond in the face of God’s opportunities to them. I think those who act from such motives and influences are serving today and serving well, doing the things God has laid before them to do.

God still works His wonders among us, reminding us that it is not in our strength that we do His will, but in His. Yet there are many, even within the community of faith, who are missing the blessings of such service because of unconfessed sin, unwillingness to forgive, or because of their failure to make themselves available to God in a spirit of humility and genuine worship. If at places, the church appears to flounder, you can be assured it is not God who has broken his word, abandoned his truth, or denied his love. He waits for us to recognize his voice, and to follow Him who leads us to life abundant. We are called to follow Christ…it is a call to a new life…born from above… for the glory of God. Such a relationship is gifted with divine blessings …every day and forever.