LAS COLINAS Continuing the tradition from recent years, the kickoff event for this year’s SBTC Empower Conference will be the Classics Luncheon, 11 a.m. Monday, Feb. 25 in the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas. 

Charles Lowery will be the guest speaker. Lowery is a nationally known Christian psychologist, author and speaker who blends humor with a message of hope. 

Following the luncheon, a Classics Session from 1-4 p.m. will feature music from the Southern Gospel group The Hoppers and sermons by Junior Hill, T.C. Melton and Ronnie Floyd.

Both the luncheon and session are open for all age groups. Tickets for the luncheon are $10 each and available at sbtexas.com/empower.

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. —Genesis 9:6

All lives matter! All lives are precious in God’s sight. The reason—because God created us in his image, after his likeness (Genesis 1:26). Consequently, every person—male/female, young/old, born/unborn, black/white, Hispanic/Asian, citizen/immigrant, rich/poor, religious/irreligious, Christian/non-Christian—every person has worth and dignity as God’s image. The dignity of all human life is evident in God’s words to Noah that if one person takes the life of another person, they forfeit their own life, “for God has made man in his own image” (Genesis 9:6). All lives matter because all lives are precious before God. There are no qualifications, no distinctions. 

Sadly, our culture today rejects the idea that all lives matter. The history of racism in the United States has shown us that to many, black lives don’t matter. The eugenics movement has advanced the notion that children born with genetic abnormalities don’t matter. The white nationalist movement promotes the idea that immigrant lives don’t matter. And the pro-abortion movement has legalized a practice which communicates that unborn lives don’t matter. Any movement that promotes the idea that any human being doesn’t matter is anti-God, evil and Satanic. 

As Christians, we have a responsibility not only to honor all human life but to seek to protect all human life as we have opportunity. While we should honor and celebrate all life each day, this January, as we do every January, Christians throughout the United States acknowledged the
sanctity of human life. Why January? 

First, Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in January—January 15, 1929. It’s appropriate that we remember, not just Dr. King’s assassination day, but his birthday. By celebrating Martin Luther King Day, we remember Dr. King’s dream that all humans have dignity because each person bears the image of God. However, Dr. King reminded us that we cannot sit silently on the sidelines while injustice against humanity continues. In his 1963 speech, “I Have a Dream,” Dr. King rightly said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” But Dr. King did not choose to arm his objections with violence. Instead, he argued that “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” (Sermons from his book Strength to Love, 1963).

Secondly, we remember and promote the doctrine of the sanctity of human life in January because on this month in 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States legalized abortion in the Roe versus Wade decision. To date, abortion has taken the lives of over 58 million unborn children—many of them from lower income and minority families. Of all human life, the unborn are the most vulnerable because they literally have no voice. If we don’t speak on their behalf, who will?

When I was in Israel in December of 2017, I had the opportunity to walk through the Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum) in Jerusalem. It was disheartening to observe the evidence of hatred against Jews, not only from Nazi Germany, but from governments all over the world. One theme stood out to me during that visit. It’s captured in a quote often attributed to Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.”

If we don’t speak up against injustice, who will? Evil only needs us to be silent to continue to have its way. So, whether it’s having a needed personal conversation with a family member, walking out of the room when an ethnic joke is told, volunteering with an organization that is seeking to address issues of injustice (whether poverty, hunger, racism, sexual abuse) or gathering for a public event like a Martin Luther King Day parade or a March for Life, let us be silent no longer. Let us proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ who died and rose again to bring together one new man from Jew and Gentile; let us announce the good news of the kingdom that Jesus is reigning at the right hand of the Father, and he is gathering for himself a people from every tribe, language and nation, making them brothers and sisters. In God’s kingdom all are family, all are equal, all are of worth and have dignity—male/female, young/old, black/white, Asian/Hispanic, rich/poor, citizen/immigrant, born/unborn. Let us celebrate such life! 

I’m younger than half of the Sunday School class I teach, but older than any of my doctors (except my dentist, by three months) and older than my last five pastors. My perspective on church things changes as this transition to being among the elders becomes more undeniable. My wife Tammi and I were talking the other day about how we’d seen several empty nester friends fade from regular church attendance—call it a second DINK (Double Income, No Kids) era of life. We should be more responsible now than we were in the sparkly days of being newly wed, but that’s not why I’m writing. Sometimes I wonder what my church or your church does to keep those who are becoming less vigorous a vital part of our ministry. 

Perhaps we don’t know what to do when a generation of church leadership—those who were go-to people in deacon ministry or administrative help—needs to be in charge of fewer things. With some of my friends it looks like a severe drop off between “she is everywhere” to “where’d she go?” The false dichotomy between being essential and being useless is fostered from both sides. Church members who slow down a little because their own health, or that of a spouse or parent, sometimes quit everything and fade before anyone notices. Church leaders are unprepared with options for those who need to be less prominent but who don’t want to become uninvolved. 

It’s not an easy nut to crack, but I have been in many meetings where bright people strained and brainstormed about how to get younger families engaged at some level—“Where can we plug them in,” “How can we keep them from just going out the back door?” and so on. If the focus is just on ensuring the future of the church or institution, that scrutiny of assimilating young families is right on. If the focus is on ministry to those God has placed in our hands, our motives and reach need to be less ageist.

Some who’ve taught for decades don’t walk so well these days. There’s not a correlation between one ability and the other. Additionally, you might consider that older members are qualified to teach more than just their peers. Middle-aged folks, 20 years older than I, taught my Sunday School classes from childhood until I was myself middle aged. Can a 70-year-old teacher be an effective teacher of young adults, children or high school students? I can’t imagine why they couldn’t. Some do imagine that pretty easily. 

Multi-generational fellowship is born in multi-generational worship and ministry. Do we want the generations to trust each other and understand each other? A good place to start is engineering opportunities for us to work alongside each other. Instead of a senior adult retreat, how about a retreat focused on the interests of members within more than one demographic? We do have some things in common. Include older members in the student mission trip; let them bunk together and eat together, just like they do with relatives during family events. 

The generations are more likely to snipe at each other when individuals of one age group don’t know anyone of another age group. I assume that my children, well adjusted and gainfully employed, are an exception when I read something foolish done by another member of their generation. I’m less likely to do that when I’ve spent some good time with solid younger folks who are not my kin. My kids are indeed exceptional, but they are not the only wise Millennials.

I recognize the need for outreach among generations that are moving away from their churches. We need to preach the gospel to them and we need to teach them how to follow Christ. Older members are not the “future of the church” unless you consider the next 20 years sufficiently futuristic, but a significant number of their Baby Boomer generation are also lost. We have a few years to preach the gospel to them and teach them to follow Christ. This outreach can be a ministry of young and old, and it can bear unimagined fruit among family members of all ages. 

Think of it as a stewardship of your present ministry, not so focused on the ministry you will have in 10 years. Some of your older members will be able to do less, and you’ll do some funerals. Some of their friends, who will attend the funerals, are lost and hardened to the gospel. Some of their neighbors at the senior center or nursing home are unbelievers. You have church members and staff members who would be well-focused on ministry in this field. As for those who are still active, though a little slower, in your church, what can you do to intentionally equip them for significant ministry during every day God gives you with them?  

Do you have a “maybe not” file? By whatever name, this is where sermons that go nowhere, blog posts that sound crazy, letters you’d never want the recipient to read and other ill-formed ideas go to season. Mine contains the half-written frames of scores of columns I decided weren’t ready for prime time. Some of them just faded out as I tried to develop a thought, others became less attractive as I imagined readers who might be needlessly wounded by my words. I’ve deleted some of them as hopeless but a few I imagine might one day be redone into something I’d publish.

Social media offers fewer opportunities to rethink our great ideas. I’ve deleted a post or two from my Twitter accounts and Facebook page, cringing at a mistake I made or dumb thing I said. But I’ve never called people hateful names in these media. Maybe I was blessed to be beyond my “everything I say must be broadcast” stage of life by the time social media was invented. More likely, I’ve seen some sinful language of mine in ink on paper once too often and it’s made me less enamored with knee-jerk responses.

As we turn toward year three of the Donald Trump administration, some few of the brethren are still beside themselves that he was elected. No problem with that opinion, as an opinion. But exasperation clearly tempts us to cross lines. I do get that. We Americans are not restrained people. “I disagree” or “I think you’re wrong for the following reasons” just doesn’t get you much attention. We are tempted instead to call people “fools” or “charlatans” or “carnal Christians” as I have seen done already this year. That does get attention I suppose. In despair or guilt I’ve seen more than one person advocate for unity or kindness or humility to be revived in our national, and Baptist, dialogue. I agree in some limited ways but think saying it is harder than it even sounds.

My “maybe not” file is the old school equivalent of deleting a post or email without sending it. It’s the electronic version of a trash can, or just shutting my mouth. A maturing person learns that not everything he thinks should be expressed to anyone. The longsuffering Mrs. Ledbetter can testify that not 10 percent of my wacky (but accurate) ideas are ever shared with anyone else. What she may doubt is that a fairly small number of these gems are even shared with her. I have opinions about everything and I think you probably do as well. Tighten your filter as I daily try to tighten mine.

It changes my thinking to do that. If I don’t air out my every thought, I find myself dwelling less on the unworthy ones. Giving bad thinking or attitudes less time results in recognizing them and rejecting them more quickly. If I don’t say every judgmental thing that crosses my mind when I’m cranky, I am offended less often (which becomes a new thing) when someone rejects my opinion. Perhaps as a bonus, I find that I talk less and don’t as often seek to be the dominant opinion in the conversation, even when I am right.

If we desire unity, less acrimony or even more disciplined use of social media from others, this seems a good place to start. This is far from an original idea and it’s more often expressed by my generation—those who were middle-aged by the time these megaphones where handed out. But I’m not asking for a tech fast or even more consideration and kindness from those around me (in a vague, worldwide, electronic way). I’m saying that all of us have some experience regretting something we’ve said. All of us have seen the need to just shut up on some occasions. I don’t believe my ideas will get better or that I’ll be less of a boor or bully by merely trying to say better things in the same quantity as ever.

If you doubt that this will work, try an exercise with which I’ve had some experience. When you carelessly offend someone by email, social media or opinion column, apologize to them personally. It’s a humbling, even humiliating, experience. Doing it makes me not want to do it again.

We’ll see some outrageous things said and done as our endless election cycle start to get louder this year. It’s likely we’ll see our brothers in Christ say some sinful things, or at least ridiculous things. It’s not necessary that we ridicule the ridiculous or rebuke sinners with whom we have no personal relationship. Of course publicly expressed ideas are fair game for disagreement and rebuttal, but be careful when “you are wrong” just seems inadequate: “You are wrong, fool” only seems better. I’ve been on both ends of that impassioned rant and know that nothing except the name calling is remembered in such a conversation.

Simply, make this year, this election cycle, a time when you rise to fewer provocations, craft fewer zingers and take up less bandwidth. Try saying better things, sure, but start by saying fewer things, James 3:2.