Many of you have written and asked me to spend more time addressing current events. Others have written and said that I shouldn’t spend any time on current events and just stick to spiritual matters. I appreciate the position of each. Compared to knowing God and His kingdom, even the most interesting issues of this world are boring. However, much of our calling to be the salt and light in the times requires that we understand current events, and it seems that there are far more crying out for this. Even so, most of what I write and speak concerning current events, I do through The Oak Initiative, which you can find at www.theoakinitiative.org. The Oak is a Christian organization that is effective in helping wake up Christians to understand and be engaged in the times as the salt and light that we are called to be. If you want to know more about current events, sign up to be on The Oak email list for free, or join The Oak Initiative for just $100 and receive resources that are worth far more than that amount.
If you are a pastor and are reading this, I would like to encourage you to address the current issues of the times with your people. One of the most common statements I hear from Christians is that they wish their pastor would address these things. Many have said that their pastors would like to do this but are concerned about losing their tax-exempt status. First, nothing should ever cause us to not “declare the whole council of this life.” Second, the only thing that you can’t do, according to the IRS, is endorse specific candidates from the pulpit or campaign against specific candidates.
Christian leaders are expected to address issues that affect their people, and the people expect this. Even if it were not illegal, it would be better to give up our tax-exempt status than to be silenced and fail to fulfill our mandate from the Lord, keeping in mind that the first group who have their part in the lake of fire, which is the second death, are the cowardly. There can be no cowardice in the church, and to be controlled by any fear is cowardice.
This is not to imply that all pastors who do not give attention to current events are doing this out of cowardice. Some simply are not interested in current events, and others feel that there are already many others giving attention to them that they do not need to do this. Both are understandable. There is still a need for many to hear what their own leadership’s position is about important matters.
Again, as pastors, we have a responsibility to address the issues that are affecting our people. As watchmen, we have a responsibility to sound the alarm for anything that will hurt those entrusted to our care. When I was in the military, the penalty for sleeping on watch was severe, but in a war zone, you could get the death penalty. We are in a war—possibly the ultimate war between light and darkness. If we are negligent, we will certainly pay a high price as the Scriptures make clear, but our people will pay a terrible price now. After loving God and loving one another, probably the most important characteristic we can have in these times is courage.
