Cultural Christianity

The most dramatic change for me by far was the move from Lunsford to serve as pastor of New Providence Baptist Church. New Providence was located in the extreme northeast corner of Arkansas. Like most rural churches it was one of the primary identity centers in the community. Even the people who were not a part of the church would turn to the church to be married, buried or in any time of need.

What I encountered at New Providence was a cultural Christianity. Many were involved in the church because it was the cultural norm, the expected thing to do. Thus the people were faithful in coming to church and supporting the church. But, they did not possess a vital Christianity. There was a marked disjunction and contradiction between their Sunday involvement in church and their daily lives. I need to be clear, they were good people, held their pastor in high esteem and would do anything for you. The problem was that they compartmentalized their lives. They had their "church life" in which they knew all the right words and went through all the right motions. Then they had their "daily lives" in which they lived like everyone else. Their "faith" was not translated into their day-to-day lifestyles or decision making. They were very much like those that Paul describes as having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.

I went to New Providence during the summer and in the fall I started seminary at Mid-America. I would leave on Monday evenings to drive the three and a half hours to Little Rock and stay there until classes were over on Friday and then drive back. It meant being separated from Janet and Matthew most of the week and then coming in and working hard for three and a half days. The stress of separation from family became too much and so mid-way through the second year of seminary I moved to become pastor of First Baptist Church, Cotton Plant, Arkansas. The drive from there to Little Rock was only an hour and a half so I could drive every day and be home by mid-afternoon.

The cultural Christianity I encountered at New Providence was amplified at Cotton Plant. On top of that it was an unpleasant place to live. It was the "old south" and like going back a hundred years in history.

Although I could not really identify them at the time, there were some important things taking place inside of me and my thinking that would become important parts of my journey and story.

The first had to do with preaching. Preaching became a lot more than just preaching sermons. It became a passionate pursuit of communicating vital Christianity, the basics of the Christian life and a Christ-centered life. There were a few that caught on, but on the whole it was like beating one's head against a wall. This led to the second.

I was deeply disturbed and disillusioned with "church as usual." Those days started both a dissatisfaction with things the way there were in the church and a serious search of the Scriptures for what it means to be the church. This would work its way out in several stages both my thinking about church and in actual ministry.