It's been 5 years. Time to "revoice" myself on this little blog spot.

If you would prefer to listen to this essay, you can do so via the youtube link here: 

This weekend there is a conference going on in this city.

My wife and I have been residents of this city since we moved in 2010. We thought we followed God's call to serve his church and his people. We thought we were coming to learn about preaching God's word, teaching God's people. Our ambition upon arrival was to quickly get through seminary in order to get into the mission field - to serve.

This weekend there is a conference going on in St. Louis.

Admittedly this may sound like a fairly self righteous introduction. It's all about me and my family, my wife, my kin, and our feelings, our experiences, our intentions, our pains, our ambitions. For someone that is supposedly humbly submitting to God's word and God's purposes, there is an awful lot of "me" verbiage already in this sort essay.

This weekend there is a re-imagining of stories going on.

I came to Covenant Seminary to study under Dr. Bryan Chappell. A man who had literally written what I at the time, and still consider, to be the preeminent handbook on preaching. I and my wife were hoping to come out on the other side of our seminary experience and time in St. Louis strengthened, encouraged, and equipped with the tools for a lifetime of ministry.

This weekend there is a colossal failure of biblical leadership going on.

I and my wife had hoped upon graduation for a pastoral call, to preach and to pray for God's people in  a town in the United States. I have often told search committees, elders, and pastors that I'd like to go somewhere and "baptize babies and bury the dead" in some sort of picturesque service for my God in being a faithful presence of Jesus Christ in the living and the dying. Yet this was all something of a naive dream.

This weekend there is an attempt at re-branding Christ.

I learned through the eight years of ministry since moving to St. Louis that serving Christ Jesus and getting positions in ministry are not always synonymous. That Christ's words in Matthew 6:24 are still incredibly applicable today:

"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.". 

This weekend leaders of the political movement to bring the LGBTQ into open church leadership is taking place at the Revoice conference at Memorial church.

While I, and many other bible believing Christians have numerous concerns over the conference taking place this weekend, we all ought to take a step back, and listen to what is said during the conference. We ought to take a page from the play book of the Gamaliel as he said in Acts 5:38-39

"38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

This weekend may very well be a conference sent by God - as so many of the speakers said on Friday night. This Revoice conference may indeed be a prophetic instrument of God's designs. As someone that believes in the sovereignty of God, I will firmly state that indeed this is exactly what this conference is! An event ordained by the will of God for the purposes of building up his church. The question isn't whether or not this conference is ordained or going to be used by God. The question is whether this is going to be used as a teaching moment for correction of the church, or for a teaching moment regarding the open invitation for blasphemous heresy to be welcomed into Christ's church - known as the "bride" of Christ.

At the beginning of this self righteous essay I pointed out how "me" focused this was. Using language about my family, my wife, my kin, and our feelings, our experiences, our intentions, our pains, our ambitions. I think an appropriate critique of this little self righteous essay would be that it's view on the world is far too narrow, far too shallow, and far too small minded. That this essay is a colossal failure of biblical exposition of truth - as it wastes precious time, energy, and resources talking about "me" - rather than talking about the greatness, the glorious, and the almighty God who has saved - "me".

Perhaps the same critique ought to be leveled at this conference going on this weekend in St. Louis.

Perhaps, if we were to level one, and only one charge against the leadership of the Presbyterian Church of America, the Missouri presbytery, the organizers of the Revoice conference, the session at Memorial Church, and the pastoral staff that has taken oaths to serve - perhaps the one charge we ought to lay - is that this conference is about the conference hosts - and not about the Lord of hosts.

The amount of personal pronouns used in every speech on Friday night significantly dwarfs the usage of words in relationship to the person, work, life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. I am going to keep watching, for I hope that I'm wrong. I hope that my own worries, and concerns and paranoia is unwarranted. Yet the more I watch the more I weep for the denomination, the local churches, and the city that I've come to love since moving here in 2010. I cannot see how this conference is focused on Christ - rather it appears to be quite focused on the leaders speaking. Take a moment to consider whether you believe this to be a severe charge. Is it the place of God's people to take up the personal political agendas of a particular group of people? Or is it the place of God's people to shine as a beacon on a hill - warning all in the midst of the storms of this sinful and broken world - of a shelter that provides eternal rest through faith in Chris Jesus.

To put it plainly, if Revoice is intended to be an outreach conference to draw in unbelievers, it does a shitty job of speaking of Christ, his life, his death, and his resurrection, while focusing far too greatly upon the personal plights and temporary hopes of individuals. Rather than seeking immediate acceptance into the arms of a fleshly community of people, the speakers ought to be proclaiming the opportunity to be welcomed into the pierced hands of Christ who bled so that sinners might be saved.

Christ didn't die for me, or for gays, or for straights, or for whites, or for blacks, or for Baptists, or for Methodists, or for republicans, or for democrats, or for cardinals fans, or for cubs fans. Christ died for his people - of whom he knows them all.

37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

John 6:37-39

In Christ there is no "gay" or "straight". This nonsense about being a "gay" Christian is simply the rebranding of a subset of Christ's people that further drives a wedge referencing a struggle. Ought other sorts of struggles equally be named? Ought the angry Christian be known as the "Wrathful Christian" or the greedy believe be labled the "Money-grabbing Christian" or the lustful Christian be known as the "horny Christian"? Where do these labels stop? And where on earth - or in scripture - did these labels start? Paul simply called himself an apostle of Christ Jesus - a follower of Christ Jesus, he didn't give himself a separate category based on the struggles with sin he had!

A few practical things to do in the midst of this weekend's conference:

1. Listen and watch the livestream of the conference - not everyone can attend Revoice, but let's face it, we've all got internet access and revoice is going to do their best to make livestreaming and video on demand available for as much of the conference as possible.

2. Write a letter (email is OK too) to your local church leadership - your session, and pastoral staff. If you watch the conference and are encouraged the Lord is at work through the truth spoken - let your pastors and leaders know so that they too may have a chance to see where God is leading his people.

3. Write a letter (email is OK too) to your local church leadership - your session, and pastoral staff. If you watch the conference and are discouraged for the sake of the church in it's peace and purity through false teaching that is going on - let your pastors and leaders know so that they too may be on guard against the plots to harm God's people.

4. Read your bible - Lest anyone charm you with words of mans imagination, read your bible! God's word does not fail or falter! As the prophet Isaiah wrote

"The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever."

Isaiah 40:8

I encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ who have taken an interest in the Revoice conference - to watch the live stream, listen to the speakers, and consider the words of these voices and judge for themselves whether or not this conference seeks to serve the purposes of Christ, or the purposes of wolves in sheep's clothing.