Pray for the Persecuted Church

Pray for Japan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Over the past month or so, I have increasingly become burdened to the plight of the persecuted church throughout the world.  It has amazed me how little coverage there is in our news media on the subject.  It has become a subject that I am broadcasting with a lot more frequency in my Twitter feed at dickster1961.  I have even set up a news alert on Google News so that I can get daily updates of any Christian persecution that hits the media.  I even have set up a Flipboard magazine and a board on Pinterest covering the persecuted church.

Currently, I am in the process of trying to find a permanent church home where I can worship.  I have visited about 4 or 5 churches over the past six months to a year, but so far none of them have struck me as a permanent place for me to stay.  Part of the problem is that I am looking for a church that has an early worship service because we go to visit our son every other Sunday while he is away at school.  The early service allows me to go to church and still be able to drive to the Eastern Shore to take him out to lunch.

Two weeks ago, I began visiting another Baptist church in Bowie.  This church is a little further away from my house than the other Baptist church that I visited in December, but it also had an early service.  The early service at the previous church was more of a contemporary, praise worship service, while the one I visited two weeks ago was more traditional.  I prefer the more traditional worship service.

There were a couple other things about the more recent church that I liked over others that I have visited thus far.  After the worship service of my first visit, someone from the welcoming committee approached me and took me to the welcome center where they game me a tote bag along with some info about the church, a CD, and a pen.  Later that week, I received a hand written note from the pastor who also spoke to me after the service.  Perhaps most important, I noticed in the morning program that the church had scheduled a special prayer meeting for the persecuted church.

Given the recent burden that I have felt for the persecuted church, that point really stood out for me.  Unfortunately, that service was scheduled for last night a 6pm, which I feared would be difficult for me to attend since my son would be home from school for a visit.  As it turned out, I was able to attend that service.  I would like to say that it was an awesome time of prayer for the persecuted church, but I can't say that in complete honesty.

First, I have to say, that I think the overall congregation size is fairly small.  For the early Sunday morning services, attendance is usually around 25 people.  The later service has more attendance, usually around 125 people.  When I saw that the church would have a special service of prayer for the persecuted church, I thought that perhaps the church had a burden for the worldwide church.  Sadly, counting myself, the pastor, and an accompanying musician for the worship team, there was a total of 8 people in attendance.

The other thing that made the evening difficult for me was the structure of the evening.  I have been to a number of prayer services during the years that I was an active member of the different Baptist churches that I have been a part.  During periods of corporate prayer, I have been used to the periodic interjection of an "amen" or "hallelujah."  Last night, when somebody was praying, there were sometimes one or two people interjecting longer phrases during the prayer.  At times, there were three people speaking at once and it was very difficult for me to follow along.

Despite the difficulties, the mere fact that the church would have a special prayer service for the persecuted church was a major plus for me.  Last night, the emphasis was on the persecuted church in Asia.  There were four separate areas that we would pray for.  Prior to each prayer segment, a speaker would give a little background of the area with specific areas of persecution or concern.  That speaker would then give a prayer addressing those areas.  It was quite an education.  The areas we prayed for were India & Bhutan, the Philippines, China, and the 10/40 window.

I still am not sure whether this most recent church is where I want to end up.  I do feel the need to find a regular place of worship.  I have a history of wanting what I perceive to be a perfect place.  Unfortunately, I don't think that I will ever find a place that lives to my ideal.  I was very uncomfortable with some aspects of last night's prayer service.  I don't know whether my discomfort was a result of my own prior experiences or something more.  I am hoping some of you who have experienced different prayer services can share whether or not you have experienced something similar and how it made you feel.

Related articles

• When one man is persecuted for his faith, we're all persecuted
• Pray for the persecuted Christians worldwide!
• Christian persecution continues to rise in China
• New York Times' biased coverage on Muslim persecution

Leaving Seabrook Baptist Church

Jesus making wine from water in The Marriage at Cana, a 14th-century fresco from the Visoki Dečani monastery (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am not sure when I started to get disenchanted with my time at Seabrook Baptist Church.  There are two things that stand out in my mind as I look back on things.

The first thing was when the pastor of our church said a few things that I felt were insulting to my (or our collective) intelligence.  Now, keeping in mind that this is a Baptist church and one of their tenets in no alcohol.  At the time I was not drinking.  It was one of the periods in my life when I abstained from consuming alcoholic beverages.  I have never felt that the consumption of alcohol was a sin, but the excess consumption of it (getting drunk) is, not to mention that the consumption of alcohol can lead one to lower their inhibitions and do things that are sinful.

During one particular sermon, the pastor was teaching on the passage in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus talks about how one would not put new wine in old wine skins otherwise the skins would burst.  The pastor made the argument that the new wine was not wine, but was instead grape juice.  To me, that stretched the boundaries of logic.  After all, Jesus was often accused of being a glutton and a drunkard.  To me, I logically came to the conclusion that Jesus did in fact partake of wine. 

Perhaps the biggest thing that happened, was due to some things that were happening in my personal life.  When I began going to Seabrook, I was working my way through college at a small, local grocery chain.  It was a union shop, but had a much lower pay scale that the other major chains in the area.  At the time, I was making $5 per hour, which was a good bit better than minimum wage at the time.  I didn't have a lot of money, but I had enough for what I needed.

One of the larger chains in the area, Memco Stores, was getting ready to open two new stores in the area, one very close to where I lived.  They were a part of the larger union contract.  I was able to get a job with them.  I more than doubled my previous hourly rate.  On top of that, they offered double time as a premium if you worked on Sundays or holidays.  My previous job only offered time and a half.  I started signing up for a lot of Sundays.  It was over $20 per hour.

With my new job, I started to not attend services at Seabrook as often.  Sadly, my new found gold mine of cash wasn't to last very long.  The company decided that they could no longer afford to pay the high union wages they were required to pay under the union contract and decided to leave the area.  Why they would go to the expense of opening two new stores and then decide to close them and all other stores two months later still baffles me.

I believe it was a Saturday night and I had just finished my shift.  After counting out my register, the managers informed me that I would no longer be needed.  I knew it was coming, but I was still stunned.  I went out to my car and it wouldn't start.  The battery had died.  I had to have my father come out to help me.  It was a rough night.  I had just lost a good paying job, and on top of that I had to buy a new battery for my car.  So, I did something I hadn't done in a couple of years.  I bought some beer.

Later that night, or maybe the next night, I was talking on the phone to one of my closest friends at church.  I told her what had happened and about buying and drinking some beer.  Instead of being compassionate and encouraging, her response was, "Oh, Richard," in a very condescending and disappointed tone like I had committed some grievous sin.  I pretty much stopped attending the church after that.  Perhaps if she had encouraged me to put it behind me and move forward things would have been different.  As it was, I was very hurt.

In retrospect, it was wrong for me to let somebody else's disappointment in what I did affect my attitude towards the church.  Unfortunately, I am a flawed individual living in a world of flawed individuals.  It is also a behavior that I have repeated at subsequent times in my life, but I am getting ahead of myself.  I will get to more of that when I talk about the next phase of how I got to where I am today.

Judge Not That You Be Not Judged

Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels contains the incipit Liber generationis of the Gospel of Matthew. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These days, I am reading the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible.  The title of this post is one of the most quoted verses in the entire Bible.  The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, verses 1-3 of the ESV reads:

 "Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?"

When I first became seriously actively involved at Seabrook Baptist Church, I guess I was somewhat naive in how Christians behaved.  My friend Chuck, who is the one who got me involved in Seabrook Baptist Church through softball, was somebody that I really looked up to.  I went to him often to learn more about how to live a Christian life.

At the time that I became involved with the church, I was a drinker.  I liked to have the occasional beer or glass of wine.  Now Baptists are famous for abstaining from alcohol.  I went to Chuck one day and asked him whether or not I needed to quit drinking.  His response stuck with me to this day.  Rather than coming out with a straight yes, he told me that the matter was between me and the Lord.  Based on his gentle and loving response, I quit drinking, at least while I remained active in the church.

One of the things that I have always tried to practice in my Christian walk is to take the verses above to heart.  When dealing with my fellow Christians, I try not to dwell on the sins of others.  I have to many of my own sinful acts to deal with.  That is not to say that it would be wrong to point out somebody's errors, but it must be done in the proper way, humbly with love and gentleness

As I said,  I think I was a little naive in how other Christians practiced their walk.  I thought that others practiced what they preached as it were.  Unfortunately, I started to find that a lot of Christians were quick to point out the faults of others, and not in a gentle and loving way.  I am reminded of a conversation that I had with one of my teammates, Kevin, prior to one of our softball games.  We were waiting at the field for one game to end so we could start our game.

Kevin was a few years younger than I was, but he had been active in the church a lot longer than I had.  The conversation went something like this:

Kevin: Did you see that?
Me: See what?
Kevin: That guy over there was smoking.
Me: So.
Kevin:  This is a Christian league.  He shouldn't be doing that.
Me: Kevin, maybe he isn't a Christian yet, or maybe he is a new Christian and the Lord has not convicted him that he should stop smoking.  It is a hard habit to break
Kevin: Still, it just isn't right.

For every Chuck that I ever ran across in the church, it seemed like there were a lot more Kevins there.  It was very disheartening.  One of my faults (sins) is that in my past experiences in the church have led to disappointment in how other people behaved and how it has driven me away from more than one church.  It is a weakness that I am working on to this day.

Related articles

• misunderstood verses of the Bible
• Did Jesus really teach that it is wrong to judge others?