Tough Nut To Crack

Tough Nut To Crack

That is a tough nut to crack. That phrase is often heard when characterizing a difficult task. Leading Turnaround Church is that kind of Nut! Ever done that? If so, you will immediately agree with this statement.

I captured the photo below when mowing our yard. We have a huge Walnut tree in our back yard. To say that the production of walnuts is prolific is a gross understatement. I picked up four 75 gallon containers of walnuts this spring. If you ride over them with the mower it sounds like World War III. Not beneficial for the mower blades.

Walnuts are truly tough nuts. The photo shows the remains of walnuts the legions of squirrels we host devoured. While the walnuts are tough, they do not deter the squirrel’s quest for food. Sound familiar?

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matt. 5:6 )

Those squirrels were not to be denied. Tough our not, they cracked those nuts. They feasted on the meat they found securely tucked away in those hard shelled walnuts. Difficult to access, but with persistence they had a ‘fine dining experience’.

Application – There is a stream of Baptist called “Hard Shell Baptist”. This is true of Baptist whether we are speaking of the Denomination or just that flavor of believer. Try to change the culture in a church and you will quickly discover just how hard ‘those nuts can be’!!

When you as a Leader, one that hungers and thirsts for the righteous Health & Effectiveness in a local church, you will, like those squirrels, crack those nuts. You will persevere. You will prevail. You will triumph. Why? Because that brings Honor and Glory to Jesus Christ Who is Worthy. So sharpen your tools, pray much, stay at the task and crack some nuts!

The Faces of Easter

Every Pastor has them. C & E people. Christmas and Easter, the two times each year when people pay their obligatory dues to God and ‘go to church’ as though church is something we go to.

Yesterday was no exception. The crowd was larger than the usual, swelled by these C & E, in this case E people. I made several observations of these folks that I share in this BLOG.

First, there are those parents who convinced unbelieving children to ‘go to church’ with them. These are almost always mothers who live with the dread that their children are lost. They pray for them. They invite them to special events. They persuade them to attend on Easter. As the service progresses, you can observe these mothers wiping tears from their faces as we sing the songs of the redeemed. They know their children are not.

Second, there are those unregenerate children. This is a growing legion, a well defined demographic in our culture. They sit stiffly with arms folded. Their faces reveal the scoffing attitude which resides in their hearts. They do not sing. They do not pray. They just endure, frequently checking their phone or watch to see ‘how much longer’ before I can get out of here, free once more till Christmas.

Third, there are those friends and extended family that have prayed faithfully for these scoffers over the years. These folks for the most part are waiting for the Pastor to ‘get em saved’. Not gonna happen!

Finally, there is “the message”. This is an emotion packed diatribe complete with video clips of the crucifixion. Bloody. Traumatic, yet terribly deficient and truncated. There is no way possible to depict with even a semblance of accuracy by dramatic reproduction the horror of the crucifixion of the Son of God. The spiritual, not the physical aspects of the crucifixion are the most wretched. The theological dimensions of the crucifixion are not delineated. Why must Jesus die (to atone for the Sins of men). What is Sin? What is reconciliation? What is an Ambassador (2 Cor. 5:11-20).

Is anyone transformed by this gathering? Only eternity will tell. The ‘faces of Easter’ that I observed did not reveal any changed attitudes or submission to the TRUTH of the Gospel. Perhaps because what they heard was not the Gospel. God help us!