More than just a logo

In 1971, Carolyn Davidson was a graphic design student at Portland State University. She was doing some freelance work for a small athletic apparel company called Blue Ribbon Sports. She drew a simple logo, intended to represent the wing on a statue of the Greek goddess of victory, whose name is Nike. That “swoosh” and the brand it represents, Nike, are now a part of marketing history.

If the church has a logo, it is the cross. It adorns steeples, overlooks baptisteries, and dangles from the necks of church members (not to mention award-winning, gangster rappers). The Word of God teaches that the cross is so much more than just a logo or a symbol. The cross is a principle that is absolutely central to what a Christian believes.

D.A. Carson, in his book The Cross and Christian Ministry, makes a critical point about our day. He says:

“Ever so subtly, we start to think that success more critically depends on thoughtful sociological analysis than on the gospel; Barna becomes more important than the Bible. We depend on plans, programs, vision statements – but somewhere along the way we have succumbed to the temptation to displace the foolishness of the cross with the wisdom of strategic planning.”

Just after this paragraph, Carson makes an arresting statement. I read it over and over again. He writes:

“…I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy…”

Wow! In many churches today, the cross is nothing more than a logo for the therapeutic ministry of Jesus. He is the great marriage fixer, children raiser, financial advisor, self-help guru…His business cards have a cross on them, and He is somehow connected to it, but most religious consumers are not really sure how.

The truth is, however, the cross is not simply a logo for Jesus’ religious services. The cross was the instrument of his death, and is the place where man’s sin was dealt with by God. The cross is the only hope for redemption, and the only message that can really make a difference in the lives of people, for it is the power of God. If we set it aside, “dismiss” it from its central place, we do so to the detriment of our churches and the damnation of our people.

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” I Corinthians 1:18

a man like Elijah

I just recently finished a book by Michael Catt, who is the pastor of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, GA. The book is The Power of Persistance, and deals with the matter of prayer. I highly recommend this book, and am grateful for what it is doing in my life right now.
There were a number of lines and phrases that really spoke to me in this book, but one in particular has captured my thoughts. Catt writes about Elijah and his prayer life, and he makes this statement: “According to James, Elijah was a man just like us. But the question comes: Are we men just like him?”
Am I a man like Elijah? James uses Elijah’s humanity as an encouragement for me to pray like the prophet. However, as I study Elijah I am struck with how unlike him I am. For instance, I am struck by how counter-cultural Elijah was. Ahab, that “toad of a man who sat on the throne of Israel” (see "Pay-Day Someday" by R.G. Lee), had plunged the nation into an almost wholesale idolatry. The whole country it seemed had gone Baal-crazy. When you move from I Kings 16 to chapter 17, where we are introduced to Elijah, this hard-nosed, spirit-filled, God-called preacher, the contrast is striking. He stands out from the culture in a way that forces attention to what He says and what He does for God. I am afraid that as a preacher I am so run-of-the-mill, so immersed in my own culture, that I am not all that distinguished among the idol-crazed Israelites of today.
I am also struck by how confident he was. He stands up, and without flinching says, “As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word (17:1).” How is that compared to the speculative guesses and theological musings of most preachers today? I am envious of how Elijah publicly taunts the prophets of Baal at the showdown on Mt. Carmel. When they get no response to their charismatic carnival of prayer, the Bible says, “And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked (18:27).” In our day of ecclesiastical and ecumenical romance, everybody wants to hold hands with the heretics and court the affections of the apostates, but Elijah mocked them publicly.
Elijah may have been a man like me, but I am not sure that I am a man like him. However, the good news is that while I am no Elijah, I know Elijah’s God! My mantle and my ministry may be much smaller than his, but I know that the same God who called him, and upon whom he called is the same God I serve. With that in mind, what God did through Elijah he can still do today. The servants may change, but the Savior does not.