On this occasion, the problem is that they want their child to have minimal or no involvement with older people. The child stated that they liked being around older people. But this desire came with a correction by the adult. “I want you to be a normal kid.” This is why people do not want to be involved in our church. There are too many “old people” and not enough “young people.” And if a family visits and doesn’t see anyone their age, they will complain to the parents and the parents will give in and go to another church where there are lots of kids their age, regardless of what is said from the pulpit or if the church is honoring to the Lord. In essence, the parents obey the kids rather than “Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right” (Ephesians 6:1).

Normal childhood today is like this: “Mom works, dad works they get tired. Dad has his hobbies in the evening and weekends and is very busy. If mom is not working Saturday and Sunday, she likes to shop or decorate. I (the child) am very busy too. Mondays and Wednesdays, I have karate in the evening. Tuesdays are scouts. Fridays I have soccer practice. Saturday and Sunday, we play soccer. Sometimes we go to church, but we are very tired because we stayed up late watching movies. Sometimes we skip church to get ready for the big game. I don’t really spend much time with my family, but I have alot of friends and am a pretty normal kid.”

The definition of “normal” has changed over time. Today, you can literally go to church and never see a person different than yourself. I know of churches where children are completely seperated from the parents and “worship” in another building. Grandparents have their own “traditional service” and never interact with anyone younger than 65 (except the “strange” younger people that like the traditional service). Boomers hang out with Boomers, Busters with Busters, X’ers with X’ers, DINK’s with DINK’s (Double Income No Kids), etc. That is “Normal”

Suppose you wanted to have a strong family. Suppose you wanted to spend time together. You take the kid out of sports, ballet, scouts, or whatever so that your evenings are free to be together. Then you are a major WEIRDO. And the poor, deprived kids! They will be subject to life-long weirdness! Children who actually know how to relate to adults and the elderly are (to use language from my generation) “totally lame.”

Churches are guilty of the same crime. They fill their schedules with activities in order to be attractive and so the parents are busy running the activities and the kids are busy participating. One could literally be at the church for something each night of the week. If that were the case, when would you spend any time together as a family?

There is something about the family that holds a society together. There is something inherently important about the family structure. Most people acknowledge this fact. But in practice we destroy the family by spending as little time together as possible. In our desire to see our children “self-fulfilled” or “normal” we keep them around each other as much as possible and prohibit them from learning how to relate to others, older or younger. “Teenage culture” did not just happen all of a sudden. The idea that it is normal for teens to rebel evolved over time. The temptation may have been there, but absolute rebellion is relatively new. Today there are homes where parents absolutely cannot control children.

The question we must ask ourselves as Christian families is this: are we changing the culture or is the culture changing us? If we continue to give into the idea that kids will not be normal unless they are surrounded with activities with other kids their own age then we should not be suprised that in 10 years the American family will be well on its way to extinction.

Yesterday’s ruling by US District Judge Vaughn Walker basically overturning Proposition 8 which banned same-sex marriage in California was a landmark verdict. After the majority of Californians voted to ban same-sex marriage by changing their constitution, judge Vaughn Walker decided that the majority of Californians were antiquated and anochronistic. The judge declared that, ”

But sometimes people just lose their taste for that “big-ness.” They want true fellowship and to keep things simple. So rather than return to the traditional churches, they stay home and have other believers come join them. You can have the Lord’s Supper around the breakfast table. A full bodied Cabernet for the adults and Oceanspray for the kids. Asiago-herb sourdough for the bread. Everyone can participate and there really isnt a leader (although inevitably there will be a leader).

There are many Christians in our community that are part of this movement. Some call it the ”Simple Church” some call it the “Organic Church” sometimes it is called the ”house church.” And there are various points on the scale. Some might have a “sermon” others might just sit around and talk about what Jesus means to them.

One thing is certain: these groups did not ”just happen.” Something has driven them to do this. If you ask them, they will say things like, “We wanted to return to the Acts model or return to the pure church model.” The problem is that they are not satisfied with the traditional churches or the megachurches. Something was missing. The question is, “Is the thing that is missing an inherent problem for the traditional church?” Or, “Can the traditional church model be fixed?”

We have certainly been hoping to fix the problem. Over the past month or so, our church has been looking at the “One Another” passages in the New Testament, mostly in Paul’s letters. This study has given us insight into how life in the body should be lived out. The only question now is “how do we do this?”

The problem is not about Dr. Caner’s claim to be a former Muslim. The problem is that he claimed to be a very devout Muslim and a few other inconsistencies in his testimony/biography (his biographical information has been changed significantly on the Liberty website). Apparently a man on Youtube, Mr. Khan, has taken up the challenge of authenticating the background pieces to the life of Ergun Caner. And apparently there are some discrepancies in his testimony.

I have personally listened to Dr. Caner’s abbreviated testimony in a chapel service once at Southern Seminary. Although he was a dynamic speaker, I was not really impressed with his message. He referred to himself as a former “Towel head” (i.e. Muslim). He told alot of jokes and funny stories and was quite humorous.

I want to be the last person to kick a fellow Christian while he is down. I do not intend to further discredit Ergun Caner. But if anyone has followed his shenanigans over the past few years, it is no wonder why he is in such a predicament. This is just one example of the strange ways of drawing a crowd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agjV0tbktvQ. In his debate with James White and Tom Ascol, Dr. Caner was at times imbecilic. And now he is the President of Liberty University.

All this to say that there is a deeper issue here than the problems of Ergun Caner. The bigger issue is pop Christianity. For some strange reason we love to place image over substance. It is not because Dr. Caner is a respected church historian that he is the president of a major Christian University. He is the president because of his charisma and charm. He was put in place based on some misleading statements about his past activities in Islam and his conversion to Christianity. I do not doubt his conversion nor his desire to further the  cause of Christ in the world. It just seems that he is somewhat of a celebrity with very questionable integrity, based on the current investigation and the way he has handled himself in the past.

Again, for some strange reason Christians are willing to prop up any fad or fad producer as their leader and statesman. It doesnt matter if they do not know basic church history or theology as long as they are “cool.” I can buy a leather jacket and a beanie and say some funny things and people will want me to be the president of their school. But it will not happen.

The most important thing we can do is be truthful and honest in our testimony and lives. If we have a testimony about how God miraculously saved us, let us share it and be truthful. Every conversion experience is a miracle of God’s grace and does not need embellishment for the sake of shock and awe.

We expect more from our leaders and we expect them to be forthright and honest. We also expect to admit when they are wrong, rather than blaming certain groups of Christians for conspiring with Islam to discredit another believer.

Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham and founder of Samaritan’s Purse, was apparently disinvited to pray inside the Pentagon on the National Day of Prayer. The reason Rev. Graham was disinvited was because of his negative words concerning  Islam. But there is something much deeper going on that we are all much aware of. Unlike his father, Franklin Graham speaks in a very straightforward way. When asked about the exclusivity of the claims of Jesus, Franklin states very clearly and in no uncertain terms, just what he believes. That attitude does not make for good ecumenism. And so he is unwelcome at these ecumenical prayer services.

The battle lines are now being clearly drawn. Rick Warren may offer an ambiguous prayer to an ambiguous “god” at the inauguration ceremony. There was some controversy surrounding that event, but as long as you do not make any specific claims about Jesus, you are fine. This leads to a specific point: we are told that it is unloving to take a stand for absolute truth. we are told that if you do not cooperate together with anyone who claims to be a Christian, regardless of their specific beliefs, then you are unloving and will never impact the world for Jesus Christ. My question is, “When will Christians really take a stand for what they believe? When will Christians be willing to say exactly what they believe to be true about Jesus and salvation and stop pretending? Is the Mormon my brother in Christ? Is there such a thing as orthodoxy? Can one transgress the boundaries of historic Christianity?

Of course this is not a new problem. But it is a problem that must be addressed. The world will soon be calling us out, “What do you believe to be true? What do you think of Islam?” False unity is no real unity. Getting together to sing songs and pray with nothing other than a nebulous statement, “We believe in Jesus” is taking us nowhere and is a waste of time.

I believe that Christians must be united. Christians should be able to fellowship, sing, pray, and labor together for a common good. But we must state clearly what we believe in matters of essentials. I have no problem protesting abortion alongside Roman Catholics, yet we have fundamental theological differences that cannot be ignored. I have no problem joining together with Muslims for some social cause. I know what Muslims believe about Jesus. I do not agree that he is merely a prophet as they do. I believe that Jesus is God the Son incarnate and is co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. I have no problem standing together with a person of the Jewish faith for some good cause. I know where they stand. But I don’t know where many “christians” stand. I have had Jehovah’s Witnesses tell me that they are Christians just like the Methodists and the Presbyterians. But are they? There are some Baptists who have no right to call themselves Christians because they deny the faith that was once delivered to all the saints. I will not stand together with them because they pretend to hold to historic Christianity while in essence they have denied the faith.

This is a time to stand. In an age that holds all truth to be relative or even non-existent, we must be willing to say what we believe. There are differences that are essential. There are differences that are non-essential. But we cannot afford to pretend that they do not matter. There can be no true unity without something solid to unite around. And the mainline denominations have proven that fact clearly.