I am the most liberal conservative you’ll ever meet. Or at least that’s how I often feel labeled. During my time at Moody I was taught and bought into a fairly conservative hermeneutic. In other words, how I read and interpret Scripture is through the lens of the original reader literally, than contextualizing it to today. “What did this mean to the original reader? How does this apply in our culture today?” People want to know where my radical views come from? They come from that! I believe the Bible is absolutely true… even when our religious culture disagrees.

Interestingly, during my time in college I found myself differentiating with my alma mater on two major issues… based upon their own hermeneutic. So the tools that they equipped me with pretty much destroyed two of their positions for me!

#1 A strict pretribulational interpretation of the book of Revelation. While I don’t reject this view entirely, the hermeneutical gymnastics scholars go through to get to this view is astounding. When my fellow students questioned this in our undergrad Daniel/Revelation class we were reminded that we were stupid and anyone intelligent would see that this was the only viable explanation. “It’s my role to indoctrinate you to teach this position to others” (To paraphrase the professor) Wow, not exactly the scholarship I knew elsewhere! Thankfully, I’ve learned that most conservative evangelicals agree with Yogi Berra. “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”

#2 A sexist view on women in ministry. I know many in conservative evangelicalism firmly believe women shouldn’t be pastors and a woman’s role is to be subservient to men. I would agree if Scripture agreed! But there is simply no way one can hold this view using a Historical-grammatical interpretation of the Bible. With certain passages you may be able to intitially come to that conclusion… until you get to the last step. “Does this passage agree with the fullness of Scripture?” Clearly, Jesus’ life demonstrated that he did not come to lift women to a lower level than men. In fact, he consistently broke cultural boundaries in elevating women.

This leads me to another reason I am proud not to be labeled a Baptist. I believe within some baptistic denominations is deep-seeded sexism. When it comes down to it, a woman can serve in every pastoral duty practically but not professionally. Biblical counseling, lead ministry programs, lead Bible studies, on and on. But women are not permitted to be called Pastors nor be compensated like their male counterparts. Nor are women allowed into some seminaries where they can earn an equal voice… which leads to men speaking for women on sensitive issues. Even among my own beloved alma mater, in 2008 a woman cannot be a student in the pastoral major without segregation into “womens ministry.” In most conservative congregations a woman can practically be a deacon or elder doing day-to-day things but cannot hold the postion purely because of her gender. In many congregations the most qualified candidates to lead ministries and hold positions are passed over purely because of gender. For me, this is a church sanctioned injustice that holds back many congregations from experiencing true health.

I earned my card to hold a conservative evangelical credential. Academically and practically no one can claim I have not. But if being a card carrying conservative evangelical means I have to buy into group think where the men make all the decisions for women… it may be time for me to put my card on Ebay.

You’d have to live under a rock to not know that our country is in trouble financially. Voices like Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman just weren’t loud enough and our nation has basically credited itself to death. Amazingly, I’m not seeing any Christian blogger asking the most obvious question, “What will happen to our church when people stop giving?”

Here’s the deal. The almighty dollar greatly matters to the church. From big buildings, to big salaries, to big spending ministries. The American evangelical church loves to collect and spend money. I don’t think that’s arguable.

So, what’s going to happen when people stop giving money? We talked about this last night in community group. For whatever reason most people consider giving to their church to come from their discretionary income pocket. It’s important… but not as important as paying bills. Whether or not that is biblically right or not really isn’t the issue. The issue is that people give out of discretionary money. And now that huge segments of givers are loosing their ability to spend any discretionary money, the church will suffer big time. Missionaries and non-profits will feel it first.. they already are. Even the best planning, best savings, and best stewardship may not be able to make it through. I know of a megachurch in Michigan that has 12 months in reserves. I don’t think that will be enough.

As churches fail to meet payroll a crisis may emerge. And like any crisis the wise will see it as an opportunity. What is true in business will be true in the church… out of crisis will come the best innovation!

Tony Campolo touched this a litte at NYWC Sacramento. And it got me thinking… what will the church of no money look like? Tony paralleled it to the church in China after the Boxer Revolution. Surely, the church of Jesus Christ will prevail! But what will it look like?

Thoughts? I’d love to hear them.