restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

Report on the Galana Clinic: Part 1

Becky Lynn Black  

It has now been 6 months since we got our license to operate the clinic, and 4 months since we have had a full staff. Much has happened during that time period. We’ve had a high learning curve! God has been faithful in supplying all that is needed, and we rejoice in seeing His glory on this little piece of land in the Burji District of southern Ethiopia.  It is all part of His mandate to us. (See my essay,Understanding the Great Commission.)

For those of you who are new to this venture, let me give you a quick update. The Burji District lies in southern/southwestern Ethiopia, not far from the Kenyan border. (This is the area southwest of Lake Abaya on the map to your right.) The Burji tribe has a population of about 72,000 in Ethiopia, and manymore thousands in Kenya.  It is surrounded by the Guji, Amaro, Konso and other peoples. The District lies at the end of a mountain range; its terrain is a mixture of mountains, valleys and rolling areas.  Almost 100 percent of the people are simple farmers; there are also a few government workers (teachers, etc) as well as business owners (small shops, etc.). These farmers are 100 percent dependent upon natural rainfall, so they often suffer from drought, pestilence, and agricultural diseases. Getting to the Burji area from the capital (Addis Ababa, the star on the map) is a long 15-17 hour drive; most of this drive is on 2-lane asphalt, but the last few hours are by gravel or dirt road.

Burji has one main town, Soyama. This is the location of government offices, the only high school, and the government clinic. It also is the only place where electricity, phone, and email service is available, thanks to the Chinese who brought it about 2 years ago.  There are no paved roads in the Burji District. It is dotted with small towns of about 30-50 homes; most people live out in the country in simple round mud huts with thatched roofs.  In the highlands the people get their water from springs; in the valleys they go to rivers; very few wells exist.

Walking across the Soyama market area.

Soyama Town. 

A typical shop in Soyama Town. 

A typical rural home in the Burji district.  

A road and spring in the Burji mountains. 

Road and town in the Burji valley.  

The Gospel came to this area about 1955-1960 by pioneer missionaries Alex and Theresa Fellows. A mission station was built consisting of a Bible school, a medical clinic, and an elementary school. Prior to the arrival of the Gospel and these missionaries, the religion of the people was animism/African superstition/witchdoctor worship. Today there are still many people following this religion, but most follow Islam; about 30 percent follow Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord. Most of the Christians live in the mountains; most of the Muslims live in the valleys. Our work today steps on the heels of those who were faithful in the past. Praise God for their sacrificial lives!

Remains of the missionary clinic from the 1960s.  

Remains of my childhood home. 

Remains of my father’s elementary school.  

Twenty-five years ago a Canadian charity funded the establishment of a clinic at Galana village in Burji. The clinic was under the management of the central KHC denominational office in Addis Ababa. At that time, the clinic was well-developed, with full lab, ambulance, good staffing, etc. It had a good reputation and people came from all over the area to receive care at Galana clinic.

However, after the funding ceased about 15 years ago, the central office did not find an additional source of funding, so the clinic lay vacant. The local Burji churches hired a junior nurse to try to keep some service going, but the buildings fell into disrepair, and eventually the license was lost. From the beginning of our relationship with the Burji churches (2004), the leaders have been begging us to help them get the clinic going again. We were very hesitant to become involved in structured medical work – the logistics, personnel issues, supplies, funding – everything is challenging in medical work. We preferred to continue to do “unstructured” medical assistance through distributing eyeglasses, prenatal vitamins, protein bars, casual medical counsel, sponsoring unusually needy situations, hygiene/nutrition workshops, etc. But after the first Team from Bethel Hill Baptist Church came to visit Burji, we were encouraged by them to start the clinic back up again. So it was largely through the encouragement of other American believers that we have undertaken this huge work. Now we have formed a Clinic Coalition of churches that have taken this work on in a special way, and we seek their counsel in decisions. Praise God for the mutual encouragement of the brethren and for the vision of the local Burji leaders!

A man dying in the mountains. 

A sick woman being taken on horseback to the clinic.  

A boy dying from a brain tumor. 

A man receiving eyeglasses. 

Discussion about restarting the clinic.  

The Clinic is located in a dry valley-desert area that is easily accessible to all the people living in the mountains and valleys.  It lies at the juncture of the Amaro, the Burji and the Guji tribes. By vehicle, it is about 30 minutes drive from Soyama; since no people have vehicles, we really should talk in terms of walking time – it is about 4 hours walking time from Clinic to Soyama Town (the nearest medical service). The clinic serves people who would otherwise walk 12-15 hours to get to the government clinic in Soyama; many of these people would die en route. (The Soyama Town Clinic has about the same level of service as the Galana Clinic: simple lab, simple nursing, pharmacy, no surgery or acute emergency care.)

Currently, we have a license as a “medium” clinic. We are staffed with a chaplain, a “senior” nurse, a “junior” nurse, an accountant, a pharmacist, 2 guards, and a janitor.  (We are looking for a lab tech as well.) All of these positions are “full time.” Combined salaries are about $8,000/yr. Clinic hours are 8:30-12:30 and 1:30-5:30, Mon-Fri, with emergency services provided on weekends and evenings. A nurse and the pharmacist are always on the compound. We have simple housing for the professional staff; each person has a room about 10’X14’; they all cook together in a separate kitchen room, and they share an outside pit toilet. Their living quarters are about 50 feet from the clinic.

The clinic building has 7 rooms: laboratory, observation/delivery room, pharmacy, exam room, treatment room, injection room, and registration room. The front of the clinic has a long porch for waiting patients, and we have just completed a separate waiting shelter.   

The clinicstaff. 

Hanging a blackboard with clinic announcements. 

People waiting for medical care.

The primary purpose for the clinic is evangelism. Why is this? Because is it a known fact that spiritual issues are eternal, while physical issues are temporal. (See my essay,The Role of Humanitarian Aid in Building the Kingdom.) If spiritual issues are not prioritized, the person will simply go to hell a well person! We cannot do that injustice to them. Unlike many “religious” clinics, we do not require anyone to embrace Jesus Christ as Savior, or follow Him in their lives, but we are diligent to tell them the story of Jesus, so that they can know the option they have in Him. In the first three months of operation, 15 people chose to follow the Savior! Our chaplain Solomon is diligent to present the Savior at the clinic. He speaks to them as they are waiting, he plays Christian music over the loudspeaker, and he visits them in their homes. And after their decision, he connects them with a local church near their home for follow-up in teaching and discipleship.

Let me tell you one story that we witnessed while we were there in November. A young lady had declared Jesus as her Savior, but her brother had not.  Someone cast a curse upon her brother, saying “If your sister does not reject Jesus, then you will die soon.”  Imagine the strain on this young lady! Surrendering to the pressure of her parents and family, she renounced Jesus.  Within days she herself became very, very sick. She was brought to the clinic with a high fever and active seizing.  Heroxygenation level was only 67 percent.  Immediately our nurses started IV fluids and gave her seizure medicines and antibiotics. Simultaneously, all the staff gathered to pray over her. But the matter was clear – apart from Jesus she would die! As the staff pled with her and her parents, they decided to come back to Jesus, surrendering their souls to Him and trusting Him to care for them. Over the next 2 days they continued prayer and medical care. She slept in the clinic observation room with her parents. And on the third day, she was discharged home; everyone was rejoicing that the Lord Jesus had shown mercy once again, and had taken back another of His wayward children. On the fourth day, Gezaheen (our senior nurse) and Solomon (our chaplain) visited her in her home. She was walking around, serving her visitors, and rejoicing in the Lord Jesus! And already the leaders of the local church had been to pray with her. This is a perfect example of the ministry that we envision for the clinic – joint spiritual and medical care, united clinic and church outreach.

So you see that the spiritual work is done alongside the medical work. To help the staff in this spiritual ministry, the chaplain has devotions and prayer time for 20 minutes each day before the clinic opens at 8:30. And he prays publicly, dedicating the day’s work to the Lord for His glory. I cannot find words to express the great blessing that Chaplain Solomon is to me! Such a joyful, loving man – he is the perfect person for this work!  The Burji church leaders were wise in choosing him for this work.

On the medical front, the primary diagnoses are infections, malaria, parasites, wounds, typhoid, seizures, and eye diseases. About 10 babies have been birthed at the clinic. Every Thursday morning we have special clinic for expectant mothers, so we expect this service to increase. Accidents/trauma/burns are also possible, especially as the war wages nearby. We took some much-needed medical equipment with us in November.  Until our arrival, they were hard-pressed even to have a stethoscope. Now they enjoy a pulse oxymeter, fetal doppler, EKG machine, several digital blood pressure machines, digital thermometers, pediatric and infant stethoscopes, an assortment of orthopedic aids, and a resource library of 17 books. I wish you could have seen the eyes of Gezaheen (senior nurse) when I pulled out those library books! He told me that nowhere in Ethiopia do they have such libraries. We also brought some good laboratory equipment, including a microscope that can connect to a computer. With this machine, they can capture microscopic images and send them by email to specialists for consultation, or print large pictures for patient education, or send them with the patient in case of transfer to a hospital. Praise God for His grace to us, in providing people to donate supplies, and in arranging such easy access to these supplies through the internet! We live in a very blessed country to have all this available to us. Let us not take it for granted. Let us remember to thank the Lord for His grace to us in this way.

Caring for a girl’s wounded finger.  

Dispensing medicines. 

These parents have brought their sick baby for care. 

A happy young mother. 

By the grace of God and the diligence of two team members, we were able to install solar power at the clinic. With this came electricity to run lights inside, security lights outside, a refrigerator, a centrifuge, battery rechargers, etc. Talk about living in high cotton! Amazing! Praise God with us for this luxury!  I wish you could have seen the clinic staff and the patients as this technology instantly raised their standard of living! Such a simple thing for us, and yet so profound in its results. How grateful I am to the Lord for providing Ed Johnson, a layman at Bethel Hill Baptist. God has given a measure of understanding of solar and electrical things, and he’s using that gift for the Lord’s Kingdom! How I wish all of us followed his example more.          

Turning on the lights! 

Repairing the delivery table. 

Paying fees. 

On the financial front, in the US account we have a current deficit of $2,562; this was caused by the customs fee of about $5,000 on the shipment of supplies. The fees charged for patient services are covering the replacement of medicines and supplies, and about one third of the salaries. Currently the clinic is serving about 24 patients/day, and each patient is paying about 35 birr/visit (that’s about 3 and a half cents in our money). Our goal is that the clinic be entirely self-supporting for operational expenses, and then we will cover only capital improvements. We have refurbished the walls, windows, and doors of all the compound buildings; we have replaced the gate; we have installed solar power and are currently working on a well.  If God is willing, in May 09 a team will install indoor plumbing (3 sinks); currently we have wash stations in each room, using water that is brought by donkey from a distant well. The bank account in Ethiopia covering these refurbishments is in good order.                                 

So, overall, we are very happy with the financial operations. Please pray for us to continue to keep good oversight and establish good cash flow records. And praise the Lord that He has made the dollars stretch to accomplish what is needed.

Looking to the future, we are focused on 4 things:

1) Hire a lab tech

2) Establish a well, water reservoir, and indoor plumbing for 3 sinks

3) Develop health teaching in the tribal languages on CDs, for use with the loudspeakers

4) Purchase a vehicle (see Part Two)

Will you continue with us in prayer over this ministry? God is already doing miracles here. To Him goes all the glory!

February 6, 2009

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Remembering the Pilgrims

 David Alan Black 

In September of 1620, a small group of men, women, and children left Plymouth, England, for Virginia on the Mayflower. Having been blown off course by a storm, the Pilgrims landed at Cape Cod on November 11. That day Governor William Bradford and the leaders of the Mayflower signed the Mayflower Compact, acknowledging God’s sovereignty in their lives and their duty to obey Him.

The Mayflower Compact, often called “The American Covenant,” was our nation’s first great constitutional document. It is still worth reading today:

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland king, defender of the faith, etc., Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these present solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends foresaid, and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign Lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland.

On December 21, the Pilgrims landed on the site of Plymouth Colony. Had they arrived only a few years earlier, they would have been wiped out by the Patuxets, one of the fiercest tribes in the region. However, three years earlier, the Patuxets had been devastated by a plague. The Pilgrims had landed in one of the few places where they could survive.

Of the 102 passengers who arrived on the Mayflower, only 52 survived the winter. The Mayflower sailed back to England in the spring of 1621. Despite the privations of the winter, none of the Pilgrims returned with the ship.

On February 12, 2003, the 108th Congress passed Resolution 38, expressing the pride of the U.S. Congress for the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock on December 21, 1620. It reads as follows:

Whereas on September 6, 1620, one hundred and ten men, women, and children set sail from Holland to the New World with the pioneer spirit and desire for freedom;

Whereas the Pilgrims survived the grueling voyage in cold damp conditions with only cold food to eat;

Whereas once land was spotted, the pilgrims created the Mayflower Compact which guaranteed equality amongst the settlers;

Whereas the Mayflower Compact laid the foundation and moral framework for the future laws of the United States of America;

Whereas the Pilgrims sought out the Native Americans to build a community encompassing both cultures; and

Whereas on December 21, 1620, the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the first step in the New World: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That the Congress –

(1) expresses its pride for the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock on December 21, 1620; and

(2) honors the Pilgrims pioneer spirit and desire for freedom.

My wife being a direct descendant of William Bradford, this date, December 21, 1620, will not go unnoticed at Bradford Hall, our Virginia home. Nor, might I be so bold as to say, should it at yours. The Pilgrims are the ancestors of all liberty-loving Americans. Their spirit of freedom is worth celebrating every day.

Our Lord, too, offers a Declaration of Independence to every slave of sin. He has redeemed us out of the market place of sin, and from that day forward we ought to stand firm in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.

Marvelous Declaration of Independence, signed with His own blood!

December 21, 2004

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. He is the author of Why I Stopped Listening to Rush and numerous other books.

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Remembering the People of the Towel

 David Alan Black

We read much nowadays about nationalism and internationalism. But if you are a Christian, you are a colonial because you are a citizen of a heavenly commonwealth (Greek politeuma, Philippians 3:20). This is the only truly Christian nation. America may contain Christians and may be influenced by Christian principles (which are rapidly waning), but there will never be a Christian nation except the blood-bought people of God.

Just as America is losing its national integrity in a sea of internationalism, the professing church of Jesus Christ is losing her peculiar characteristics in a world-church amalgam of narcissism. One-worldism is setting the stage for Antichrist. In light of this, God’s people need to be what Christ called them to be—heavenly colonials in a pagan society. Every member of that Holy Nation is to be an ambassador for Christ beseeching men and women to be reconciled to God.

The tragic deaths of four Southern Baptist missionaries in recent days are a reminder of what discipleship—true discipleship—can cost. When Christians of Tertullian’s day worshipped idols and then excused themselves by saying that they were only valuing the lives God had given them, Tertullian asked, “Must you live?” Today, Christians have devised many ways of excusing their egocentric lives, in contrast to the saints of the early church who suffered the loss of jobs, the loss of property, and even the loss of life rather than compromise with the world.

Let us give honor to God today by remembering the lives and labors of those courageous citizens of heaven who gave their all for Christ.

·        Dr. Martha Myers

·        William Koehn

·        Kathleen Gariety

·        William P. “Bill” Hyde

They must have been well aware of what an earlier martyr once said: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.”

We who are alive may possibly remain until the coming of the Lord. But should He tarry, the question will always be, “How then shall we live?” The New Testament tells us: It is by taking up our cross daily and following our Lord. The right side is not always the bright side, and persecution may come our way, even in these United States of America. But the important thing is to be on the right side, however dark the days.

During an address given at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s convocation on January 29, 2003, Dr. Paige Patterson noted that the symbol of the minister of Jesus Christ needs to be the bowl and the towel. “I would say that the next generation of ministers to our world needs to recover the symbol of the bowl and the towel. It is the symbol of the servants of God,” said Patterson.

Patterson is absolutely correct. Spirit-filled Christians are not self-absorbed Christians. They are People of the Towel—humble servants of Jesus Christ. When a servant of Christ is asked “Must you live?” he cheerfully replies, “Only as long as I can glorify God in this mortal body.”

March 5, 2003

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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Remembering September 11

 David Alan Black

The date was September 11, 2002. That day the nation paused to remember the one year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. At the very same time, two unlikely scenarios were working themselves out. One of them you could not possible have known about. The other one—well, the other one is an indescribable tragedy all its own.

In the first scenario, a man and his wife are dressing up for dinner. They leave for their favorite restaurant to spend an enjoyable evening together reminiscing about the past. In the background, the restaurant’s TV set is reviewing the day’s memorial services for the victims of 9/11, but the couple seems oblivious to anyone or anything else. The reason is obvious to anyone who knows them. They are celebrating the anniversary of their wedding on September 11, 1976. Needless to say, that couple was my wife and I.

That same day, September 11, 2002, another event of tremendous proportion was unfolding in the nation. On that day 3,000 families died. On 3,000 occasions—in 3,000 different towns and cities across America—a husband and wife said their final goodbyes. No sirens accompanied these deaths by divorce; no crowds gathered in vast arenas to mourn the victims. These homes simply died. For these families, September 11, 2002 was a day that changed their lives forever.

That there is a family crisis in America is undeniable. More marriages will be dissolved by divorce this year than by death. One third of all live births will occur outside of wedlock. Fifty percent of children in public schools will live in single-parent homes. Fifty percent of couples filing for divorce will have cohabited before marriage. A culture marked by secularism and moral relativism will continue its assault on the American family.

Don’t think for a moment that as my wife and I sipped our coffee and ate our dessert we were oblivious to these facts. We both realize that there is one reason and one reason only that any marriage can last for 26 years. That reason, quite simply, is the grace of God. I am painfully aware of my own shortcomings as a husband and father. But I am also aware that God’s grace has been sufficient to make up for my liabilities. And so it was with unspeakable joy and gladness that on September 11, 2002 my wife and I celebrated God’s faithfulness to us for 26 years.

Did we forget the events of 9/11? Hardly. That September day was a horrific watershed in American history, and it must always be remembered as such. Yet God is glorified when His good gifts are received with thankfulness and joy—His gifts of marriage, of health, of life itself. The family is one of God’s greatest gifts to His children; and failure to acknowledge His gifts in the midst of cultural chaos is surely one of the greatest tragedies that can befall a nation.

Because none of us has any way of knowing what challenges await our nation in the future, I pray that God may grant us strength in our marriages and homes so that we can prepare the coming generation to face life’s trials with courage, faith, and grace. But even as we memorialize the past and prepare for the future, we dare not forget to celebrate the present.

March 16, 2004

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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Remembering My Father

 David Alan Black  

Father’s Day always births nostalgia in me. I was just three years old when my father walked out of my life in Hawaii, never to reenter it. I have never forgotten that.

Larry Crabb once said, “In even the happiest of lives are deep pockets of incurable pain.” I don’t say this to elicit anyone’s pity. I just want to say to you men out there who are contemplating leaving your wives for greener pastures: Divorce is an atomic bomb, and the greatest fallout is on the children.

A few years into my marriage Becky and I were visiting the Pacific Northwest. Through the grapevine I had learned that my father had remarried and was living in San Jose. I even had his address. I asked myself, Should I visit him on the drive back to Southern California? As we traveled through Oregon and Northern California I became increasingly anxious. Approaching the San Jose city limits, we pulled off the road. I recall being paralyzed with indecision. I began sobbing on Becky’ssympathetic shoulder. I cried like a baby. Then we prayed … and drove straight through San Jose without stopping.

Just before my father died of cancer he phoned me. I had never recalled hearing his voice before. Funny, I thought, he still has a bit of Hawaiian Pidgin in his accent. He engaged in some small talk and then said he wanted to reestablish a relationship with me. Without any bitterness I softly said no. It’s too late for that, I thought to myself.

Someone has defined forgiveness as accepting the pain another has caused you and refusing to hold that person responsible. I had long before forgiven my father. But I was not ready to have a relationship with him.

Occasionally I think about that phone conversation. Did I do the right thing? I don’t know the answer.

After the end of apartheid in South Africa, Desmond Tutu told his fellow citizens that they had no right to indulge in self-pity. He asked them to become, in his words, “wounded healers.” If I have ever encouraged another human being toward spiritual health and wholeness, it is as a wounded healer.

When I was eight years old I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. God became my Heavenly Father, and I became His son. That relationship has made all the difference in my life.

But no one can ever replace a father in a child’s heart.

Not even God.

June 18, 2010

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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Rejoice!

 David Alan Black 

 “Cups of cold water/Giv’n in Jesus’ name/Cups of cold water/Are never giv’n in vain/Someday in heaven/When we meet the Lord/Each deed of kindness/Will reap a rich reward.”

God’s ultimate purpose in all suffering is joy. The greater the peril, the greater the song of deliverance. The angels in heaven sing more joyfully over one sinner who has come to repentance than over ninety-nine who need no repentance. Has a woman lost a coin and then found it? She will call all her neighbors so that they can rejoice with her. Has a prodigal returned to his father? The household kills the fatted calf and celebrates.

It is Christ who makes all this possible (Col 1:24). As we participate in His work on earth – sharing His love and His Gospel, giving cups of cold water in His name to those in need – we are blessed with joy inexpressible. As Paul wrote, “But if my lifeblood is to crown that sacrifice which is the offering up of your faith, I am glad of it, and I share my gladness with you all. Rejoice, no less than I, and let us share our joy!” (Phil. 2:17-18).

I want to thank everyone who shared our joy in helping Azanou, a 14-year old Ethiopian in need of a cornea transplant. By adding your “cups of water” to ours, the blessing has only been multiplied!

The largest gift sent was $100.00. The smallest was a check for $1.92. All were received in the spirit in which they were given. Here are the thoughts that accompanied your contributions:

Dear Dave and Becky Lynn,

I was very touched with Azanou’s story. Our family will be praying for him. Here is our contribution for his surgery. May the Lord continue to bless all of you.

For Azanou. We are praying for you ALL!

Dave,

Sorry it can’t be more but I’m living on just my SS right now. I hope you have a tremendous amount of support for the lad. I’m sure our Lord will provide.

Best to you in your endeavors helping Azanou. Will continue watching on “Buried Treasure” for updates on his progress.

We heard about Azanou on Carmon’s Buried Treasure Website. We are praying for all of you. God bless.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. David Black,

Please accept this money order for $50 for your efforts to care for Azanou. I became aware of Azanou and your kind efforts to help him through Carmon Friedrich’s site, Buriedtreasurebooks.com. My thoughts are prayers are with you and Azanou.

Dave and Becky Lynn,

Thanks for all you’re doing for Azanou! It is a joy for us to be able to a part of it!

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Black,

Thank you so much for the wonderful resources that you sent to us. We appreciate your kind generosity. We also thank you so much for your example and the encouragement we receive from your website. You have been a blessing to our family.

Dave and Becky Lynn,

It’s only $20.00, but it’s what we can do for now. Sent with love for Azanou!

This is for Azanou.

David and Becky Lynn,

Here is the money that we pledged toward Azanou. Enclosed also is a card – if you send him a letter could you include it – my daughter made it. Thank you for your example.

Dear David & Becky Lynn,

Thank you for the privilege of participating with you in showing the love of Christ to Azanou.

And so we rejoice. Now let us share our joy together!

March 6, 2005

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. If you would like to know more about becoming a follower of King Jesus, please feel free to write Dave.

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Rejecting the Feasts of Ahab

 David Alan Black

In his blog a pastor recently praised a new book published by Vision Forum for addressing a sacred cow: the immodest way Christians dress. All well and good. But then he made this statement:

We are a nation of true believers even if we can’t agree on what we believe in. We don’t need to apologize for our country’s abiding faith in God. It’s part of our strength. Second, my friend is exactly right. It’s not politics that bugs a lot of people about President Bush; it’s his strong faith in Jesus Christ. They can’t conceive of a man in high office who actually reads the Bible and prays.

No, my friends, we are not a nation of true believers, and, no, the reason why many of us reluctantly criticize the president is not because of his “faith” (which is intangible) but because so many of his policies (which are not intangible) contradict both the Scriptures and the U.S. Constitution.

It is high time to shed the naive notion that just because a man prays his policies must be valid. Bush’s anti-Christian positions, policies, and practices are well known and deserve censure, not approbation, from the pulpits of the land. Chuck Baldwin, a Baptist pastor and the 2004 vice-presidential nominee on the Constitution Party ticket, has wisely said:

…some pastors are still laboring under the deception that, as a pastor, God hasn’t “called” them to get involved. They have swallowed hook, line and sinker the atheistic, humanistic, secularist perspective. They have bought into the ACLU interpretation of the First Amendment and the mythical separation of church and state. They really believe that they are not supposed to address anything that could be described as political. They haven’t thought it through. They haven’t read their own history. They are victims of their own ignorance. They’ve not studied the Constitution. They’ve not read the writings of the Founding Fathers. They’ve not read our great historical documents. They’ve not read John Leland. They’ve not read Witherspoon. They’ve not read Locke. They’ve not read Benjamin Rush. They know very little about true American history. They’re victims of a modem educational system that has stripped them of their God-given responsibility to be the moral and spiritual leaders of the nation. They really don’t know what their role is. 

Such role confusion is not limited to our day. The psalmist once asked: “Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain?” Our Christian faith has the answer: man’s rebellion against God. Unhappily, so many Christians understand this only in theological terms, not in political ones. When faced with the deadly opposition of politicians on social and cultural issues, and especially when opposition takes the form of statism, we often fail to recognize intolerant evil for what it is.

I harbor no illusions about the objectivity of such pastors as the one quoted above. Changing their minds will not simply be a process of jogging their memories about a now-forgotten Constitution; after all, one assumes they have access to such information. They actively do not want to know the truth.

It is time that we as Christians begin to make our stand while there are still battles that can be won. The fact that a few lone voices have spoken out does not mean that anything will change. We need a keen conscience, not sore from unnecessary proddings but alert to good and evil – even the evil that exists in political parties. We are not to be alarmed at such evil, but the times call for measures suited to the situation. The New Testament clearly sets forth a pattern of crisis and conduct (Rom. 13:11-14; 1 Cor. 7:29-31; Tit. 2:11-14; 1 Pet. 4:7-19). There is no doubt about the crisis but our conduct is not rising to the occasion. Sometimes we have to stand alone and differ with our neighbors in order to have a conscience void of offense toward God and men.

Micaiah (1 Kings 22:13-14) was given a diet of bread and water as punishment for disagreeing with the king’s prophets. But he preferred that fare to the feasts of Ahab. In this election year, only a conscience schooled at the Master’s feet and illuminated by the Holy Spirit can guide us aright.

August 5, 2004

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. His latest book is Why I Stopped Listening to Rush: Confessions of a Recovering Neocon.

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Regrets

 David Alan Black  

Who doesn’t have them?

I suspect Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University, has a few. While introducing the president of Iran – his special, invited guest – Bollinger spoke up forthrightly, succinctly, and intentionally offensively. Remember: the Iranian president was his invitee. I’m sure both men said things that night they’ll regret for a long time to come.

Luckily, I am superbly qualified to speak on this subject since I have a good many regrets of my own, though my faux pas have had slightly different foci. In my book New Testament Textual Criticism: A Concise Guide, I argued that the Byzantine text-type changed “in Isaiah the Prophet” to “in the prophets” because the following quotations are from both Isaiah and Malachi (Mark 1:2-3). But that’s far too simple an explanation. The “correction” could well have gone in the other direction, as my esteemed colleague Maurice Robinson has reminded us. I regret that I did not give my readers this other perspective.

Earlier, in my book Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek: A Practical Guide for Students and Pastors, I offended a good many people when I suggested that Welsh was doomed to extinction. Sociolinguists objected that I had no right to pen an obituary for any language, let alone Welsh. They were right, and I regret saying what I did. Since then I have discovered that my own family roots go back to the Blacks of Wales, so I am now rooting for the perpetuation of the language.

Politicians must have many regrets, even if they do not acknowledge them. I think Rudin’s Law may apply here: “In a crisis that forces a choice to be made between alternate courses of action, most people will choose the worst ones possible.” As a consequence, the U.S. has developed a reputation of getting bogged down in wars of its own making. One can only stand in awe of such creative Rudinship. Rudin’s Law may well prove pivotal in the development of a self-destructing American empire.

Speaking of empire, one of my greatest regrets has to do with the 2000 presidential election. I regret having helped to vote into office the current incumbents in Washington. I have come to detest the stand they have taken vis-à-vis the Constitution they swore an oath to uphold. I loathe their contempt for true democracy, their dismissal of elementary human rights, their commitment to global hegemony, their arrogance, militarism, and adventurism, their contempt for international law, their appeal to national security to justify the use of violence. Today the same war drums are beating to rouse public enthusiasm for an attack on Iran – all under the cloak of moralistic righteousness, of course. Acting preemptively has become the new norm in foreign relations. Force reigns supreme in America, and we will exercise that force whenever it is in the “national interest.” Even among my fellow evangelicals there is no shortage of elevated ideals to accompany the resort to violence, nor is there anything that resembles a faint moral objection to U.S. government-sponsored efforts at regime change in states deemed enemies of America.

Such hubris is inexcusable and can lead only to disaster. If the Body of Christ recognizes any form of state violence as anything but a desperate last resort when all else has been tried, the spiral of violence will only escalate until it is completely out of control, with unforeseeable consequences. If Iraq is the U.S. exemplar for countering Islamic fundamentalism, then heaven help us.

In my opinion, the current administration in Washington is a body whose doctrine of preemption and hegemony is in almost every respect a repudiation of the Constitution. The appropriate response to terrorism is police work, not nation building. You go after the bad guys who did the deed. Alas, Americans don’t seem to understand this. We are too blinded by might. 

Of course, I may be wrong. Wrong for hating the idea of a foreign policy that seeks to advance by force American principles around the world. Wrong to oppose the Kulturkampf of our Leader. Wrong to grieve over a nation so motivated by fear that it is ready to lash out at any country it deems a threat. Maybe my disapprobation is misguided.

Instead of ruing my 2000 vote, perhaps I should be patting myself on the back. And, while I’m at it, I suppose I can get rid of my puerile regrets.

December 3, 2007

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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Reformation, Revival, or Restoration?

 David Alan Black 

Roman Catholic theology has always fascinated me not least since I made a systematic study of the theology of Hans Küng during my student days at the University of Basel in the early 1980s. Indeed, one of the most significant renewal movements in the twentieth century (along with the church growth movement, the charismatic movement, and the ecumenical movement) was the emphasis in Catholicism to bring the church up-to-date in order to face (and answer) the challenges of modern society. Since Vatican II (1963-1965) this movement has been called aggiornamento, a term that emphasizes the need for the church to keep pace with a rapidly changing world.

In the Protestant world in which I live and work our favorite words for church renewal have been “reformation” and “revival.” We might say that the former term is preferred (quite naturally) by the Reformed churches, while the latter term characterizes the emphasis found in Baptistic and Charismatic congregations. Both are appropriate expressions to characterize the work of God in our times. If there is a difference between them, it is one of emphasis only: “reformation” accentuates the Word of God, while “revival” highlights the Spirit of God. A major preoccupation with the contemporary “emergent church” phenomenon, it seems to me, goes beyond reformation and revivalist strategies by emphasizing the “missional” aspect of the church’s life. So mission becomes the obsession of modern emergents in their quest to restore the church to health and vitality.

Here, then, are several strains within the modern church that stress a particular aspect of ecclesiastical renewal. Certainly other movements could also be mentioned (I am here thinking of what some of my colleagues are calling the “convergent” church, which pictures the true church as one that is both conservative and emergent). There is another way to view renewal, however, one which combines what is true in several other renewal movements and which recognizes that we have a fundamental responsibility to return to the teaching of the New Testament in both our faith and practice. This is the church restoration movement, by which is meant that the church’s task is one of returning to the teachings of the apostles in our ecclesiology. Nobody has exemplified the meaning of fidelity to apostolic patterns of church life better than Paul himself:

I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church (1 Cor. 4:16-17).

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ (1 Cor.11:1).

If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice – nor do the churches of God (1 Cor. 11:16).

As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches (1 Cor. 14:33b-34).

So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us (2 Thess. 2:15).

…we command you to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the traditions you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example (2 Thess. 3:6-7a).

These are merely a few of the passages that show how important apostolic patterns and precepts were to Paul and his churches. Little wonder, then, that the earliest Christians had no church buildings, no priests, no youth programs – nothing, in fact, that might have originated in their own minds rather than in the teachings of the apostles. They had no professional “clergy,” and the leaders they did have enjoyed a fellowship of leadership as they served together in humility and equality. These early believers had meetings that would amaze us today – highly interactive and participatory, focused on doctrine and teaching, and oozing with koinonia (genuine relationships). What a contrast to the institutionalized, professionalized, clericalized, human-centered operations we call “churches” today!

In our day the commonest fault is for the church to be structured for the sake of man-made traditions rather than for the sake of fidelity to New Testament patterns. This is the emphasis in J. L. Dagg’s now classic work, Manual of Church Order, first published in 1858. One does not have to agree with everything in the book to appreciate this statement (pp. 84-86):

[The apostles have] taught us by example how to organize and govern churches. We have no right to reject their instruction and captiously insist that nothing but positive command shall bind us. Instead of choosing to walk in a way of our own devising, we should take pleasure to walk in the footsteps of those holy men from whom we have received the word of life…. [R]espect for the Spirit by which they were led should induce us to prefer their modes of organization and government to such as our inferior wisdom might suggest.

More recently this idea has been taken up by Steve Atkerson, who directs the New Testament Restoration Foundation. Atkerson recommends “a conscious effort to seek to follow the traditions of the Twelve in their church practice. In short, we believe that the patterns for church life evident in the New Testament are not merely descriptive, but are actually prescriptive (1Co 11:2, 2Th 2:15). Thus, even though we are quite ‘traditional’ in the New Testament sense, what we advocate is rather nontraditional by contemporary standards.” In other words, the New Testament offers a marvelous model of Christian community, even if that model is rarely followed.

Mercifully, in recent years a tremendous change has taken place. As an illustration, let me mention a congregation that is located not far from where I live, the Southwest Wake Christian Assembly in Cary, North Carolina. The leadership there decided that the church needed above all else a biblical understanding of it principles and practices. They decided, for example, to forego salaries for their pastoral staff:

We certainly believe there is freedom to have paid staff and biblical examples of the same (1 Tim 5:17-18). We have found that some modern churches elevate paid staff (which is not required by Scripture) as a priority over other commands of Scripture (such as caring for the fatherless & widows). Some modern churches tend to rely too heavily on paid staff to provide spiritual food to families rather than expecting men to both lead their families and participate in corporate praise & worship. Therefore we will refrain from paying elders or administrative staff for anything other than reimbursement of legitimate expenses and small stipends until we have firmly established the opposite patterns (caring well for fatherless and widows and men actively participating in corporate praise and worship).

In short, the leaders asked, “Why should we spend the Lord’s money on salaries when other needs are more pressing?” They also refuse to spend money on a church building for the same reason.

Your church (and mine) might well ask some similar questions. Has our church grasped the meaning of every-member ministry? Or is it a pyramid with the “clergy” and the “professionals” at the top of the pinnacle and the “lay people” at the bottom? Are parents, and especially fathers, taught that they are the main delivery systems of truth in their homes? Or are they encouraged to abdicate their responsibility to youth group leaders and children’s workers? Do we imprison members in programs? Do we ensure that biblical truth is taught and embodied? Do we spend money on buildings that could go instead to missions? A dozen more questions could be asked.

Without this emphasis upon and fidelity to apostolic principles and patterns, the church will never recover or fulfill its mission. The church must organize itself in such a way as to reflect the New Testament’s understanding of the Body of Christ. Its structures and practices must reflect those handed down authoritatively by the apostles themselves. There is no secret about how to do it. It just takes time in which to allow the Scripture to sink into our minds and hearts and so regulate everything we think and do, translating its message into action. An example might be the way we engage in teaching in the church. Teaching is clearly a vitally important function of the pastoral ministry (Eph. 4:11-12), but at the same time Paul would remind us that any member of the assembled congregation is free to contribute a “teaching” (1 Cor. 14:26; cf. Col. 3:16). He would be a proud shepherd indeed who asserted that he has nothing to learn from others in his flock!

In this brief essay there has been no room to say much about the reasons for the church’s departure from biblical norms. Could it be that we lack the prime essential for ministry – a personal commitment to the Lordship of Christ?  I ask myself: Where are the young men and women of today’s generation who are determined to stand upon the Scripture alone, who are resolved to live by it, and who are committed to obeying it in their lives, their families, and their churches? I venture to say that the twenty-first century church is at a vital crossroads. If we should dare to submit ourselves anew to the full biblical witness to Christ and His church, I believe that the most significant renewal movement in the history of the church may yet await us.

April 7, 2014

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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Reflections on Reformation Day

 David Alan Black  

As everybody knows, the Reformation is the talk of the Internet these days, seeing that Reformation Day is today (October 31). The ubiquitous spirit is certainly one of defiance. One website I visited even argued that we need to put the “Protest” back in the “Protestant” Reformation. It would probably be impossible to catalog all of the essays and blog posts that will be posted today honoring the Magisterial Reformers. After all, the Reformation is revered in many circles as a revolution in Western civilization. No doubt it represented a major upheaval in religion. But it’s always dangerous to declare a turning point in history.

There’s no question that the Protestant Reformation brought about a renewed and much-needed focus on the Scriptures as the source of truth about God and man. But I wouldn’t short the Anabaptists (called by some scholars the only real Reformers of the Reformation) or plug the Magisterial Reformers without reminding everyone of the point Arthur Sido made on his blog yesterday. In an essay calledAre We Too Gospel Focused? Arthur writes:

My wife and I spent six hours driving yesterday and during that time we listened to some talks from the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. The talks dealt with the topic of justification and were deep and rich, saturated with Scripture. Yet something was missing. These were not evangelistic talks aimed at unbelievers. These were talks targeted at mature believers but the talks were all about “what and how” and virtually nothing about “what now?”. The speakers lamented that we don’t talk about the Gospel enough but I wondered what the people in “Gospel centered churches” understood the necessary consequences of the Gospel to be? Coming to church? Being a “member”? Getting baptized? Obeying the church authorities and contributing to the operation of the church? These talks and books and sermons that are “Gospel focused” seem to me to be like reading half of one of Paul’s epistles, the parts where he speaks of the Gospel proper, while ignoring his admonitions and examples of how the church is to live as a family and to live as witnesses to the world. So when I ask, “Are we too Gospel focused?”, this is what I mean…

We can get so caught up in studying the Gospel that we forget to live out the Gospel.

In other words, nothing develops a person’s Christian walk as sharing his or her blessings with others. A reasonable amount of time spent in Bible study and meditation is indispensable, but it is to be spent preparing us to return to the battle.

In a nutshell, the way of salvation is just that: a way of living. This does not mean that the Gospel is not worthy of our best theological thinking. It is worthy of the best of everything. But the genius of Christianity, as far as world religions go, consists in the fact that its beauty lies in another direction altogether. Its glory lies not in clever phrases but in the Spirit and in power. There is no simpler way to state it than in the words of the apostle Paul: “The only thing that matters is faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6).

A lot of sound orthodoxy can coexist with outright disobedience to God and indifference toward man. Doctrine must be translated into duty. We must get over the idea that Christianity is a matter of making a profession of faith. The Scriptures give us no such notions. As Arthur points out, there is really no place for the Bible conferences we attend if there is no sacrificial service accompanying them. A song has both words and music. In today’s church we must have both strict orthodoxy and obedient love.

Does your song have both words and music?

Sola fide,

Dave

October 31, 2011

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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